Country translations

Please find an overview of ELLP country wihth translated Executive Summaries.

Kuwait (Arabian dash)

Saudi Arabia (Arabian dash)

Monitoring trends in the CEO priorities

Comparison of 2010 and 2011

Survey breakdown

Survey supporting document

SiCW Business Leaders Survey: June 2011 results

Image of Graeme Ross, Head of Markets, KPMG ELLP

"One of the key challenges any CEO faces today is being able to navigate through the complex business environment; at being able to identify the future opportunities whilst ensuring the business is effectively functioning today. The KPMG Business Leaders Survey provides a fascinating insight into what CEOs are focusing on over the next six months . The ongoing financial crisis shows confidence is low and the one area all CEOs are concerned about is extracting sustainable costs from the business. Although a difficult topic for organisations– it can be one which actually dramatically improves the business model. The results are shown in the Exec Summary below."

Graeme Ross, Head of Markets, KPMG Europe LLP

Text version

Jeremy Kay, Partner at KPMG LLP, talks about Changing business operations to realize cost efficiencies:

"It is no great surprise that changing business operations to realize cost efficiencies is the highest-ranking priority for respondents. This reflects where we are in the economic cycle. Despite glimmers of growth, top-line opportunities remain uncertain and so management latches onto the one thing they can control - costs within their operations.

Top of their concerns is "aligning the cost base to the future strategy of the organization". In the market, we see companies seeking to create flexibility in their cost-base structures. Instead of simply slashing ten percent from each function, they are thinking intelligently about restructuring and changing the "fixed-cost mindset" so that they can move to a more variable cost platform.

Respondents agree that "embedding cost management into employee performance and encouraging a cost-conscious culture" is their second biggest priority.

Evidence proves that all too often the shed costs re-emerge once the company returns to growth and that profitability is not optimized - this is often a capability issue.

Cost management is about lifestyle changes and not simply dieting. This enables companies to keep down costs by educating and rewarding their people for helping them to become lower-cost providers.

Today, the ethos that previously wasted cash can be reinvested into new products and new markets is becoming entrenched in the business.

However, it takes time and leadership should take the initiative and create the right environment in which to think positively about cost efficiency.

Looking ahead, companies need to increase their focus on cost efficiency rather than just cost reduction to achieve more bang for the buck.

When the good times return, there is a tendency to aggregate and only count the profit rather than identify where it comes from and how much more an organization could achieve.

The lean and most nimble companies that adopt a portfolio mindset will be the ones best equipped to outperform their markets."