Agile or irrelevant Redefining resilience 2019 Nigeria CEO Outlook KPMG in Nigeria home.kpmg/ng Foreword A successful CEO is an agile CEO. organisations. CEOs need to stimulate innovation, oversee new types of This second edition of our annual customer relationships, and make bold KPMG Nigeria CEO Outlook decisions about their investments in emphasises that agility has become technology. a fact of life for Nigerian CEOs, with Key findings almost nine in ten chief executive In the wake of these challenges, it isn’t officers indicating that agility is surprising that a significant number of the new currency of business. The the CEOs we spoke with confirm they ability to pivot quickly and adapt to are working to develop new skills and disruption has become even more of a capabilities, and investing in strategic Economy and Business strategic imperative for CEOs and their collaborations and partnerships as part The Next 3 Years organisations to compete in today’s of their playbook for the next three economy. years. Nigerian CEOs are still very optimistic You will find a great deal of data and Agility: The New Currency of about the prospects for growth in insights to draw from this report, as Business the economy and their industries leading CEOs and KPMG leaders share over the next three years. However, their strategic and tactical perspectives the expectations for growth in their as well as solutions. businesses are more measured, set We are excited to talk further about Mastering Resilience: against the backdrop of the potential these insights, and KPMG’s partners Transforming for the Future disruptive forces of cyber security, and professionals welcome the emerging technologies and regulatory opportunity to discuss how you risks, the top three threats to growth can drive agility and further embed identified by CEOs in this study. The Resilient Leader: resilience in your organisation. A New Playbook Operating in a more complex and We sincerely thank the CEOs who took rapidly changing environment is also the time to share their views with us. challenging CEOs like never before, with an expanding breadth of skills and expertise needed to lead their Conclusions Methodology and Acknowledgements Kunle Elebute Senior Partner, KPMG in Nigeria & Chairman, KPMG Africa 2 2019 KPMG Nigeria CEO Outlook Contents 6 20 Key findings Economy and Business: The Resilient Leader: A The Next 3 Years New Playbook Economy and Business The Next 3 Years Agility: The New Currency of Business 10 24 Mastering Resilience: Agility: The New Transforming for the Future Conclusions Currency of Business The Resilient Leader: A New Playbook 14 25 Conclusions Methodology and Mastering Resilience: Methodology and Acknowledgements Transforming for the Future Acknowledgements Key findings Economy and Business: Agility: The New The Next 3 Years Currency of Business Nigerian CEOs are optimistic about economic Collaborations and partnerships is the growth, but reality beckons about their preferred option for Nigerian CEOs to pivot companies’ prospects quickly in an age of disruption Key findings — Confident growth expectations — Agile or irrelevant 76 percent of CEOs are confident about the 86 percent of Nigerian CEOs say that acting with growth prospects of the economy over the next agility is the new currency of business and being three years too slow risks bankruptcy Economy and Business The Next 3 Years — New concerns emerge — Collaborations and partnerships, a top Cyber security risk is the number one threat strategic priority to growth identified by CEOs, up from second 55 percent of CEOs favour strategic alliances Agility: The New Currency of in 2018; emerging/disruptive technology and and joint ventures as their top strategies to drive regulatory risks are the other top concerns growth Business — A dose of pragmatism — Three major hurdles Majority of CEOs (64 percent) expect Linking growth to social purpose, embedding an conservative top line growth of less than 2 innovation culture and finding the right talent are Mastering Resilience: percent over the next three years three major hurdles to remain agile and resilient Transforming for the Future Mastering Resilience: The Resilient Leader: A The Resilient Leader: Transforming for the Future New Playbook A New Playbook Nigerian CEOs need to drive an organisation- Resilient CEOs need to be agile, adaptive and wide digital reinvention to master resilience willing to challenge the status quo Conclusions — A future-ready business — An urgency to act with agility 74 percent of CEOs intend to focus on 75 percent of Nigerian CEOs say that, at 5 years, modernising their workforce and improving the average tenure of a CEO means there is Methodology and customer engagement to future-proof their more urgency to act with agility businesses Acknowledgements — Evolving the leadership team — Investing in technology and digital 74 percent of Nigerian CEOs say that they are transformation actively transforming their leadership team to 86 percent of CEOs expect to see significant build resilience return on investment from their digital transformation programmes over the next three — The balancing act years CEOs must maintain close customer connections and balance data-driven insights — Enabling workforce 4.0 with intuition (and experience) to drive radical 80 percent of Nigerian CEOs plan to upskill at change least 30 percent of their current workforce — Cyber resilience Only 54 percent of CEOs believe that their organisations are prepared for a cyber attack, down from 69 percent in 2018 4 2019 KPMG Nigeria CEO Outlook Key findings Economy and Business The Next 3 Years Agility: The New Currency of Business Mastering Resilience: Transforming for the Future The Resilient Leader: A New Playbook Conclusions Methodology and Acknowledgements 5 2019 KPMG Nigeria CEO Outlook Economy and Business: The Next 3 Years Confident growth expectations In our 2018 CEO Outlook, we found a be policy continuity. So, it is perhaps significant number of chief executives unsurprising that Nigerian CEOs are more positive about the growth trajectory of the confident in their growth expectations. country’s economy and their respective “With the political risks significantly reduced, industries. That optimism has continued this the economy will benefit from the right policy year with 76 percent (same as in 2018) of signals and direction. Some of the areas of Key findings CEOs showing great faith in the economic focus would include the implementation of environment. A major point of difference 76 percent the minimum wage increase, the viability of between the current and preceding years is our foreign reserves (which is intrinsically tied of CEOs are that 42 percent of CEOs (4 percent in 2018) to oil price movements) and the sustainability are very confident about the country’s growth confident Economy and Business of the fuel subsidy regime.” prospects over the next three years. about the The Next 3 Years At the industry level in 2019, there has also “The country’s economy has witnessed eight been a significant increase in CEOs (34 growth consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth,” percent) who are very confident about the according to Wole Obayomi, KPMG in prospects Agility: The New Currency of growth of their industries. Nigeria’s Head of Tax, People and Regulatory of the Business Services. “This clearly situates the economy in the recovery phase of the economic cycle. economy In addition, the country’s general elections over the were conducted earlier this year and they Mastering Resilience: were deemed to be largely successful. With next three Transforming for the Future the return of the incumbent administration, it years is expected that there will fundamentally The Resilient Leader: A New Playbook Chart 1: Level of confidence in the growth prospects for your country over the next 3 years Conclusions 76% 77% 82% Nigeria Africa Global Methodology and Acknowledgements Level of confidence in the growth prospects for your industry over the next 3 years 80% 83% 80% Nigeria Africa Global Source: 2019 KPMG Nigeria CEO Outlook 6 2019 KPMG Nigeria CEO Outlook New concerns emerge Chart 2: CEOs’ optimism is tempered by the greater anxiety Threats to Growth about new risks that are likely to upset the status 22% 21% 14% quo and catalyse further disruption, especially within Cyber Security risk the industries they operate in. According to Olumide 20% 15% 19% Olayinka, KPMG in Nigeria’s Head of Risk Consulting, Emerging/Disruptive Technology Risk “The risk landscape is changing as organisations 14% 15% 7% embrace new business models and technologies. Regulatory Risk The most important risks today are those related to 12% 19% 14% emerging technologies, people and processes.” Operational Risk 8% 9% 16% This view is supported in this year’s study where Return to Territorialism CEOs consider the following four major risk areas to 8% 8% 2% be major threats to growth: cyber security, emerging/ Talent Risk Nigeria Key findings disruptive technology, regulatory and operational 6% 3% 3% Africa risks. Reputational / Brand Risk Global 4% 5% 21% “In 2018, three of the four risks were identified Environmental / Climate Change Risk by CEOs among the top threats to growth, with 4% 3% 2% Economy and Business emerging/disruptive technology risk as the number Supply Chain Risk The Next 3 Years one stay awake issue,” Olayinka says. “Talent risk, 2% 2% 3% which was ranked at number three last year, has been Interest Rate Risk replaced by regulatory risk in this year’s survey. Cyber Source: 2019 KPMG Nigeria CEO Outlook Agility: The New Currency of security risk has been ranked as the number one threat to growth this year. Business “In this environment, CEOs, and their boards, will need to increase their focus on risk management and controls to remain resilient. They must allocate Mastering Resilience: enough time to monitor progress and immediately Transforming for the Future address any issues arising.” It is noteworthy that cyber security risk is the top growth threat for African CEOs and environmental/ The Resilient Leader: climate change risk is number one for global CEOs.