PwC’s Strategy& conducted a survey in 2015 of more than 500 executives from around the world whose companies have annual revenues ranging from US$100 million to more than $10 billion. The results are worrying:
94% of executives say growth is a company priority, and a full 30% say it’s more important than anything else.
85% of executives say their company’s growth targets are in line with or above their industry’s growth rates.
Only 38% of executives are highly confident their company will realize its growth targets.
61% of respondents think that realizing their company’s growth targets will take significant extra effort — what they’re doing now is just not enough.
51% admit their company is not fully clear about how to realize their growth targets.
78% of executives say they do not think their leaders are “excellent” at driving growth.
Although 74% of executives agree that more growth opportunities exist now than did 10 years ago, 70% say it’s more difficult now to generate profitable growth, and 66% say knowing which growth avenue to pursue is harder than it was a decade ago.
Only 39% of executives say they “thrive on” their company’s emphasis on growth; most (53%) say they just “handle it.”
34% of execs admit to being frustrated because they have to pursue many growth opportunities in parallel, none of them significant enough to make a difference.
33% say they’re frustrated because their company continues to pursue growth initiatives that have proven not to work.
39% say they’re concerned that the pursuit of growth is spreading the company too thin, and 37% are concerned that it may erode the positives of the company culture.
