Singapore CEOs worry about supply chain risk, territorialism: study

Almost 72% have re-evaluated their firms' purpose to address stakeholders' needs.

The CEOs of Singaporean companies are most concerned about supply chain risk and a return to territorialism as the top threats to their organisations’ growth over the next three years, according to a KPMG report.

Given the country’s open economy, supply chain risk (20%) and territorialism (16%) rank as the two top threats to businesses whereas in the global environment, talent risk took first place.

Almost three-fourths (72%) of CEOs in the Lion City say that they re-evaluated their company’s purpose in order to better address the evolving needs of their stakeholders whilst 80% want to lock in the climate change gains they have made during this period.

They have also become more conservative than CEOs globally, with less than a quarter (24%) expecting to see their company’s earnings grow at more than 2.5% yearly over the next three years.

On the other hand, they have also heavily invested in technology during the lockdown period, with seven in 10 (72%) seeing their new digital business models accelerate during the pandemic. The biggest advancements have been in the digitisation of operations and the creation of a next-generation operating model, where 56% say that progress has put them years ahead of where they would have expected to be right now.

Almost two-thirds (64%) are likely to put more capital investment into technology than people.

In addition, 72% stated that they have had to re-evaluate their organisations’ purpose as a result of the pandemic, and 80% saying they feel a stronger emotional connection to their organisations’ purpose since the crisis began.

Mitigating climate risks has also evolved into a personal responsibility as 60% feel that their ability to manage climate-related risks will impact their role in the organisation, ultimately determining whether they keep their jobs over the next five years.

This development has put ESG near the top of the agenda for CEOs in Singapore and 72% of them have shifted their focus towards the social component of ESG.