The Asian economy tells a compelling story — one which is resilient, transformative, and shaping the worldwide economic landscape. Such story is carried by executives who see 2025 as one other 12 months poised for economic growth, full of optimism and reinvention, as reflected in recent reports.
In PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC) 28th Annual Global CEO Survey — Asia-Pacific, about 55% of leaders expect notable progress within the economy in comparison with last 12 months. This confidence is reflected of their business outlook, with 34% confident of their revenue growth projections and 46% planning to extend hiring this 12 months.
While the region shows positive signs for economic growth, there’s also a cloud of uncertainty that would complicate its outlook. The report highlighted top concerns equivalent to macroeconomic volatility (rising from 21% to 32%) and the low availability of employees with skills (increasing to 25%). Other risks include technological disruptions, rising trade tensions, and severe weather conditions, amongst others.
Business reinvention
Given such an environment, CEOs are driven to steer reinventions in businesses. In accordance with PwC, business reinventions are “radically transforming how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. Or, put one other way, it’s how an organization fundamentally changes the way it makes money, serves customers, or provides latest services or products.” This reinvention is imperative for advancing businesses, leveraging innovation, unlocking latest value and opportunities which might be key to business longevity.
Many are confident about their company’s viability, with 52% believing they’ll last for greater than 10 years, which is a considerable increase from the 34% in 2024. Mirroring the growing confidence, the last five years have seen CEOs take reinvention actions equivalent to targeting a brand new consumer base, developing modern services or products, fostering organizational collaborations, exploring latest market routes, and implementing latest pricing models.
By staying ahead with the curve, organizations are turning economic uncertainties into growth opportunities that create long-lasting value.
Upskilling employees
Having a strategic vision and investing within the workforce is taken into account as a vital driver of growth. An example of this undertaking is upskilling employees to maintain pace with technological advancements.
In accordance with Ernst & Young’s (EY) CEO Outlook Survey: Global Confidence Index, 85% of world CEOs consider that balancing human talent with latest technologies can address the present skill gaps and shall be crucial for business growth in the subsequent 12 months.
More notably, key differences in priorities amongst CEOs were observed: 60% were focused on improving worker and customer experiences, while 40% prioritized top-line growth and margin expansion.
“Adaptability is the final word advantage in today’s landscape. Organizations that embrace transformation can turn disruption into opportunity, constantly learning, pivoting and growing to shape their future with confidence. The survey reveals that essentially the most confident CEOs are taking a long-term approach to transformation, specializing in enhancing customer and worker engagement amid macroeconomic and technological shifts, and at all times placing humans at the middle as the most effective path to sustainable value creation,” an EY report noted.
Digital transformation
The push for digital transformation continues to significantly influence businesses, impacting each strategies and operations. In Asia, there’s a robust emphasis on investing in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape business models. This shift led to increased revenue and worker efficiency amongst businesses.
In accordance with EY’s CEO Outlook — Asia-Pacific report, 74% of CEOs consider their firms are extremely or very proficient in leveraging technologies to boost modern work strategies, and 72% feel confident of their ability to rapidly adopt technologies to create latest business models.
Nonetheless, trust issues around AI still persist, as evidenced by the low trust levels (37%) amongst executives. Because of this, as PwC’s report noted, many organizations are adopting a more cautious approach.
To maneuver past AI challenges, CEOs should prioritize aligning AI with their business strategies. This involves equipping leadership teams with the crucial knowledge and tools, ensuring AI aligns with company initiatives and objectives, utilizing AI agents, redesigning operating models, and implementing responsible AI practices.
“Today you’ve got high AI potential and a major level of investment, but not a whole lot of value being unlocked. Meaningful AI value will only be realized if CEOs get personally involved, because only they’ll align the AI agenda to the broader enterprise agenda,” said Nicolas de Bellefonds, a managing director and senior partner on the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in an article published on the firm’s website.
Sustainability as growth opportunity
Placing sustainability at the center of business operations and remodeling it right into a beneficial opportunity is one other key aspect of business reinvention. An increasing variety of leaders are recognizing the critical role that sustainability plays, with 39% already seeing real gains from climate-friendly investments, in keeping with PwC.
“Climate considerations are not any longer nearly meeting stakeholder expectations — they’re becoming a cornerstone of investment. A considerable 87% of CEOs have initiated climate-friendly investments within the last five years,” the report identified.
“It seems that firms in Asia-Pacific that benefited financially from climate-friendly investments are inclined to be large, financially robust and strategically focused on sustainability and reinvention,” it added.
Nonetheless, the truth stays unpleasantly clear; and if climate motion continues to lag, the climate is more likely to change into more volatile and extreme. Subsequently, it is barely crucial to speed up the pace of climate motion.
More specifically, firms can face significant financial risks once they are impacted by extreme climate events. This risk is especially high for sectors equivalent to agriculture, construction, communication, and utilities.
“BCG and the World Economic Forum estimate that if global warming stays on its current trajectory, extreme weather could place as much as 25% of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in danger inside the subsequent 25 years,” BCG’s report said.
“While physical and transition risks will vary depending on the region and industry, it’s imperative that CEOs fully understand their current exposure — an area where many seem like falling short,” it added.
“By our evaluation, many firms are significantly underestimating the risks from climate change, especially as catastrophic floods, hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires proceed to change into more frequent and extreme.”
CEOs, then, have a much bigger role to play in mitigating risks and accelerating climate motion. Assessing climate scenarios and identifying the most effective strategies to scale back their firms’ exposure to risk is crucial. Moreover, they need to give attention to reducing carbon footprints, especially to those in high-emission industries, and forming partnerships to drive green initiatives forward. — Angela Kiara S. Brillantes
