In 2025, CEOs are having to address complex situations Worldwide, which far from finishing or completing, varying every time, adding a high level of uncertainty to your business. This means that they cannot follow the usual strategies when they have to face the problems caused by this uncertainty, which also add to the usual demands and barriers: rapid growth, tight budgets and other conventional risks.
Uncertainty in markets, geopolitical risks and rapid technological changes, in addition to omnipresent threat of US tariffsThey reach all kinds of companies and organizations, and influence expectations, budgets and strategies at all levels. Thus, a strategy that only three months ago was the height of solidity can crack in a matter of days and force to rethink it completely.
To try to anticipate all these problems of the current framework, it is necessary to anticipate where the company is directed, understand all the data behind high -level decisions and transform priorities into viable plans, despite the changes.
In general, among the CEOs, concern for financial volatility has increased. According to a Gartner to CEOS survey carried out in the first half of 2025, 47% of them have financial volatility as one of their three main business concerns, 17% more than in the last three months of 2024.
This has caused a wave of changes in the operation of senior managers, with all kinds of measures to protect the performance of the organization. The main ones are the application of cost efficiency measures (77%); adjust Price strategies (51%); implement totally automated, robotic and AI systems (48%); Improve value communication to customers and interested parties (48%); and increase the volume of products and services (42%).
This also means that financial directors, operations and information systems have to continue promoting growth, while paying constant attention to costs, automation and operational agility.
AI is one of the priorities of the CEOs: 79% believe it will be the technology with the greatest impact on their sector to three years. But 18% of them plan to reduce investment in development of people and culture, and 31% are lowering hiring.
This leads to the transformation promoted by AI with less investment in talent and training, companies have to rethink the development of the workforce, and consider it a business facilitator and not just a source of costs. Also guarantee that productivity gains derived from AI are invested in the development of high -level personnel skills.
In any case, 50% of CEOs plan to reduce their risk propensity for what remains of 2025 and 2026, especially for geopolitical risks and uncertainty of US tariffs. This change is causing more incremental and less risk measures. Among them, the redesign of the supply chain and selective entry into the market, in front of bolder bets and that imply a large capital investment.
For them, this implies that scenarios planning and dynamic strategy cycles become special importance, and that for all management teams decentralization of decision -making, agile planning and close monitoring of geopolitical signals.
In any case, 43% of managers plan to raise prices in response to tariffs and cost pressures, but they will do so in a scenario in which customers are more sensitive to the price than ever, so they will have to raise a convincing value proposal that goes beyond the price to convince them that they are done with products despite their price increase. In addition, the main companies in various sectors are betting on dynamic prices, customer value and knowledge communication.
In 2025, The main challenge of the CEOs will be to balance growth ambitions with the need to control costs and manage risks. They will have to make difficult decisions, since geopolitical instability, rapid technological changes and changing expectations of investors create constant pressure to adapt.
