What Keeps CEOs Awake At Night - Part IV

In our continuing research comes this recent indication that the fear of recession tops the list of worries that keep CEOs awake at night.

PriceWaterhouse Coopers's 11th annual Global CEO Survey (as reported in Management-Issues) has revealed the first fall in CEO confidence for the year ahead since 2003, with the spectre of a U.S. slump overshadowing over-regulation as the number one risk to their business for the first time in the survey's history.

• Terrorism and the threat of pandemic, once major CEO concerns, were cited by only 31 percent and 28 percent of respondents, respectively. Other risks to growth such as energy supply, global climate change, and terrorism also declined as business threats.
• The survey also underlined the fact that the war for talent is continuing to rage, with more than two-thirds of all CEOs –85 percent in North America – saying that their time was best spent dealing with people issues.

BOTTOMLINE: Notice These are all externally-focused issues. While important, it's more critical to focus on issues you can have a direct influence upon, which are internally-focused. According to the survey's administrators, "Regardless of the other issues swirling around them, CEOs clearly understand that having people with the right balance of commercial, technical and management skills is the key to success in their organization."