In the 2017 Global CEO Outlook, 1261 CEOs from around the world, including ASEAN, discussed their unique challenges and opportunities with us. What we heard from CEOs in ASEAN make us believe thatthere is muted confidence in the global and national economy and optimism about their organization’s prospects in the light of some geopolitical uncertainty. This marks a shift in mindset among CEOs from the past year.

In 2016, we saw CEOs recognizing the developments in the world of business and politics as more critical for their industry than the last 50 years and preparing to make transformative changes in their organizations. This year, the emphasis is more on the urgency to disrupt their industry before other players in their sector force them to keep up or give up.

Our survey reveals some strong trends among ASEAN CEOs:

• ASEAN CEOs believe that greater digital investments will offer more opportunities to find competitive advantage in an uncertain geopolitical environment.
• Speed-to-market and innovation are high strategic priorities for CEOs in ASEAN. Both are dependent on a clearly-articulated digitization strategy whose benefits can go beyond cost savings to greater efficiencyin faster decision-making and strengthening customer relationships.
• It may be impossible to fully prepare for unknown cyber threats, but strengthening cyber security remains an ongoing journey for ASEAN CEOs wanting to protect their brand reputation.
• There is a heightened perception of geopolitical risk among CEOs. In ASEAN, understanding the implications of geopolitics and keeping up with geopolitical trends/disruptions, such as election outcomes,international conflict, or terrorism is now a top concern for CEOs.
• A higher percentage of CEOs in ASEAN is more open to acknowledging personal challenges and working toward disrupting their own roles than among Global CEOs, by focusing on up