Dear readers,

The pressure on top management remains extremely high. Board agendas are dominated by numerous overlapping crises and megatrends whose opportunities must be exploited. Strategic challenges have rarely been more complex than today.

There is enormous catch-up demand in almost all industries. At the top of the agenda are the issues of people management, digitalization, and sustainable business models. This is clearly shown in our “CxO Priorities Study”, for which we conducted personal interviews with more than 430 board members and executives of large companies from 19 countries and 13 industries.

In the interviews, the top managers also discussed with us how they are tackling these challenges and what their priorities are. In addition, our study provides interesting insights into revenue expectations, relocation plans, HR strategies, automation potential (keyword AI) and how to deal with cyberattacks.

Besides this, we give board members of leading companies the opportunity to talk about their strategies and experiences. In this issue of our "CxO News", executives from the financial services industry are in the spotlight.

I hope you enjoy reading!

Best wishes

Helmut Ahr
CEO Horváth