Cyber threats are Irish chief executives’ greatest concern this year – report

Cyber threats are expected to have the greatest impact on business growth in the year ahead, with 58 per cent of Irish chief executives "extremely" or "very concerned" about their potential impact, according to a report by PwC.

The Irish CEO Survey 2022 surveyed 90 Irish and 4,446 global chief executives in 89 countries. The fieldwork was undertaken between October and November of last year.

It found that other perceived key threats are climate change (46 per cent) and health risks (40 per cent).

Just more than a quarter (29 per cent) are “extremely” or “very concerned” about macro-economic threats such as inflation, rising energy, cost pressures, labour shortages, supply chain disruption and housing. Global chief executives see these as a greater threat (43 per cent).

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The survey suggests these key risks are being tackled head on. For example, 82 per cent are explicitly factoring cyber risks into their strategic risk management activities, up from 70 per cent last year.

Irish chief executives are also much more concerned than global counterparts about climate change risks – 46 per cent said that they are extremely or very concerned, compared with just 33 per cent for global business leaders.

In addition, the levels of concern are resulting in action as more than half (54 per cent) of Irish chief executives are building climate change into their strategic risk management activities, up from 32 per cent last year.

The majority of Irish chief executives reported that their organisation has taken at least some specific action to tackle climate change.

About 71 per cent have reduced their organisation’s waste and/or water consumption, 61 per cent have tracked their organisation’s environmental impact and 59 per cent have assigned senior management oversight of their organisation’s sustainable initiatives.

More than six out of 10 Irish business leaders admitted that they had not yet made a carbon-neutral (65 per cent) or net zero (67 per cent) commitment, but are more proactive than global counterparts (71 per cent and 73 per cent respectively).

Fewer than 10 per cent of Irish chief executives have incentive-based targets related to greenhouse gas emissions.

Almost half (46 per cent) of Irish chief executives reported that emission targets were built into their organisation’s long-term corporate strategy, but just 8 per cent had this metric linked to their personal annual bonus or long-term incentive plans.

At the same time, a fairly significant proportion (35 per cent) of Irish business leaders said their organisation does not have the capabilities to measure emissions, but global chief executives are faring worse (55 per cent).

Elsewhere, 46 per cent of Irish chief executives did not have important non-financial related metrics included in their personal annual bonus and long-term incentive plans.

Aside from emissions, less than half had customer satisfaction metrics (41 per cent) and employee engagement metrics (38 per cent) linked to their personal annual bonus or incentive plans.

Just 26 per cent had linked automation and digitalisation goals, and only 13 per cent had gender representation rates built into these remuneration plans.