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DonateThe Conference Board C-Suite Challenge™ 2021 examines the issues business leaders say are keeping them up at night. Globally CEOs expressed concerns about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recession but are hopeful about the widespread availability of a vaccine as a game changer in 2021. US CEOs ranked concerns about higher corporate taxes and increased regulation higher than their global peers but ranked global political instability and disruptions to global trade lower than did CEOs worldwide. Unlike leaders outside the US, American CEOs are placing a high priority on employees returning to the physical workplace. The C-Suite Challenge surveyed more than 900 CEOs and 600 C-suite executives in late 2020.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Since 1999, The Conference Board CEO Challenge® survey has asked CEOs across the globe to identify the most critical issues they face and their strategies to meet them. Since 2017, the C-Suite Challenge has expanded the survey pool beyond CEOs to the entire C-suite. This year’s survey, conducted following the US elections in November 2020, asked CEOs and C-suite executives for their views on the external stress points they face and the strategies they will focus on to mitigate risk and seize opportunity as part of the post-COVID-19 recovery. In addition, the survey asked respondents for their views on the long-term impacts that will emerge from the pandemic. A total of 1,538 C-suite executives, including 909 CEOs across the globe, responded.
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