Diversification: the critical condition for growth
At the start of the year our C-suite barometer uncovered a business world embracing change, investing in technology and people, and reimagining strategies to stay ahead of disruption and competition.
Six months on, the latest mid-year insights point to diversification as the defining condition for growth. Across regions and sectors, leaders are responding to volatility by diversifying, rather than doubling down on singular bets – from operations, business models and expansion plans, to future funding and products/services. We’re also seeing organisations diversifying resources in response to world events, reallocate boosts to investment and redirect trade target destinations.
Despite the challenging backdrop, executive optimism about growth remains strikingly steady and market conditions favourable. What is driving this positivity, however, is not the external environment but the latest switch and shift in operations, trade and growth strategies. As confidence in navigating the increasing trends impacting businesses weakens and investment decisions become more cautious, strategies built on concentration are rapidly losing favour.
Based on the views of more than 1,000 C‑suite executives across 18 countries, our mid-year C-suite survey takes the pulse of global leaders, discovering the shifting trends shaping business strategies to help prepare for what’s next.
Focus on growth
The global paradox has now expanded. At 92%, expectations for growth are unchanged since the start of 2026, signalling sustained ambition among C suite leaders, despite a more volatile backdrop. Confidence, however, has deteriorated fast. Our Confidence Index has fallen 8 points to 35%, its lowest level since the height of the pandemic in 2021. This collapse reflects a sharp rise in the big trends impacting businesses – energy prices, supply certainty and geopolitical instability – alongside a growing recognition that these forces are increasingly difficult to control. Crucially, the loss of confidence is broad based, spilling across every external and operational trend.
Diversification moves to the centre of growth strategies
“Diversification is moving from the margins of strategy to its centre. The challenge for C-suite executives is not whether to diversify, but how to do it with intent across markets, supply chains, capital and technology – building resilience without creating unmanageable complexity. Of course, this will depend on the size of organisation, the sector and its target audience. The leaders who succeed will be those who balance ambition with flexibility and speed with control, particularly as AI becomes both a source of productivity and thee competitive fault line against which returns, productivity, efficiency and growth is measured. Against the current backdrop, resilience comes from building flexibility into strategy, as diversification shifts from a choice to a critical condition of growth.” —— Mark Kennedy, Partner and Chief Clients & Markets Officer, Forvis Mazars Group
The shifting trends having the biggest impact on businesses
At the start of the year, AI dominated the trends having the biggest impact on businesses, but it sat within a broader transformation agenda aimed at revolutionising business models, and driven by economic factors and increasing competition. AI continues to be important, but the intensified instability in the current climate has, in most areas, become less predictable and pushed it off the top spot. Leaders are now navigating a more intricate set of pressures from geopolitical uncertainty and shifting energy dynamics, which threaten to distract from essential priorities that will transform businesses through AI and manage supply chain management challenges essential for expansion.