C-suite barometer: 2026 mid-year insights
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.
Diversification: the critical 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 target trade 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.
92%
remain positive about growth
35%
confident managing key trends (down eight points)
62%
boosting investment (down seven points)
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.
Capital and investment are on the move to avoid economic aftershocks
The number of businesses boosting investment across all areas is still high, but with a slight dip (down 7 points from 69% to 62%) suggesting a more cautious approach. On closer analysis, investment is being redirected from long‑term foundations such as talent, sustainability and brand, towards more immediate stabilisers and essentials like supply chain management, to manage disruption in the current climate. The same pragmatism is evident in growth strategies. Strategic alliances and joint ventures have just edged out private equity as the preferred route to scale and funding, but the clear appetite for both reflects the need for flexibility, shared risk and access to capabilities compared with the traditional balance‑sheet expansion approach alone. Notably, over half of leaders (and across every region) have diversified resources in the past six months in response to geopolitical developments, compared with around a quarter that have adopted or accelerated friendshoring, offshoring or near‑shoring plans. Meanwhile, cost pressures are increasingly being passed through to customers, with less businesses absorbing costs, testing pricing power and loyalty.
Remapping operations, trade and expansion for favourable market conditions
C-suite leaders are remapping operational plans and trading relationships. Increased activity in this area reinforces the expansion plans identified at the beginning of the year, but with greater emphasis on diversifying targeted destinations. Businesses are focusing expansion closer to home – both domestically and in neighbouring markets. At the same time, Greater China, Latin America and Australia/Asia‑Pacific are the top destinations planned for increased trade. Central and Eastern Europe also stands out as the only market attracting interest from all neighbouring and distant regions.
AI enters its returns era revealing a variance from initial intent to valuable impact
Businesses are now confirming concrete returns on AI investments and the specific extent of those returns. Overall, this is positive against the current backdrop as leaders start to sharpen how they measure transformation success and their use cases – from initial intent to valuable impact. They’re now placing greater emphasis on the external gains of productivity and customer satisfaction, paying less attention to internal adoption initiatives that were in focus six months earlier. C-suite leaders still want better decisions and a competitive edge through transformation, but they’re no longer relying on a single route to get there.
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George Lagarias Chief Economist - London
