New data shows business leaders losing confidence in long-term planning

New data has found that business leaders have lost confidence in long-term planning, while many see little point in looking more than five years ahead.

In Pitcher Partners' 2022 Business Radar Report, the firm revealed that just 15 per cent of respondents are confident in planning further than five years ahead due to a string of disruptions in recent times such as COVID and rising inflation.

Only a third of respondents said they were prepared to map out the next six to 12 months for their businesses, while two-thirds of decision makers in businesses said their time is consumed by day-to-day operational matters and cannot spend more time on “big picture decisions”.

Pitcher Partners' Gavin Debono said the data shows that the pandemic and flow-on effects has changed the way business leaders are mapping out their future plans.

“There's a very strong correlation between having a clear strategy and long-term plan, particularly that covers succession, and being a more confident business,” Mr Debono said.

“If you find yourself at the mercy of every change, it becomes increasingly hard to keep disruption in focus, which translates into a sense of losing control.”

However, while 15 per cent were not confident in planning past five years, Pitcher Partners noted that the figure was “notably higher” for companies where the founder was still involved.

Mr Debono said this is likely because founders who are still active in their business can maintain their confidence in the vision and strategy that some business leaders lost in the last two years.

In fact, confidence and trust were noted as key factors in how leaders feel they can look to the future.

Meanwhile, three-quarters of respondents said there were parts of their business they could not delegate to others resulting in them being time-poor for long-term planning.

“When people talk about uncertainty being the new normal, this is what it looks like — business will always face a range of external and macroeconomic threats which need to be factored into long-term planning,” Mr Debono said.

“The key message to business is they don't have to — and should not — try to do this alone.

“We have seen a shift towards additional advisory demand for good reasons, as clients look for a depth of expertise and breadth of industry awareness when they are planning their next steps.”

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.