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Business leaders see little point in looking further than five years ahead due to the chaotic recent past, a new report has found.
Business leaders have put long-term planning on the backburner after the turbulent past few years, according to a survey by Pitcher Partners.
Just 15 per cent of respondents said they were comfortable looking further than five years ahead as a result of disruptions caused by COVID, supply chain constraints and inflation, the 2022 Business Radar report said.
Partner at Pitcher Partners, Gavin Debono, said that the pandemic and its ramifications had affected the way business leaders viewed the future.
“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,” said Mr Debono.
“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.”
The report said that only one-third of respondents had mapped out the following six to 12 months, and 29 per cent listed unforeseeable events as their main barrier to success.
Mr Debono said fear of the unknown meant business leaders felt long-term planning would be ineffective.
“Business leaders impacted by upheaval in the last two years no longer have confidence that a long-term strategy will hold up, so they are lowering their sights to the shorter term,” said Mr Debono.
The attraction and retention of a skilled workforce were another major concern.
In the report, 31 per cent of respondents identified labour and staff shortages as second only to the global pandemic as the most important factor negatively impacting their business confidence.
On the flip side, respondents ranked securing high-quality talent as the second-most important driver of success for an organisation.
The report also found that over two-thirds of business leaders wanted to be able to spend more time planning and thinking about big-picture decisions for their business, but 64 per cent were distracted by operational matters.
“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,” said Mr Debono.
Pitcher Partners’ Business Radar report surveyed 400 businesses of varying sizes across Australia, with annual revenue of $2 million to $500 million.
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