2025 Business Predictions for C-Suite Executives
What are the emerging trends and challenges that business leaders will face in 2025? We spoke to David Powell, a former CEO, board member, and Executive Partner at Ariel to find out what advice he has for new or continuing members of the C-Suite. David Powell has worked at companies including Johnson & Johnson, the American Red Cross, and Fieldpiece Instruments.
New to the C-Suite in 2025?
What advice would you give to a first-time C-suite executive stepping into their role in 2025, especially regarding the balance between empathy and driving business performance?
As a new CEO, it is common to impose upon yourself the expectations that you must “get it done”, “make changes,” and “have all the answers” as you step into your new role. After all, doesn’t the Board believe you are the one person best suited to lead the company? Take a deep breath, look in the mirror, and, with humility, admit that, before you became CEO, it had been the collective efforts of everyone else that built the company.
To take the company to the next level, you need a high-performing, collaborative team. To maximize success, seek out the insights and feelings of others, truly listen, internalize their perspectives, and include others in the evolution and finalization of ideas and actions.
When things go wrong, own it – you’re the leader. When things go right – give recognition to those that impacted or were instrumental to the success.
Key Trends for 2025
Reflecting on your work with clients and senior leaders throughout 2024, could you share any key trends, observations, or lessons learned that might shape the year ahead?
Over the past year, changes in market subtleties across many industries intensified. To achieve their planned business results arcs, CEOs and executive leaders have seen the need for, and level of, proactive planning, results tracking, and corrective-action implementation become more demanding as well as the war for top talent increase.
Resultingly, the need to have transparent, but concise and focused information-sharing and two-way dialog with the Board has also increased. Collectively, these needs have demonstrated the value of a meaningful, “living,” 3-year strategic plan to the CEO and executive team. This plan must include human talent, capabilities, and effectiveness as well as financial results. If such a plan does not exist, these teams have benefited by creating an outline of key strategies over 36-months that help guide the more time-limited operational actions and projects.
Challenges for 2025
From your perspective, what will be the most significant challenges facing leaders in 2025, and what skills will be critical to address them?
Looking to 2025, change dynamics will intensify, and likely reach critical levels for companies and key business processes across many industries. Expected geopolitical discord, and technological and government-imposed business disruptions will require CEOs and executive teams to look forward 12-36 months in meaningful ways, conceptualizing potential problems or risks, and implementing new plans and contingencies.
These plans must be “real,” not “bureaucratic-exercise” presentations to be filed away. They must be “living,” and be owned by these leaders and their teams at a level that emulates true entrepreneurship. Important skills will include the ability to define, scope, and fill new roles and positions efficiently, in the necessary timeframe; tracking the true, critical-few, and actionable KPIs that provide necessary lead-time for effective course-correction; identifying and tracking key risks and acting on these risks in advance of irreversible negative impact. Effective leadership of a high-performance, collaborative team will be paramount.
