The Asia Pacific CEO survey

The Asia Pacific CEO survey: Business leaders chart the road ahead

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© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2020

Foreword Finding resilience in the rebound

2020 has been a year like no other as covid-19 spread rapidly across the world, devastating communities, presenting massive challenges to economies and testing the mettle of business leaders everywhere. From sudden lockdowns to border closures and disrupted supply chains, significant impacts for organisations often have been impossible to predict and remain so.

To discover how CEOs across the Asia Pacific region have fared in 2020, and how they are approaching 2021 and beyond, Westpac Institutional Bank partnered with the Economist Intelligence Unit on the Asia Pacific CEO Survey. The results are truly revelatory and show the remarkable positivity of many corporate leaders as they rethink strategies for the immediate future and plan their post-crisis business plans.

Operating models have changed, embracing accelerated digitisation and out-of-office workforces. Leadership styles also have shifted as CEOs recognised the need to boost communication with employees and make decisions much faster. Preferences for onshoring surfaced after 67% of our survey participants experienced disrupted supply chains. And, there’s now a sharper focus on sustainability/ESG issues, which looks set to endure.

Clearly some sectors have been more profoundly impacted than others. While the full effects of the pandemic play out, a new spirit of agility and a resounding sense of resilience can be identified among numerous organisations and their leaders.

The team at Westpac Institutional Bank spent this memorable year working closely with customers as pandemic-induced uncertainty unfolded. Underpinning our work is a strong belief that, given enough time and the right level of support from government, banks and others, well-managed businesses will adapt and innovate through the crisis and become better as a result.

Our thanks to those business leaders who generously shared their personal insights and professional experiences to make this highly relatable report a compelling read.

I hope you find it engaging – and I look forward to your feedback.

Anthony Miller Chief Executive, Westpac Institutional Bank


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About the research 1

Executive summary 2

1. After the turmoil opportunities for change 3

2. Leading out of the crisis 8

3. Betting on digital 12

Conclusion 16

Contents

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The Asia Pacific CEO survey: Business leaders chart the road ahead is an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report, sponsored by Westpac. It explores how CEOs in the Asia Pacific region are guiding their businesses through the ongoing covid-19 crisis and the steps they are taking to prepare for an uncertain future.

The analysis in the report is based on a survey of 113 CEOs conducted in July and August 2020. One-quarter (25%) of the respondents are based in China, one-fifth (20%) are based in Indonesia, and the balance are divided equally between Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore. Their companies are distributed across a wide range of industries, with the largest representation from consumer goods (14%), construction and real estate (11%), and financial services (10%). Just over half of the respondents lead large businesses, with annual revenue of over US$250m; the rest lead businesses earning between US$10m and US$250m.

Additional insights were obtained from in-depth interviews with CEOs and other experts on business and economic challenges in Asia Pacific.

We would like to thank the following for their time:

• Marika Calfas, chief executive officer, NSW Ports

• David Harrison, chief executive officer, Charter Hall

• Ken Kang, deputy director, Asia Pacific, International Monetary Fund

• Tony Lombardo, chief executive officer, Asia, Lendlease

• Pip Marlow, chief executive officer, Australia & New Zealand, Salesforce

• Arnoud De Meyer, professor, Singapore Management University

• Mark Ryan, chief executive officer and managing director, Tassal

• Ian Silk, chief executive officer, Australian Super

The report was written by Denis McCauley and edited by Charles Ross.

About the research

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Executive summaryBusiness leaders in Asia Pacific were the first among their global peers to confront the challenges posed by covid-19. Although some chief executives had experience of managing during previous public health crises1, the severity of the covid-19 pandemic was unprecedented. They have taken actions to stabilise their operations out of necessity, but in the process, many have instigated changes that promise future benefits—some unanticipated—in terms of efficiency and team cohesion.

This report suggests that chief executives have not delayed in readying their businesses for what comes next. For example, 67% of those surveyed for this report had developed a post-crisis business plan by mid-2020, and 43% had already begun implementing it. Most of these leaders believe they’ve thrived in the crisis and have risen to the challenge. This report details some of the main actions they have been taking and how their own leadership styles have been evolving.

Following are other key findings from the research:

• CEOs plan workforce change to build resilience. With the aim of building greater workforce flexibility, 42% of respondents expect their firms to hire more contract workers in the future. A permanent increase in home-working is also on the cards for 76% of respondents’ firms, with hybrid office and home arrangements likely becoming the norm for many employees.

• Supply chains are being adapted. Over two-thirds (67%) of businesses in the survey have experienced some disruption to their supply chains during the crisis. More than half (57%) of CEOs say this has led their firms to begin moving at least some of their supply and/or manufacturing onshore.

• No more delay on digital. The crisis has served to accelerate companies’ digital transformation efforts. Over half the surveyed CEOs (54%) say that some or all their digital transformation initiatives have been fast-tracked rather than frozen or suspended, even while most have put other investment on the back burner.

• Leadership styles are evolving by necessity. For example, a vast majority of chief executives (80%) say they’ve reduced the time they now take to reach decisions. Around three-quarters (76%) have changed how they communicate with staff. Most expect to travel substantially less in the future; CEOs we interviewed now think there is less of a need for it, partly thanks to digital technology.

1 Examples include the SARS outbreak of 2002-2004 and the H1N1 swine flu pandemic of 2009.

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1. After the turmoil: opportunities for change

2 These and other EIU figures cited below are found in The EIU Global Outlook, November 2020.

Most CEOs we interviewed for this research say their business has held up during the crisis. One is Marika Calfas, CEO of NSW Ports, an Australian port manager. “Freight and logistics in our part of the world have been extraordinarily resilient through the covid period, and we have continued to operate 24/7,” she says. “July and August were very strong volume months, and we are expecting that will continue towards the end of the year.”

Another is Mark Ryan, CEO and managing director of Tassal, a Tasmania-based salmon-farming company. His firm’s main challenge, he says, is not suppressed demand per se, but rather ensuring that short shelf-life products arrive in its export markets in Asia in a timely manner. (It was necessary to charter flights in some instances after the passenger planes it previously used for export freight largely stopped flying.)

There is no question that economies in Asia Pacific have suffered deeply in the global pandemic. In statistical terms, however, the dislocation has been less than that experienced in other regions. The EIU expects GDP growth in Asia and Australasia to contract by 2.5% in all of 2020, a considerably softer landing from the crisis than that experienced by Europe and North America (projected to contract at 7.3% and 4.7% respectively).2

At the micro level, business fortunes in the region have been mixed, even if pain has been widespread. The surveyed CEOs are evenly split between those reporting (or expecting) a revenue decline in their full financial year that ends in 2020 and those reporting revenue growth (46% in both cases).

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Real GDP growth, 2019-2023 (market exchange rates)

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit

World North America Europe Asia and Australasia

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

6

4

2

0

-2

-4

-6

-8

-10

lockdowns. Ken Kang, deputy director, Asia Pacific at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), says its economists see a partial recovery under way now in parts of Asia, notably China. “But it is highly uneven and partial,” he warns, “and there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the outlook, all hinging on countries’ ability to control the virus.”

Tony Lombardo, the Singapore-based Asia CEO of Lendlease, a property and infrastructure company, is faced with a different challenge. A sharp drop in construction activity in Lendleases’s Asian markets meant that fiscal 2020 revenue declined for the company. Operations in its largest markets are largely back to normal, however, and Mr Lombardo expects a strong performance in the next year based on delayed projects from 2020 being awarded in 2021.

The EIU is cautiously optimistic about recovery in the region: it projects GDP growth of 4.9% in 2021 in Asia and Australasia, with strong rebounds in its largest economies, India and China. This is barring the risk, of course, of more sweeping

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same degree as other sectors. This means that we haven’t had to pull back on our capital investment or maintenance programmes. All of those things we had in our plan that were currently under way are still under way.”

Whether or not overall strategy is intact, many companies are eyeing changes to elements of their operating model, including the structure and management of their workforce and their supply chain.

Building in resilience

The early experience of the pandemic underscored the virtues of organisational scalability and flexibility, as many businesses had to quickly ratchet operations up or down to meet radically changed circumstances. China provided some unique examples of resourcefulness in this regard. For example, Hema—the grocery business of e-commerce giant Alibaba—contracted several thousand staff from idled restaurant chains to work in its

No time to panic

The turmoil induced by the crisis has naturally led business leaders to have a close look at their organisations’ strategies. As many as 41% of our surveyed CEOs say the pandemic has forced a wholesale rethink of strategy. For a smaller share, 31%, the pandemic has occasioned a re-think of short-term but not long-term plans.

The depth of strategic soul-searching is likely to be influenced by the differing fortunes of companies and industries. The CEOs we interviewed are among those who’ve left their business strategy alone. “We haven’t seen any need to deviate from our strategic plan,” says Mr Ryan. “We’ve always anticipated the possibility of a 20% disruption to our business, and we plan out for 10 years given the salmon lifecycle. So for us it’s been business as usual, although very unusual at the same time.”

It is a similar case at NSW Ports, according to Ms Calfas: “We’ve been fortunate in not being impacted from a revenue perspective to the


How covid-19 has impacted companies’ immediate approach to strategy (top responses, % of respondents)

Forced us to rethink our entire business strategy

We have incorporated new technology into our strategic planning

We have increased our strategic planning capabilities

Introduced new information sources to guide our strategy

Forced us to rethink our short term business strategy but not our long term strategy

41%

36%

34%

32%

31%

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“But most employees will need to be in the office environment at least part of the time,” she warns, “otherwise it will be difficult to have those conversations that lead to new ideas, and harder to nurture the staff culture you want to create.”

David Harrison, the CEO of Charter Hall, a Sydney-based property investment and management company, likewise believes that home working as an experiment has worked but that its costs, including decreased productivity, are becoming apparent. “With senior people out of the office,” he adds, “it’s also tougher to provide good quality training for younger executives. And no one anywhere has a handle yet on the nature or depth of mental health issues connected with mass home working.”

Adjusting the supply chainIn a region marked by extensive trade interdependence of economies, the pandemic and the lockdowns that followed were always going to have a considerable impact on supply chains. Two-thirds of our surveyed CEOs (67%) say their supply chain has been disrupted by the crisis. Half think the disruption will be long-lasting.

Mr Kang notes that trade flows, within Asia and globally, have held up surprisingly well during the crisis. Nevertheless, he expects supply chain adjustments by companies as they seek to build greater resilience into them, a trend that predates the pandemic. Arnoud De Meyer, a professor at Singapore Management University, agrees: “After decades of emphasis on lean manufacturing, a shift is under way away from just-in-time efficiency towards resilience and responsiveness”.

superstores to help it meet surging demand for food products. Other online retailers in the country followed suit.3 Companies in hard-hit sectors, by contrast, in China and elsewhere, were forced to scale operations back.

Business conditions have since stabilised in much of Asia Pacific, but it is apparent from the survey that many CEOs are looking to inject greater flexibility into their operations. For example, 42% expect their firms to hire more contract workers in the future. Slightly less, 38%, say they plan to reduce the size of their full-time workforce.

Mr Kang of the IMF anticipates that structural changes in Asian economies, with resources reallocated to new growth areas, will lead to existing companies retooling themselves to meet growing demand in different areas. “That will require developing some different modalities,” he says, “including the ability to retrain workers and move them quickly from one area to others.”

Modes of working have already been changing, and the crisis is likely to leave a lasting imprint on operating models. Widescale home-working, for example, appears here to stay: 76% of CEOs say their firms will allow more staff to work from home in the future than had previously been the case. This does not mean empty offices; rather, companies are likely to stagger schedules, with most employees spending at least part of the week in the office.

Ms Calfas foresees hybrid work arrangements becoming the norm, with office staff typically working two or three days in the office and the balance of the week at home. Mass home working has been beneficial, she says, in convincing management that flexible arrangements can work well for all parties.

3 See, for example, “For China’s coronavirus-hit companies, the internet can be much more than just a lifeline”, South China Morning Post, April 2, 2020

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For many, it has been the toughest challenge they’ve faced as business leaders, in a region that has been no stranger to public health and other major crises. We will explore next the personal and leadership challenges CEOs have faced in the process and how they’ve sought to rise to them.

The construction industry is a case in point. “In our business,” says Mr Lombardo, “supply chains have been dependent on China for many types of building materials, which presents some risk. In the future companies will want to de-risk somewhat by diversifying sources of supply.”

Over half (57%) of firms in the survey have begun to onshore supply and/or manufacturing, in order to secure their supply, and more (63%) expect to continue in this direction in the future. Many CEOs are likely to see such measures as helping to reduce supply dependence on China.

These views indicate that many—perhaps most—CEOs in Asia Pacific have managed to navigate their businesses skilfully through the pandemic and chart a course for the future.

Share of respondents agreeing with statements about how covid-19 will impact the long-term approach to management at their organisations


We plan to permanentlyreduce our full

time workforce

80

60

40

20

0

38%

We plan tohire more

contractors

42%

We plan to allowmore staff to

work from home

76%

We plan toinstigate trainingprogrammes to

increase transformation

69%

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2. Leading out of the crisis

relates the experience of a large enterprise customer whose chief executive told her: “We made more decisions in seven days than we’ve typically made in a year.” The management of many companies, she says, have been making decisions at an accelerated pace and have accepted the risk of imperfection in the process – the possibility that they might not get all the details right.

Arnoud De Meyer has observed a similar pattern and suggests not all the previous decision-making processes should be discarded: “Everyone had to react quickly as the crisis grew, and some established safeguards were set aside in the process. CEOs will want to continue making fast decisions, but the issue will re-emerge of how much risk they should take. Can they justify that altered balance of speed and risk to shareholders?”

A key test of leadership amid a crisis is whether leaders have prepared their businesses for

CEOs in Asia Pacific may be forgiven if, when the gravity of the covid-19 crisis became apparent in January and February 2020, they shuddered at the management challenge ahead. At the same time, most would have thought that meeting such challenges is what they’re getting paid for.

By their own assessment, the majority of CEOs in our survey believe they have indeed risen to the challenge. Six in 10 say they’ve thrived on the business challenges posed by the crisis, and 69% say they’ve become more resilient leaders as a result.

As evidence of rising to the challenge, the surveyed CEOs point, for example, to their faster decision-making. Over three-quarters (80%) say they’ve reduced the time they take to reach decisions. Around 72% add that the same is true of their organisation as a whole.

Pip Marlow, CEO, Australia & New Zealand with Salesforce, a cloud-based software company,

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Which statement best represents the development stage of your organisation’s post-covid-19 business plan?


We have a well-developed post-covid-19 business plan and have started implementing it

We have a well-developed post-covid-19 business plan but have not yet started implementing it

We are working on developing a post-covid-19 business plan

We are thinking about developing a post-covid-19 business plan but have not yet begun

We have no plans to develop a post-covid-19 business plan

43%

24%

22%

9% 2%

A question of styleLeadership styles have unquestionably changed among many CEOs in the unusual environment of 2020. Over half of those surveyed confirmed this has been the case. Around three-quarters (76%), say they’ve changed how they communicate with staff. Tony Lombardo of Lendlease says that communications with his workforce have become more responsive and detailed. “Employees want to know all the facts,” he says. “That transparency pays off in employee communication.”

The wholesale shift to digital conversations has helped to inform her decision-making, says Ms Marlow. “The lockdown has shown me that I was probably relying on too few people for advice and support. Maybe it was their close proximity to me in the office. I’m now tapping into more numerous and diverse perspectives. When we do a Zoom call, it doesn’t matter who’s in the office or in a different city; we’ve got a platform for a more inclusive debate on key issues and more voices to be heard.”

the post-crisis environment. The public health crisis is unfortunately not over, although the shoots of economic recovery are now evident in at least some Asian markets. But 67% of CEOs in the survey, and their teams, had developed a post-crisis business plan by July or August 2020, and a large minority of 43% had begun implementing it.

The 33% who had not yet developed a post-crisis plan is a worryingly large percentage, although some are likely to be managing businesses that have continued to grow and possibly feel less in need of a new plan. Others are likely to find it difficult to plan. David Harrison says many of Charter Hall’s retail tenants cannot reliably forecast demand yet, and those selling discretionary goods wonder whether it will return at all. However, he adds, many of tenants previously classified as discretionary retailers are thriving as consumption patterns change.

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Share of respondents agreeing with statements about covid-19’s impact on them as business leaders


I have been forced to change my leadership style

I have thrived on the business challenges that covid-19 has created

I have become a more resilient leader

I have changed the way I communicate with staff

I have increased the speed with which I have made decisions

I have changed the way I use technology

55%

60%

69%

76%

80%

80%

55%

60%

69%

76%

80%

80%The CEOs surveyed appear to agree. Seventy-two percent of them say they have increased their focus on ESG in the past six months. According to Arnoud De Meyer: “The increasing attention to ESG is more than lip service. The pandemic has made people aware of the vulnerability of their organisations to environmental problems.” The crisis has also led 62% of CEOs and their firms to consider issuing some form of sustainable finance instrument, and more (69%) are likely to do so in the future.

For Ian Silk, CEO of Australian Super, a pension fund, the importance of pursuing sustainable business practices has been evident since long before the pandemic. ESG factors, for example, are now pivotal to the long-term performance of its portfolio, he says, and other companies in the investment industry can say the same. Due partly to the crisis, the connection between ESG and performance is now clearer in other sectors as well, says Mr Silk: “There’s a general understanding in the business community that if you’re not managing ESG issues well, you’re not managing your business well.”

CEOs have also been re-thinking the trade-offs involved in visiting their various operations in the region. Nearly two-thirds (64%) expect to scale back their and other executives’ business travel in the future. Mr Lombardo, for example, has averaged 200 days on the road in recent years; he expects this to halve in the future. Mr De Meyer believes this is a long-lasting change: “We will not go back to a time where a business deal requires six international trips by plane.”

On board with sustainability

Another test of leadership is whether CEOs are able to keep sight of bigger picture objectives while their business and markets are under extreme pressure. There are few objectives in the world today bigger than that of reversing climate change. It is easy to let carbon-reduction or other ESG (environmental, social and governance investment criteria) targets slip while the health crisis rages, but the IMF’s Ken Kang insists that companies in the region must not take their eyes off these goals: “Being forward thinking involves taking action to address climate change. Now is the time to deploy technology and take other measures that will reduce your carbon footprint.”

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The impact of covid-19 on companies’ approach to sustainable finance


The impact of the crisis... Agree Strongly agree

...has made us consider a sustainable finance issuance in the past 6 months

...will lead us to consider a sustainablefinance issuance in the future

80

60

40

20

0

18%

44%

23%

46%

“CEOs by their nature have high anxiety around a fear of failure,” says Mark Ryan of Tassal. “That’s why they get to the positions they’re in, because they have that energy and determination of not wanting to fail.” Managing through the pandemic has unquestionably added to their anxiety, and probably taken an emotional toll on many. Among the survey respondents, 58% of CEOs report elevated stress levels as a result of the pandemic. Over half (55%) say they have sought counselling to help them better manage their stress.

Some like Mr Ryan were ready for such a situation—he was practising mindfulness and awareness work before the crisis hit. That, he says, helped him understand the need to get support for his direct reports as well. “We’ve brought in a professional coach for our executive team to work through all our anxiety and fear-inducing issues,” he says. “To ensure safe outcomes, we couldn’t let

Stress testsanxiety and fear lead to destructive behaviour - we wanted to encourage brave and honest actions and conversations.”

For Marika Calfas of NSW Ports and CEOs of port operating companies, a big source of stress was initial uncertainty around how to implement covid-safe operations to protect key port workers, given that the covid situation was new and evolving. With the aim of increasing clarity, Ms Calfas took the initiative of bringing port operations executives and managers and government officials together for a weekly discussion. “We get on an hour-long call at 8am once a week to discuss common issues and identify a way forward. We receive up to date information and guidance from government officials. As the early calls progressed, I could tell that everybody’s stress levels came down because we were working collaboratively and sharing information.”

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highlight areas in which improvements could be made in the firm’s analysis and use of data. As a result, he says, management is stepping up investments in data collection systems and analytics tools.

Pip Marlow, as the Australia & New Zealand CEO of a cloud services provider, has a good vantage point to view how existing and potential customers have been thinking about digital initiatives during the covid-19 crisis. Companies that had previously been augmenting their existing capabilities with digital ones now have a different mindset, she says: “Most now believe that it’s got to be digital-first.”

In an existential crisis, businesses tend to play it safe, freezing investment and putting major change initiatives on hold until the future looks clearer. However, digital investments have been the exception in Asia Pacific. In our survey, 64% of CEOs in the region say they’ve had to suspend or cancel investments during the crisis, but more (77%) have at the same time increased their companies’ adoption of new technologies; the same number expect their technology investments to continue increasing.

Australian Super provides one example. According to Ian Silk, the crisis period—and in particular the shift to home working—served to

3. Betting on digital

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Early-mover advantages

One-fifth of the surveyed CEOs say that, rather than fast-tracking digital transformation initiatives, they have maintained their existing ones at the same pace as before. This reflects the reality that many organisations had already been well under way with digital transformation before the crisis hit, putting them in a good position to quickly shift more of their operations online and support customers, suppliers and employees electronically.

One such organisation is NSW Ports. “We were fortunate in that we had already been making some large digital investments and developing new capabilities over the past two years,” says Marika Calfas. “For example, we had fibre connections installed between our offices with residual backups. We had a Webex system rolled out across the company. We had already set up remote access to CCTV cameras at our facilities. These capabilities were in place when we had to implement restrictions in port operations and pull the trigger to have office-based staff work remotely.”

For many companies, the crisis has accelerated rather than slowed their digital transformation efforts, as the advantages enjoyed by rivals with wholly or largely online operations have become all too apparent. Over half of respondents (54%) say that some or all of their digital transformation initiatives have been fast-tracked rather than suspended. “Technology-based operating models are being implemented at speed in the region,” observes Arnoud De Meyer. He offers an example of a law firm in Singapore that is now implementing a major new IT system over a few months rather than a few years, as initially planned.

At the same time, Mr De Meyer offers a cautionary note for companies scrambling to launch new digital investments in rapid time. Many, he says, will see no return on these investments. “Some have gone ahead without a great deal of thought put into when a return is expected on it.”

How the covid-19 crisis has impacted organisations’ main digital transformation initiatives


Accelerate all our main initiatives

Accelerate some initiatives

Maintain all or most of our transformation initiatives at their previous pace

Suspend or postpone some initiatives

Suspend or postpone all our main initiatives

We have not been pursuing digital transformation initiatives38%

16%

20%

24%

1% 2%

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How digital technology has helped businesses adapt to covid-19? (top responses)


categories of IT spending in Asia Pacific remained flat in the early part of 2020, business spending on cloud services accelerated, spurred by the pandemic, according to research firm GlobalData.4 Companies moved swiftly—early in the crisis—to sign up to cloud-based communication and collaboration tools, if they hadn’t already. The enormous computing power available in the cloud has also enabled companies to support an expansion of their online sales channels, which have been critical to survival since lockdowns took hold.

The cloud gives companies one other attribute critical to competing in the current environment – the potential to scale operations rapidly. “It is less about being first to market and more about fastest to scale,” says Mr De Meyer. “For most firms, this requires a significant upgrading of their existing technological capabilities.”

Charter Hall had been busy digitising core processes for a few years, including through the use of automation technologies, says David Harrison. “We didn’t need to accelerate our digitisation when the crisis hit,” he says. “We’re simply carrying on with it as we’d planned.”

Digital capabilities have proven invaluable to companies in Asia Pacific this year in several ways. Chief among them, according to roughly half (49%) the respondents, has been the ability to keep the workforce connected amid the mass shift to home working. Other important contributions have been the creation of new sales channels, and an improvement in product and service development (both cited by 42%).

Companies’ adoption of cloud services, as they move their IT operations and infrastructure over to cloud platforms, has been integral to supporting such capabilities. While most

4 “Cloud-based offerings outshine traditional products amid current COVID-19 scenario in APAC, says GlobalData”, GlobalData press release, June 8, 2020

Helped keep our workforce connected

Created new channels through which to sell our products and/or services

Improved development of new products and/or services

Helped us reduce our operating costs

Enabled new kinds of products and/or services

Enabled us to manage our overseas relationships

Enabled greater understanding of how our products and/or services are used

Helped us price products and/or services more effectively

49%

42%

42%

41%

38%

38%

37%

36%

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Technology brings Lendlease better ways of working

Overseeing a large number of construction projects and commercial properties across China, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia is challenging even in good times, not to mention during a pandemic. This is why property and infrastructure company Lendlease launched a number of major digital initiatives 18 months ago, says Tony Lombardo, its Asia CEO. One was the adoption of new collaboration tools, including the Teams platform. Another was enabling remote access to its network of CCTV cameras deployed at all its sites. Drones have also been deployed to monitor operations and the physical conditions of its various assets.

“I used to think we needed to be fully on the ground at our sites, but now I know that’s not always the case,” says Mr Lombardo. “We no longer need to travel all the time.” The company, he adds, has also begun using artificial intelligence to

aid decision-making regarding employee and customer safety at its sites. Covid-19 aside, such capabilities can help reduce the incidence of accidents and injuries, and also help manage the expanded scope of health safeguards that all building owners and managers must now put in place.

During the crisis, the company applied the finishing touches to a new property life cycle design platform, called Podium, which leverages digital twin technology. The platform will enable clients to view a virtual replication of a building or other structures while still in the design stage. In addition to allowing customers to become immersed in the project design, says Mr Lombardo, it speeds up the design process considerably because change decisions can be made collaboratively and on the fly. “Something that used to take us 12 months to design can now be designed in three months,” he says. “That’s an important productivity shift.”

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Conclusion their organisations to compete in a changed environment. Many leaders that we surveyed and spoke with have initiated several actions by their teams to do this. These include developing a post-crisis business plan, adjusting supply chain arrangements, modifying the workforce structure to gain flexibility, and bringing to fruition digital initiatives they had the foresight to launch well before the crisis.

On a personal level, they’ve streamlined their own and their management team’s decision-making, and they’ve changed how they communicate with their employees. At the same time, they’ve made or re-affirmed a commitment to pursue environmentally and socially sustainable practices.

It is too early to say whether such actions will secure the future growth of their businesses, as so much will be determined by the course of the coronavirus. But the CEOs in our research have done what they can to position their companies well for the challenges that lie ahead.

As the world feels its way toward a resolution of the covid-19 crisis and a full-scale economic recovery, all eyes will be on Asia Pacific. A recovery of sorts is already visible in China; many of its businesses appear to have successfully absorbed the early shocks and adapted to the new, post-lockdown conditions. There and elsewhere in the region, as this research has shown, companies have proven resilient, even if some in particularly distressed sectors such as civil aviation and hospitality are not yet out of the woods.

This is testament to competent executive leadership. Our research suggests relatively few CEOs in the region have failed to confront the challenges posed by the crisis. On the contrary, even though as many companies in our survey have seen revenue decline as those that have seen it grow, a majority of CEOs believe that they have thrived in the crisis and become more resilient leaders.

Merely steadying a ship in a crisis is not enough; good leaders must be able to ready

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Whilst every effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of this information, neither The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. nor the sponsor of this report can accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this report or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out herein.

The information contained in this report is current as at November 2020. This report contains general commentary and market colour. It may contain material provided by third parties. This information has been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. The information in this report does not constitute investment advice, an offer or a solicitation of an offer, or an inducement to subscribe for, purchase or sell any financial instrument or to enter a legally binding contract. Whilst every reasonable effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of this information, neither The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd nor Westpac Banking Corporation ABN 33 007 457 141 AFSL 233714 can accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this report or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in this report. The information in this report is subject to change without notice. None of The Economist Intelligence Unit or Westpac (or its related entities) is under any obligation to update the information or correct any inaccuracy which may become apparent at a later date.

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The Asia Pacific CEO survey