USA TODAY International Edition
For many CEOs, globalization’s thrill fades
PwC’s survey shows corporate bosses remain confident, though
Globalization took another knock Monday with the publication of a report that showed corporate titans around the world have become more skeptical about the benefits of integrating people, companies and governments.
Still, the CEOs surveyed said they are more confident about the growth prospects for their own firms and the global economy over the next year.
The annual survey of chief executives by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that while for the past 20 years business leaders have been largely positive about an increasingly integrated global economy marked by free trade and frictionless capital flows, they are increasingly skeptical about its impact in some areas.
Forty- four percent of business leaders firmly believe globalization has done virtually nothing, for example, to help close the gap between the rich and poor.
The conclusions from the taxconsulting firm were released on the eve of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, a gathering attended by some of globalization’s biggest cheerleaders.
“CEOs used to be very positive about the ability and benefits of globalization,” Bob Mortiz, PwC’s global chairman, said in an interview. “They saw the world transforming with a few mega- trends: Shifting demographics, a bigger consumer base around the world. There wasn’t as much knowledge or focus on the implications of that downstream.”
The report, based on interviews with nearly 1,400 CEOs from 79 countries, revealed that just 13% of corporate leaders feel globalization has “to a large extent” helped solve the problem of income inequality.
PwC’s survey comes as new estimates released Monday by antipoverty organization Oxfam showed that just eight people own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world — more than 3.6 billion people. Oxfam used data from Forbes’ billionaires
list.