Stagwell Survey Reveals 77% of CEOs Say the Election Will Impact their 2025 Business Strategy

Stagwell today unveiled the results of a global survey of 100 CEOs regarding their priorities for 2025, reflections on how the U.S. presidential election will impact economic and political stability, and interest in investing in the Gulf Region.

This afternoon, October 30 at 1:40pm Saudi time Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn will present these findings at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) 8th Edition 2024 Summit in Riyadh as part of Stagwell's strategic investment in the MENA region.

The survey, conducted by Stagwell's NRG, a leading global insights and strategy firm at the intersection of content, culture, and technology, reveals:

Expected Impact of the U.S. Election on Business

• 77% of CEOs say the U.S. presidential election will impact their 2025 business strategy.
• Global CEOs (all CEOs surveyed minus U.S. CEOs) are split on which Presidential candidate would boost the global economy (35% of global CEOs selected Harris while 30% selected Trump), while U.S. CEOs strongly favour Trump to boost the global economy (52% vs. 15%).
• CEOs expect trade policy and immigration to be strongly influenced by the election.
• Broadly aligned with the general population, 35% of CEOs worldwide identify inflation as the most critical economic issue facing their countries, followed by boosting consumer confidence (30%) and energy prices (25%).

Attractiveness of Investing in the Gulf Region

• Global CEOs view both the Gulf Region and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as attractive investment markets.
• 79% of global CEOs describe the current investment environment in the Gulf region as very or somewhat attractive, while 86% say the same about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Optimism for Technology and AI
• 85% of CEOs are optimistic about innovation and technology as a force for improving life quality.
• 73% of global CEOs are optimistic about the impact of AI on the wellbeing of citizens in their country, including 35% who are 'very optimistic.'

Survey Methodology

This survey, built on the 2024 FII Institute Compass survey, gathered insights from CEOs on key issues affecting their countries, focusing on economic priorities for 2025. The survey was conducted exclusively in English between October 4th and 11th, 2024 among a global sample of 100 CEOs of companies with a minimum of 10,000 employees, which was drawn from expert network sample lists. Explore the crosstabs and additional findings.