2025年亚太区高管晴雨表

“Companies need toexpand regionally morethan ever, yet they arebecoming increasinglycautious. We have seenacross APAC marketsthat the most successfulcompanies are carefullymixing technologyinnovation with smart riskmanagement.” Jean-Francois SalzmannAPAC ChairmanManaging Partner for JapanForvis Mazars Contents 04Foreword06Cautious optimism defines outlook07Bracing for economic headwind08Topping the C-suite agenda09The AI race11Targeting overseas markets12Competition for talent heats up13ESG reporting loses steam14Methodology Foreword The world economy in 2025 presents C-suite leaders with a decisive momentto scale up and get ahead of intensifying global competition. Business leadersare strategically positioning themselves for future growth, while economicuncertainty and a tense geopolitical landscape continue to put pressure onbusiness operations and leadership confidence. Across Asia Pacific (APAC), businesses need to adaptand stay resilient in increasingly complicated times.While the immediate shocks of post-pandemicdisruptions have subsided, enterprises are stilldealing with ongoing challenges, including sustainedinflationary pressures, swiftly shifting regulatoryenvironments, and technological disruption. organisations benchmark their strategies againstpeer responses, understand emerging trends,and make informed decisions about their growthtrajectories in an increasingly competitive landscape.Between 28 September and 23 October 2024, wesurveyed and interviewed 1,706 C-suite executivesglobally, with 171 respondents from the APAC region. Our findings show several key trends. While C-suiteleaders haven’t lost their optimism about growth,they are keeping a close eye on rising competitionand geopolitical tensions that could hold them back.Technology remains their go-to strategy for stayingcompetitive, while expanding internationally andattracting top talent are still crucial moves. Theseelements are viewed as essential for redefiningorganisations, creating opportunities to unlockgrowth, and competing for market share. At the same time, US-China technology tradetensions continue to shake up Asian supply chainsand are forcing companies in the region to rethinktheir digital transformation strategies. However, thishas spurred innovation in some markets. In China,DeepSeek released its own open-source artificialintelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) inFebruary 2025, marking a significant milestonein the country’s AI development capabilities amidongoing global technology restrictions. Business leaders across APAC remain optimisticabout growth in 2025, but their outlook isn’t quite asbullish as it was in 2024. Several factors are behindthe more cautious outlook: large economies suchas Indonesia, which were once hailed as regionalgrowth drivers, are now cooling off; China’s bounce-back is taking longer than expected; and uncertaintyaround U.S. tariffs is clouding the outlook. Comparedto executives in other regions, APAC businessleaders are notably more reserved in their outlook.This caution is showing up in how they approachgrowth plans and investment choices. On the digital front, C-suite leaders are still firmlyfocused on the transformative opportunitiesthat technology can bring to their businesses.Transforming IT systems emerges as their top-most priority, and they are especially watchinghow emerging technologies could reshape theirorganisations. When it comes to investing in AI,companies are now using AI more to optimise theirinternal operations rather than develop external-facing products and services. International expansion is top-of-mind amongbusiness leaders as a means to grow and spreadrisks. Roughly three-quarters of them plan to expandacross borders in the next five years. They are mainlyeyeing the US, Germany, the UK, China and Canadafor expansion. With that said, C-suite executives withambitions to expand internationally need to navigatecomplex regulatory compliance frameworks, build The Forvis Mazars C-suite Barometer serves asan important tool to understand these shiftingbusiness dynamics. The comprehensive surveycaptures C-suite executives’ perspectives oncritical business challenges, strategic priorities, andgrowth opportunities. The insights provided help Foreword (Cont’d) local talent pools, and adapt products and servicesto meet market-specific demands. “In 2025, businesses needto balance growth withstability. While technologyand global markets offeropportunities, successcomes down to howwell companies adaptto uncertainty andcompetition.” But the bottom line is still about people. Businessleaders understand that whether they are rollingout new technology or expanding globally, successboils down to finding and retaining the right peoplewith the right skills. Many companies are strugglingto do this, even as the exact nature of the challengeis shifting. Finding senior executives was the mainchallenge in 2024, but respondents this year say ithas become harder to fill entry-leve