India Inc Senses Cyber Security Risks: KPMG

India Inc sees the impact of cybersecurity risk across all aspects of the organization. Nearly 34 percent of the Indian CEOs surveyed recently agreed that it is a case of ‘when’, and not ‘if’, for their organization. Indian CEOs consider cyber management a critical aspect of their customer strategy as 71 percent of them agree that a strong cyber strategy is critical to engender trust with key stakeholders. That’s what the fourth annual KPMG CEO Outlook report for India, suggested. The report is based on the inputs of over 125 Indian CEOs from a total of 1,300 CEOs globally among 11 of the world’s largest economies on their highest priority opportunities and most formidable challenges. The report which draws parallel insights from our Global CEO outlook, also assesses some of the key international trends impacting India as well as how organizations can face and chart new business strategies for success over the next 3 years.

This time last year, CEOs had expressed their determination to disrupt and grow. And now they are driving growth while managing strong headwinds – from rising cybersecurity risk to geopolitical uncertainty all of which are driving CEOs to combine equal amounts of resourcefulness and realism.

In this year’s findings, CEOs in India expect their organizations to drive growth while managing strong headwinds – from rising cybersecurity risk to geopolitical uncertainty. They are confident in the national, global and industry prospects, but believe a pragmatic and realistic view will be the key to grow their revenue over a 3-year horizon. As a result, they are challenging their company, their teams and themselves, to apply greater rigor, agility, and speed to everything right from taking personal ownership for leading digital transformation or ensuring data protection and customer trust. Leaders have to accept that they cannot predict the future but must prepare their organizations effectively to manage the growing pains in their business said Arun M Kumar, chairman, and CEO, KPMG in India.

According to the KPMG report, CEOs in India are embracing the benefits of technology disruption, as 94 percent see it as more of an opportunity than a threat. Nearly 76 percent of CEOs believe their organization has a strong understanding of how to measure return on investment (ROI) from their digital transformation initiatives and 82 percent say the same for their AI systems. Close to 74 percent of the CEOs in India agree that the board has an unreasonable expectation for return on investment related to digital transformation.

Quite interestingly, CEOs in India are more cautious than the CEOs globally when it comes to trusting predictive analysis. As high as 81 percent of them are less confident about the accuracy of predictive analytics than historical data. CEOs in India said that acting with agility is an imperative for an organization’s survival over the next three years (86 percent). A large majority (79 percent) of CEOs in India acknowledge that third-party partnerships are essential for organizational agility. In addition, Indian CEOs have low appetite for M&A’s with only 11 percent of them considering it as a top priority for achieving growth.

In another significant finding, the KPMG report suggested that CEOs in India are more confident about the global economy (89 percent) as compared to (69 percent) who are confident about the Indian economy. They see a return to territorialism as one of the key challenges to their growth, as 66 percent have ranked it as one of the top three risks faced by their organization.