Overall, 79 per cent of Canadian businesses expect to grow in the coming year. Most Canadian senior executives expect their companies to expand in two ways: by building deeper relationships with current customers (85 per cent) and by launching new products and services (73 per cent). As well, 57 per cent of Canadian executives expect to acquire or merge with companies this coming year. Supporting this new growth will come new hiring and new spending. Canadian businesses are the middle of the pack when it comes to many issues surveyed by Accenture in a new report. Almost 40 per cent of firms are actively hiring, and of those 67 per cent will be hiring up to 5 per cent. As well, 20 per cent of Canadian businesses will be hiring up to 10 per cent more staff in the 2006. New spending in training, sales and marketing, R&D and technology is also part of the Canadian business agenda for 2006. Over 50 per cent of Canadian businesses surveyed will be increasing their spending in these areas for the coming year. Only 36 per cent of Canadian executives plan on keeping their spending flat for the year. The survey also asked respondents to identify what they believe to be the top threats to their company’s success in 2006. For Canada, the health of the global economy continues to be the biggest threat to company success. The chart below shows the percentage of global respondents versus Canadian who selected specific threats. 
About the Study As part of an annual study to identify senior executives’ top concerns, Accenture conducted an online survey of 911 senior executives at many of the largest organizations around the world. Respondents represented all major industries and the public sector and included executives at the highest levels of senior management (“C-suite” executives) as well as heads of key functional areas, such as human resources. For this year’s study, fieldwork was conducted between September and December 2005. Contact Sarah Thompson for any questions regarding this study. To Top |