CEOs' strategies for managing the global economy's 'frog-boiling' circumstances

We began with Former Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart, who described the economy's condition and notably stated his primary concern wasn't “frog choking” conditions, but rather “frog boiling”—as he put it, “the creeping, long-term changes where you can’t point to a particular event, necessarily, but over time you wake up and find you’re in a different world.”.

So how did the CEOs say they’re managing change? 

For one software firm, it’s “go all in” on AI with the ability to “answer the ROI question in about 24 months.” For another, it’s “hold on to your best developers” and “train up” everyone to leverage new tech. For an auto supplier, it’s diversifying your supply chain to deal with evolving relationships on the global stage; for a robotics company, it’s “robots building robots” in the U.S. Where tariffs won’t wreck the balance sheet. And, of course, it’s seizing fresh opportunities amid the tumult.

CEOs generally express a more positive outlook on the world economy compared to earlier in the year. A survey of chief executives, released yesterday and conducted by Coins2Day and Deloitte in October, found that 32% of participants were pessimistic about the economy's prospects over the coming year, a decrease from 58% in April. This shift in sentiment is partly attributable to tariffs not having the severe impact on global trade that was anticipated. 

Chief executives are now concentrating on a new form of disruption, specifically the one powered by artificial intelligence. A substantial majority, 60%, of these leaders anticipate that AI will exert either a considerable (45%) or a fundamentally changing (15%) influence on their primary operations within the coming one to three years.

Jason Girzadas, Deloitte U.S. CEO, emphasized the significance of a “growth mindset” and “emotional intelligence” as crucial abilities for navigating current trends, according to the survey.

Many thanks to sponsor Deloitte for helping to make the conversation happen.

More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]

Top news

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Fracture at the Fed

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AMD’s revenue growth 

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SoftBank sinks on Nvidia sale

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Paramount Skydance's RTO losses 

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Chief AI scientist to leave Meta

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The markets

S&P 500 futures are up 0.35% this morning. The last session closed up 0.21%. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.59% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.07% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.43%. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.13%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 1.07%. India’s NIFTY 50 is up 0.70%. Bitcoin was flat at $105K.

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Trump dismisses his proposal for a 50-year mortgage as "not even a big deal," simultaneously asserting that "the economy is the strongest it's ever been."By Nick Lichtenberg

Shares of Winklevoss’s Gemini sag as crypto firm losses grow by Carlos Garcia

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CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Claire Zillman.