A global survey suggests that CEOs of large firms in 10 major industrialised nations are upbeat about the future.

A global poll of 1,278 chief executives in 10 jurisdictions finds that Europe-based CEOs show the largest rise in confidence about the economic outlook, ahead of their peers in Asia and the US, partly because European business leaders started from a more downbeat mood a year ago.

The survey by KPMG tracks insights on the next three years and looked at business chiefs’ views in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US. Industry sectors covered were automotive, banking, insurance, investment management, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, retail/consumer markets and energy/utilities. A quarter of the respondents have more than S$10 billion ($7.3 billion) in annual revenue, with no responses from companies under $500 million.

Some 69 per cent of CEOs in Europe, 66 per cent of those in Asia-Pacific and 52 per cent of CEOs in the US are more confident than they were last year about growth and the global economy in the next three years. In assessing their own company's growth prospects, 70 per cent of European CEOs and 68 per cent of Asia-Pacific CEOs indicated they are more confident than a year ago. In the US, where the recovery is well underway, 19 per cent are more confident than a year ago with another 46 per cent expressing the same level of confidence about their prospects for growth. 

Interestingly, the survey makes no mention of Greece and the drawn-out saga of that country and its possible exit from the eurozone, suggesting the problems of that country have made little impact on European business sentiment generally, at least as far as the KPMG report has been able to find.

Most importantly, CEOs globally are set to hire, with 78 per cent of respondents indicating they are expecting to be in hiring mode through till mid-2018, the survey showed.

"The overall message we've gotten from CEOs around the globe is that they are positive about their prospects over the next three years, and importantly that they are looking to hire more people," said John Veihmeyer, global chairman of KPMG International.

"There is a more positive change in confidence versus the prior year, in Europe and Asia compared to the US, which is in part reflective of the US being in a more advanced stage of the economic recovery,” Veihmeyer said.

CEOs are grappling with escalating competitive pressures. In order of importance: 86 per cent are concerned about the loyalty of their customers; 74 per cent are worried about new market entrants; 72 per cent are worried about keeping pace with new technologies; 68 per cent are concerned about their competitors' ability to take business away from them; and 66 per cent are concerned about the relevance of their product or service in the next three years.

The most uncomfortable stance, the survey showed, is for CEOs to stand still. Some 44 per cent of the CEOs indicated that they are only “somewhat comfortable” with their current business model, with 5 per cent expressing that they are “uncomfortable”. In the study, 29 per cent of leaders said their organisations are likely to be transformed into significantly different entities in the next three years.

While the results indicate that CEOs are acutely aware of the need to transform their businesses in order to survive and prosper, almost one-third of CEOs say their business is not taking enough risk with their global growth strategy and more than half (56 per cent) said they have not fully implemented a company-wide process for innovation.

When asked which areas they expected to devote significant capital to over the next three years, CEOs identified expansion outside their home countries as the number one area. US CEOs are focused on Europe, especially Central Europe, followed by South America and China. For CEOs in China, Japan, the UK, Germany, Spain and France, the US is the region offering the greatest potential for new growth.