CEOs' top 10 issues in 2024

For the survey, The Conference Board asked 1,247 C-suite executives, including 630 CEOS, about the top issues they're concerned about in 2024. Most of the respondents were from the United States, Latin America, Japan, and Europe. Among CEO respondents, 45% were in business and professional services, including healthcare, 34% were in manufacturing industries, and 14% were in financial services.

Overall, the top 10 external factors that U.S. CEOs said would have the greatest impact on their business in 2024 were:

1. Economic downturn/recession

2. Inflation

3. Rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) technology

4. Higher borrowing costs (tie)

4. Higher labor costs (tie)

6. Shifting consumer/customer buying behaviors

7. Global political instability (tie)

7. Labor shortages (tie)

9. Regulation domestically (within your country)

10. Political uncertainty in the region(s) you operate in

The top 10 internal issues that U.S. CEOs will focus on in 2024 included:

1. Attracting and retaining talent

2. Improving customer experience

3. Enhancing product and service innovation

4. Modifying their business models

5. Reducing costs

6. Accelerating pace of digital transformation (including AI)

7. Increasing automation (including AI)

8. Upskilling and reskilling talent

9. Improving external communications

10. Conducting mergers, acquisitions, and/or divestitures

CEOs were also concerned about the impact of geopolitical risk factors on their businesses. Among U.S. CEOs, the top 10 geopolitical risk factors in 2024 were:

1. U.S national debt and deficits

2. Potential for increase in cyberattacks

3. War in the Middle East

4. Higher energy prices

5. The war in Ukraine spilling over into a broader NATO conflict

6. China taking over Taiwan

7. Decoupling or "de-risking" from China (tie)

7. Higher food prices due to conflict leading to higher inflation (tie)

9. The impact of national debt and deficits in countries you operate in

10. Use of nuclear weapons

Advisory Board resources for leaders in 2024

To help healthcare leaders navigate both new and ongoing challenges in 2024, Advisory Board offers several useful resources.

In this survey of strategic planners, we identified their top priorities and how they plan to achieve growth and sustainability in 2024. The survey also outlines three strategic tips for leaders, including rebuilding your workforce, using patient-centric care to become a provider of choice, and how to recouple volume and margins.

These ready-to-use slides describe 10 major trends currently impacting health systems — from financial pressures to workforce stability to generative AI. These slides offer key data and insights that can help your organization address pressing issues more readily.

As AI becomes more prevalent, leaders will need to begin embracing the technology or risk being left behind. In this expert insight, we explain how healthcare leaders currently feel about AI technology and identify four ways that they're leveraging AI to tackle challenges in the industry.

For cross-industry stakeholders, this cheat sheet helps explain four key trends impacting hospitals and health systems, including site-of-care shifts, margin management, workforce volatility, and health equity. This resource can help leaders better understand hospitals and health systems, provide more support for their top priorities, and improve partnership opportunities. (Gooch, Becker's Hospital Review, 1/10; The Conference Board C-Suite Outlook 2024 report, accessed 1/11)

10 trends impacting health systems now — and how to address them

Health systems are facing a variety of challenges, including financial pressures, workforce instability, and emerging technologies like generative AI. Join this webinar to hear our insights on the top 10 trends impacting health systems right now and the implications they'll have for key industry stakeholders going forward.