In this regional analysis of Boyden's global report, Strengthening the human-centric core of Industry 5.0: How can organisations thrive in a complex world of risk?, we highlight findings and trends in South America with sector insight from Boyden partners.
Latin America is a region that invests strongly in talent: findings show an ongoing commitment to retraining or redeploying existing people, leadership development and hiring more globally focused executives, as well as robust investment in board assessment and the use of interim executives.
In Industry 5.0, there is a sharper focus therefore on innovation and digital transformation, the top two drivers of growth, with digital talent the priority area for strengthening executive skills.
Latin America is distinguished by significantly higher confidence in organizational growth potential than other regions. The impact of the invasion of Ukraine was yet to be fully felt at the time of our research, although respondents were already concerned by inflation and rising costs.
What also distinguishes Latin America is that talent issues are not impacting organizational confidence to the same extent as other regions, with less of a gap between organizational confidence and confidence in having the right talent to align with strategy. Respondents also reveal higher confidence in the workforce than in the board, contrary to the rest of the world, where confidence rises with seniority.
The top growth drivers are innovation, digital transformation, human capital and product or service diversification. This region leads the world in recognizing growth potential from net zero initiatives. Almost twice the number of President/CEOs see net zero initiatives as a top three driver of growth than in Europe, and three times the number compared to North America.
Respondents identify inflation as the top external risk, in keeping with global peers; however, they are more concerned about climate change and covid variants/other viruses.
In structural change, the top driver is industry transformation, and respondents put greater emphasis on ESG initiatives than global peers, with over a fifth seeing these as a top three driver of structural change.
In terms of ESG and its impact on corporate culture, this region is ahead of global peers, with a higher proportion of respondents reporting that ESG-sustainability is deeply embedded in their culture and ESG-DEI included in most business decisions. ESG commitments are a top driver for recruitment.
Respondents in Latin America are more outwardly focused than their global peers, with a stronger focus on entry into new markets, together with reginal and international expansion. Among the most prized soft leadership skills, is a global or multicultural perspective.
