How do you preserve what you’ve built to thrive in what comes next?

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 75% of executive respondents peg growth – organic or inorganic – as a top strategic priority over the next three years. From one industry to the next, Canada’s private enterprises are looking to trigger growth by setting themselves apart in new markets and spaces. Even so, balancing ever-evolving business needs at home with the time and resources it takes to explore new markets has CEOs losing sleep.

Despite the will, finding a way continues to be tough for 79% of execs who say they’re just somewhat prepared to pursue strategic priorities. Driving continuous innovation becomes even more prescient on the digital transformation front. Even those who may be resistant to the scope of such transformation understand the significance of investing in new technologies as a way to propel growth and tackle new markets. In fact, some 63% flagged digital transformation, including building up technological infrastructure and data analytics as top strategic priorities for the next three years.

What does it mean?

Digital transformation is a key ingredient to growing and staying current. By embracing a digital mindset and new ways of working behind the scenes, you can automate processes, pull better insight from the data, and enable teams to focus on longer-term priorities. That, in turn, can help grow your business.

Short-term challenges aren’t stopping Canadian entrepreneurs from pursuing long-term goals. In fact, despite the challenges of handling the COVID-19 pandemic over the last several months, entrepreneurs exude a spirit of resilience and are more determined than ever to launch into the recovery phase, growing from there.

Even so, their preparedness to go out there and make that happen varies. Major forces and megatrends — think broad economic uncertainty, regulation hurdles, cyber threats, increased competition and a changing geopolitical landscape — constitute real threats right now. Despite their determination, only one in five executives (21%) surveyed feels their business is very prepared to pursue growth in light of those challenges. A slightly higher proportion (23%) say they are not very or not at all prepared.

What does it mean?

Focusing on factors in your control can be a solid way to pursue growth and profitability in the face of so many uncontrollable forces. Looking inward to evolve systems, people, processes and support can help you think bigger and better across all the buckets where you can influence and effect change. Doing so now can prime your business to operate at best and highest use, and that helps you ride the waves of anything else that may come your way.

Agility fuels adaptability, and that gives private businesses a leg up right now. Across sectors, private companies have a unique ability to pivot quickly, effecting change without jumping through as many hoops as their public or multinational peers. That’s making a real impact on their ability to execute well in the face of economic uncertainty and greater competition — and it shows in their confidence. More than 60% rate themselves above average across financial performance, operational efficiency and business strategy compared to industry peers. That’s a strong sign of optimism amid unprecedented economic, health and humanitarian challenges now sweeping the world.

What does it mean?

Continuing to bank on agility can be a real differentiator for private companies nationwide. Whether adapting a direct-to-consumer business model, shifting gears overnight to pivot service offerings, or zeroing in on acquisition opportunities, the very nature of private companies fuels the ability to not only survive, but thrive. Building on that agile spirit to rally teams, engage employees and encourage intrapreneurship at the heart of your culture can empower your people to help identify opportunities and work collaboratively to move the needle in real time.

More than 80% of private company executives agree: finance’s ability to provide timely, strategic reporting is key to growing the business. In fact, that same number say the finance department must be more involved in board-level discussions on overall company strategy and decision-making.

Even with 77% of leaders at the top of the house saying they’d like finance to be more of a strategic partner, challenges abound. Like many teams, finance is feeling the squeeze. The pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency is real. That said, technology represents a real opportunity to automate behind-the-scenes operations and processes in a move to fuel front-of-house finance performance and support strategic contributions.

Some 81% of executives back that direction, saying with the technology available today, their organization should automate more of their financial operations.

What does it mean?

Finance has real line of sight and valuable skills that can fuel better decisions and contribute to growth. But they need better tools and support across the function to effectively tee their people up to contribute as leadership’s strategic ally.

Outsourcing helps. Only 9% of private company executives surveyed weren’t already outsourcing some part of their business; more than 50% expect to outsource even more of their business going forward. There’s a strong sense (71%) that doing so will improve operations, deliver greater business agility, reduce operational costs and increase process efficiency and productivity.

Executives also see outsourcing as a way to expand access to talent and expertise. By the numbers, leaders who rate their company as above average on financial performance are significantly more likely to say they expect to increase the amount spent on outsourcing compared to peers who rated their financial performance as average or below (61% vs. 41%).

IT operations, customer service support, legal and marketing services all emerged as prime outsourcing opportunities. Still, about half cite security or fraud risk as the main arguments against outsourcing certain functions like finance.

What does it mean?

Outsourcing holds real potential for private businesses looking to maintain momentum while re-evaluating cost centres amid broader market uncertainty. But getting this recipe right means assessing and mitigating any possible infrastructure gaps, cybersecurity risks and stakeholder concerns before diving in. Assessing your internal resources to understand what you have, and how your current capabilities align to your overall goals, is the first step to outsourcing effectively.

How do you get from now to next and beyond?

It’s still too early to predict what Canada’s private businesses will look like as the lingering impacts of COVID-19 ultimately recede. What do we know for sure? Volatility, geopolitical issues and factors outside our control require businesses here to react quickly. Asking key questions now about how you’re operating, where your transformational opportunities lie and how you can seize them in the short term can have a positive ripple effect that extends well into the long term. Will you boldly look inward to answer those questions now, or wait and see?

Canadian entrepreneurs drive the market forward no matter the economic climate. No doubt, the success stories born and cultivated in 2020 will continue to have a lasting impact on the business landscape – and our EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Awards — for years to come.

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ABOUT THE SURVEY

This report gauges the overall business conditions and challenges of Canadian private businesses. In order to further its existing research efforts around mid-market Canadian private clients and the relevance of outsourcing financial processes and operations, EY Canada commissioned (E) BrandConnect, a commercial arm of The Economist Group, to conduct a survey.

This targeted survey of Canadian businesses explores the relevance of working with professional services providers and outsourcing internal functions given current market trends and business challenges. The 15-minute survey was conducted via online and telephone (CATI) methodology in January and February 2020 among 150 finance/tax decision-makers and other senior executives at privately-owned Canadian businesses with a minimum of $50M CAD in annual revenue.

The survey sample represents broad industry and geographic coverage of the Canadian market, with the majority of respondents located in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Half of survey respondents were comprised of C-suite execs, with the remaining half from the director level. Surveyed companies’ annual global revenues were: CAD $50m to <$250m (48%); CAD $250m to <$500m (16%); CAD $500m to <$1bn (25%); CAD $1bn+ (11%).

Summary

It’s still too early to predict what Canada’s private businesses will look like as the lingering impacts of COVID-19 ultimately recede. What do we know for sure? Volatility, geopolitical issues and factors outside our control require businesses here to react quickly. Asking key questions now about how you’re operating, where your transformational opportunities lie and how you can seize them in the short term can have a positive ripple effect that extends well into the long term. Will you boldly look inward to answer those questions now, or wait and see?