Training Example: HLB International – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation

[H1] Reinventing transformation in volatile times
The HLB Survey of Business Leaders 2026 brings together perspectives from across the globe, offering a detailed view of how organisations are responding to uncertainty.
Discover more

[H2] HLB's Survey of Business Leaders
Capturing insight into today’s most pressing business issues through conversations with senior executives from mid-market sized companies. Discover our latest research on the topic of powering-up your profitability.
[H2] Reinventing transformation in volatile times
[IMG: Featured image for “Survey of Business Leaders 2023”]
[H2] Read our 2026 report
[IMG: Featured image for “Seeking efficient and sustainable paths to growth: APAC leaders agenda”]
[H2] Talk to our data with HLB InsightsAI
[H2] Use our Survey of Business Leaders AI chatbot
[IMG: Featured image for “HLB Net Zero Report 2022”]
[H2] HLB Survey of Business Leaders Hub
[H2] Seven years of research
[H2] Explore our latest articles

Article

While international growth opportunities remain attractive, the old expansion model isn't efficient anymore. Several challenges exist, including regulatory divergence, supply...

Article

Sustainability reporting has greatly evolved over the years. From a voluntary exercise, in many jurisdictions it has now evolved into...

Research

The world's Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) leaders head into the second half of the 2020s with something that shouldn't...

Article

Leading businesses have seen that integrating sustainability into strategic decision-making and planning has made them an attractive investment, all while building...

[H2] Together we make it happen
It's not just a phrase; our mission is to make a positive and sustainable impact on the future of our clients, our people, and our communities. Our global initiatives empower us to reach the many network-driven goals we’re committed to.
[H2] Global Annual Review
[IMG: Global Annual Review]
[H2] The power of community
[IMG: HLB Communities Day 2023]
[H2] An award winning team
[IMG: Network of the Year winner 2022]
[IMG: Image]
Get in touchWhatever your question our global team will point you in the right directionStart the conversation
[IMG: Image]
[H2] Sign up for HLB insights newsletters

[H3] Share to:

[H1] The new reality of cross-border growth: Navigating complexity in a fragmented world
[IMG: Navigating complexity in cross-border business growth]
In a polarised world, operating a business across borders is becoming increasingly complex. While critical for those who seek customers, suppliers, talent, capital, and partnerships beyond their home markets, how do leaders balance risk and reward in a global arena?
Our HLB Survey of Business Leaders revealed that 53% of leaders expect the rate of economic growth to increase in 2026. Forty-two percent of those surveyed also said they were very confident in their ability to grow revenue over the next 12 months, even as they pointed to a heightened sense of exposure. 
However, tension exists at the very heart of the new cross-border environment. Even though international growth opportunities remain attractive, the old expansion model isn't efficient anymore. Several challenges exist, including regulatory divergence, persistent economic volatility, skills shortages, supply chain disruption, and uneven digital capabilities. For mid-market businesses, success is no longer defined by where they expand, but by whether they have the capability to manage complexity across markets, jurisdictions, and operating models. 
[H2] A fragmented global landscape
The world economy is far more connected than it was a few decades ago, but today those connections are becoming nuanced. Leaders can no longer rely on specific markets converging around similar commercial, regulatory, or technological conditions. Our latest research reveals that adaptive thinking, shorter planning cycles, and a growing acceptance of volatility will be key tactics for any forward-thinking organisation.
Trade fragmentation and geopolitical tension are big parts of the story. We find that most leaders believe trade volatility will continue. In response, they're reconfiguring their operations to embrace friend-shoring and near-shoring, a shift that suggests a broader change in mindset. Efficiency is key, but optionality, resilience, and regional exposure will come into play when making strategic decisions.
Regionalisation is also reshaping how businesses pursue international trade. Organisations that desire an international footprint might be more cautious, adopting region-specific strategies, making more selective investment choices, or forming stronger local partnerships instead. 
In short, organisations should adopt a multi-local approach to their global strategy. First, they should choose between what should be standardised globally and what should be adapted regionally. Then, they can execute locally as appropriate and manage this complex balance well to avoid the risk of cross-border growth becoming riskier, slower, or more exposed.
[H2] The hidden barriers to cross-border growth
Some of the biggest barriers to international growth aren't as obvious at the planning stage and might only become evident later, when expansion is already underway. This makes international growth more complicated than expected.
[H3] 1. Regulatory and compliance complexity
When a business enters a new territory, it has to deal with challenges like tax registration and compliance, incorporation, accounting, legal, and secretarial obligations, as well as a wide range of local reporting rules.
Meanwhile, the whole operating environment is becoming more complex and divergent, with matters like data privacy, ESG, tax, and reporting developing differently across jurisdictions. Treating compliance as a downstream administrative matter is unfeasible. Decision-makers must build compliance into their operating and market-entry decisions from the start.
[H3] 2. Supply chain disruption and reconfiguration
Organisations used to craft cross-border growth models with cost efficiencies and centralised optimisation in mind. Today, that approach is not so straightforward when it comes to supply chains, as the world must deal with tariffs, political risk, logistics disruption, and strategic dependence on specific suppliers or regions. 
Leaders are now reconfiguring operations in response to continuing trade volatility and tariffs. But this new strategy comes with its own issues, as companies might have to accept higher costs in exchange for less concentration, better visibility, or stronger resilience. Collectively, this has led to more emphasis on supply chain design, which is now almost as important for cross-border growth as the demand-side opportunity itself.
[H3] 3. Economic volatility and financial risk
Cross-border growth has always carried an element of financial risk, but that risk is far more prominent today. Companies must navigate currency shifts, financing constraints, inflation pressure, or uneven regional economic conditions when growing across borders. But those challenges are greater than ever before. Inflation in particular hides inefficiencies by masking poor decisions and operational weaknesses. Businesses should be wary of blaming market conditions to cover up any flawed operating models. Instead, they should insist on sharper pricing disciplines and tighter controls to more clearly understand where value comes from.
[H3] 4. Talent and operating model challenges
If companies fail to plan their expansion carefully, skills shortages or cultural alignment could derail their ambitions. Local planning might look good on paper, but execution could still break down if accountability, decision rights, and regional autonomy are't factored into the equation. 
Operating model discipline matters a lot, which is why we advocate for a structure that lets businesses scale internationally without creating confusion among local operations, regional teams, and headquarters.
[H3] 5. Technology and data fragmentation
Even though technology is advancing at a rapid pace, it’s not necessarily making international growth any easier. At times, tech adds another layer of fragmentation due to regional differences in systems, the presence of siloed data, and the fact that digital maturity is sometimes uneven across markets. Many companies are simply not ready for the advance of AI, while cyber exposure can also increase as a company's operating footprint expands. This explains why 74% of business leaders are either concerned or very concerned about cyberattacks.
[H2] From expansion to transformation
Companies can't push forward with market entry plans unless they fully understand the wider and more complex picture. Leaders should be prepared to revisit their operating models, risk management, governance, and decision-making processes while learning to live with shorter cycles and planning that adapts on the fly. The bottom line is that international growth is no longer a simple expansion exercise. Capability is becoming the differentiator. 
Leading-edge organisations are entering more markets and building their internal capacity first so they can manage supply chain risk, financial pressure, regulatory divergence, and local execution gaps. These competent companies know that cross-border success depends on a transformational mindset.
[H2] What leading organisations are doing differently
Rather than relying on one global template, top organisations are focused on: 
Building regionally adaptive strategies, because an insular one-size-fits-all growth model creates friction, delays, and misalignment.
Embedding tax and compliance into commercial planning from the outset, because those matters will never sit neatly in the background and could shape viability, speed, and the cost of expansion.
Strengthening supply chain resilience rather than optimising purely for cost, as bare-bones models can quickly become more expensive when tariffs, disruption, or concentration risk appear.
Investing in local ecosystems or partnerships to give them an advantage in a fragmented operating environment, so local knowledge and trusted in-market relationships can help avoid costly missteps.
Making better use of data and AI in their decision-making, to help with earlier risk detection or faster scenario testing if operating conditions change.
HLB's Survey of Business Leaders 2026 found that AI was a key enabler of efficiency, resilience, and smarter adaptation as companies invested in new technology. By using data analytics and AI to help with risk monitoring, scenario planning, and forecasting, companies have improved their digital visibility, data quality, and cyber readiness and made more informed decisions.
[H2] Cross-border growth still matters, but the winners will be built differently
The blueprint for international success looks different from what it did during the height of globalisation. Conditions today are more fragmented, volatile, and demanding, and traditional expansion models aren't sufficient on their own. For the best chance of confidently growing internationally, companies must pay more attention to compliance, risk, operations, supply chains, technology, and governance. 
The businesses that succeed will treat complexity as something to master rather than avoid. They'll spend their time figuring out transformation first and think multi-locally while acting with global intent. Leading-edge companies will also work with advisers who understand how cross-border business operates in practice across markets and jurisdictions.
[H2] How HLB supports cross-border success
At HLB, we believe that cross-border growth does not present as a series of isolated technical issues, but rather as a connected business challenge. Our international network helps clients deal with the practical realities of cross-market operation, focusing on areas such as regulatory demands and hyper-local obligations.
We also shine a spotlight on the need for wider coordination between finance, operations, leadership, and governance. This is increasingly important in a fragmented business environment. Today, success depends not so much on entering new markets as it does on building the control structures and decision-making processes to make everything run seamlessly.  Companies can no longer approach expansion piecemeal, but must connect areas like tax, compliance, assurance, risk, and operations, turning this type of complexity into a competitive advantage. 
If you're pursuing cross-border opportunities and looking for support with international advisory, tax, risk, compliance, or transformation, we welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you.

Global BusinessStrategy and GrowthThe Economy

global-business,strategy-and-growth,the-economy,

[H2] Related content

While initial public offering (IPO) activity in Australia remained subdued throughout 2025, the latest HLB Mann Judd IPO Watch Report shows there were encouraging signs of recovery as the year progressed, pointing to a potential uplift in the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) IPO market in 2026.

We're entering a new era—one where operational strength, not price markups, determines success. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this means adapting fast, and at the heart of that adaptation is digital transformation. Find out our global experts tips for SMEs on the importance of efficiency.

Each year, our HLB Survey of Business Leaders gives us an in-depth view into the mindset of global executives, how they perceive risks and where they see organisational opportunities. What we’re seeing in the early findings for 2026 is a business landscape defined by heightened exposure to risk, yet also...

[IMG: Image]
Get in touchWhatever your question our global team will point you in the right directionStart the conversation
[IMG: Image]
[H2] Sign up for HLB insights newsletters

[H3] Share to:

[H1] From ESG reporting to ESG intelligence: The role of data, AI, and assurance
[IMG: ESG intelligence from ESG reporting - data and AI]
Sustainability reporting has greatly evolved over the years. From a voluntary exercise, in many jurisdictions it has now evolved into a mandatory requirement with frameworks to collect and share ESG data publicly.
But leading organisations are doing more than just meeting these reporting requirements. They're using ESG intelligence to inform capital allocation, shape strategic planning, strengthen risk management, and drive operational decisions across their businesses.
[H2] The growing complexity of ESG data
According to McKinsey, businesses reporting on ESG have seen a positive impact on company finances and morale. However, a lack of standardised workflows and limited resources has increased the pressure on organisations to get ESG right. 
[H3] Metrics to track have grown
The number of ESG metrics and frameworks has grown quickly. PwC found that ESG metrics span multiple domains, such as operations, procurement, HR, risk, product, and finance. But since these verticals function independently in most organisations, gathering and standardising ESG data to create a single source of truth has become a mammoth task, especially for mid-market businesses.
[H3] Global adoption is picking up momentum
As of June 2025, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation reported that 36 jurisdictions had adopted or were going to adopt ISSB standards. Additionally, the UK and New Zealand are planning to align their climate standards with ISSB. Businesses need to adapt to these changes as they emerge or be left behind in mainstream capital market expectations.
[H3] Reporting underwent a complete technical overhaul
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)  as well ass the IFRS-S raised the bar for data architecture and governance. By requiring businesses to use electronic reporting formats and digital tagging, ESG disclosures were effectively transformed into machine-readable, easily analysed datapoints. Businesses still running on legacy systems will find it hard to integrate ESG-specific architecture and governance going forward. 
[H2] Why ESG data integrity matters
ESG effectiveness goes beyond environmental considerations. It now determines whether businesses secure investments. The Ernst & Young Global Institutional Investor Survey 2024 reported that 88% of investors surveyed increased their use of ESG data to evaluate potential investments. 
However, investors are still wary of greenwashing — a practice where businesses use misleading data to appear more sustainable than they are. The European Securities and Markets Authority highlights greenwashing as an investor protection and market integrity issue. 
Data integrity also has real commercial implications beyond regulators and investors. Our HLB report on verifiable ESG data found that corporate buyers now require vendors to provide “verifiable sustainability data” that can drop into corporate reporting. They want it in consistent, reconcilable formats (like spreadsheets), not marketing claims. But if ESG data isn't reliable, companies could suffer legal or reputational damages, or investors may lose trust entirely, which could negatively impact capital coming into the business. 
Mid-market firms can maintain data integrity in two ways:

[H3] Internal controls
Internal controls create confidence in all types of information, including ESG and financial reporting. For finance leaders, internal controls define control owners, standardise methods, manage change, and treat ESG data as part of enterprise governance rather than an annual report exercise.
[H3] External assurance
Getting an external auditor involved increases the quality of sustainability information to the same level as financial information. It also meets the reporting standards set by the CSRD that make these controls mandatory.
[H2] The rise of ESG analytics and AI
Once ESG data is structured and governed, its value expands. ESG datasets can be used to develop insights that guide decisions rather than merely describe past performance, and artificial intelligence (AI) is being positioned as an enabler of that shift.
According to PwC, AI can help inform emissions reductions, risk management, and compliance. Organisations already using AI to automate ESG reporting have seen an increase in accuracy and compliance. 
Businesses can also utilise AI to:
Enable an ESG data analysis: With the right data models, AI can help detect anomalies, identify missing data, classify unstructured information, and reduce manual effort in evidence collection.
Gain predictive insights: AI can analyse vast datasets for complex patterns to forecast future sustainability, measure ROI, and link sustainability initiatives to financial outcomes.
Plan ahead with scenario modelling: AI can enable high-speed simulations of complex, multi-variable future climates. Businesses can then use it to convert raw environmental data into actionable insights, like predicting extreme weather.
[H2] Moving from reporting to decision-making
The strategic value of ESG intelligence emerges when sustainability data is connected to the levers executives actually control. 
[H3] Strategic planning
ESG scenario-based data has become central to strategic planning. For instance, leadership can test if the strategy holds up under various positive and negative scenarios. Businesses can also analyse competitor data to set industry-specific benchmarks. 
Strategic partners can help leaders move even faster and reduce operational risks. For instance, HLB offers ESG advisory services to formulate ESG strategy, practices, business-performance alignment, and cross-border nuances.  
[H3] Capital allocation
Long-term value is obtained when businesses transition to more sustainable practices. ESG data can enable this transition by helping businesses prioritise sustainability investments and choose the right capital investments that meet their goals. 
[H3] Operational efficiency
ESG reporting data, paired with AI, can help businesses optimise their operations. By tracking metrics like waste, emissions, and energy usage, companies can identify inefficiencies, streamline processes, and reduce costs.
[H3] Risk management and compliance
Organisations can use ESG reporting as an early warning system for both financial and non-financial threats. It can offer insights into regulatory changes, physical risks, and even employee discontent. By converting these abstract concerns into trackable metrics, mid-market businesses can ensure they meet mandatory disclosures and operational requirements. This can make them more attractive partners to enterprises put under similar pressures. 
[H2] ESG intelligence is the new competitive advantage
ESG reporting is becoming the infrastructure through which organisations understand risk, attract capital, and make better decisions. Businesses that recognise this shift early and invest in it will be the ones that turn sustainability commitments into measurable strategic outcomes.
Treating ESG data as a strategic asset rather than an annual reporting exercise is, of course, a good practice, but it's also increasingly the baseline that investors, regulators, and corporate buyers expect. And as AI accelerates the move from historical disclosure to forward-looking ESG intelligence, the gap between organisations that are ready and those that are not will only widen.
For organisations looking to move from ESG reporting to a more structured, insight-led approach, the next step is understanding how this works in practice. Explore HLB’s ESG Advisory services or get in touch with our specialists to discuss how this shift could apply to your business.

AdvisoryAudit & AssuranceESGGlobal Business

advisory,audit-assurance,esg,global-business,

[H2] Related content

Leading businesses have seen that integrating sustainability into strategic decision-making and planning has made them an attractive investment, all while building resilience. We discuss how businesses can integrate ESG into their strategy and operations, and the complexities mid-market businesses should prepare for while embedding sustainability within their organisations.

ESG criteria have become vital for businesses seeking to secure funding, shape policies, and ensure that projects achieve positive impacts. This holds particularly true for Not-for-Profit organisations (NFPs) and International Development Agencies (IDAs), entities which play crucial roles in addressing and overcoming global challenges.

For years, RFPs for meetings and incentives were won on location, space and service. Today, many corporates won’t shortlist a venue unless it can provide verifiable sustainability data alongside price and availability. Sustainability is fast becoming a procurement requirement for the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry.

Email

[IMG: Image]
[H2] Sign up for HLB insights newsletters

[H3] Share to:

[H1] SME Business Outlook 2026
[IMG: Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) outlook for 2026]
The world's Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) leaders head into the second half of the 2020s with something that shouldn't be taken for granted: genuine confidence. Despite mounting pressure across technological, economic, and political fronts, leaders remain confident about growing their businesses and making them profitable.
But confidence and capability are two different things. As trade volumes slow, cybersecurity threats intensify, and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates, the gap between ambition and execution is widening for many SMEs.
Business owners should not just aim to react positively to changes when they happen. They need to build the right operational foundations to convert their optimism into sustained performance.
This article unpacks what the data reveals about how SME leaders are navigating volatility in 2026 and what separates those who are growing from those who are simply surviving.
[H2] SME leaders remain confident about growth
The pandemic at the start of the decade launched the world into a spiral of uncertainty that was quickly exacerbated by inflation and supply chain issues. This global event offset any advances driven by increased technology adoption.
Unfortunately, this uncertainty persists. In 2026, most businesses are concerned with three areas:
[H3] Technological
AI has fundamentally changed the way consumers function. Moreover, with increasing adoption in business aspects, 74% of leaders are concerned or very concerned about cybersecurity risks.
[H3] Economic
New trade sanctions and tariffs are hampering supply chains and slowing trade growth. Research by McKinsey shows that trade between the United States (US) and China fell by around 30%, while the European Union's automotive sector faced rising competition from China.
[H3] Political
Beyond disrupting global supply chain operations, rising political tensions are also impacting costs and inventory management, which add to the stresses businesses face.Despite all of this, businesses are still hopeful. According to HLB's Survey of Business Leaders 2026 report, 88% of surveyed leaders are confident in business growth, and 53% believe the rate of economic growth will increase.
In fact, more businesses have seen a moderate (20%) and significant (12%) increase in profits in 2026 compared with 2025. By improving operational efficiency (58%) and adopting new technology (55%), businesses can continue to see growth, even in uncertain times.
[H2] A more complex operating environment
SMEs plan around more than one dimension; not just profits or customer growth. Business leaders have to consider cybersecurity issues (74%), economic uncertainty (73%), inflation (70%), trade flow disruption (70%), and geopolitical risk (68%), all while making strategic decisions.
Other prominent international organisations flag similar risks:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has identified geopolitical tensions and a reevaluation of technology expectations as risks.
The World Bank has cautioned businesses to pay close attention to policy uncertainty, tighter global financial conditions, trade frictions, and rising geopolitical tensions.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) projects trade volume growth dropping from 4.6% in 2025 to 1.9% in 2026, indicating a plausible downside from energy price shocks and transport disruption.
To navigate an operational environment that can change overnight, SME leaders are focusing on leaner business models, with 42% relying on short planning cycles between six and 24 months, while 12% operate with a continuous planning strategy. Only 13% of respondents have planning cycles beyond five years.
In 2026, advantage comes from building a repeatable capability to re-plan quickly with audit-ready and reliable data.
Business leaders are leaning on various methods to meet requirements. Thirty-one percent use scenario planning, while 35% rely on various opinions to inform decisions. Additionally, about a fifth are utilising AI to support forecasting and strategic planning. The relatively even split between methodologies and the adoption of new tools, alongside comparatively short planning cycles, shows a willingness by leaders to be adaptive.
[H2] The capability gap hindering SME growth
A consistent theme in 2026 is that ambition is abundant, but execution capacity is uneven. Despite more than 50% of those surveyed focusing on improving operational efficiency and investing in technology, over a third recognise a gap in digital and AI capabilities to facilitate this growth.
This can be attributed to three causes:
[H3] Capital and financial visibility
The International Finance Corporation estimates the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises finance gap in emerging markets and developing economies at $5.7 trillion.
[H3] Skills and leadership bandwidth
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warns of unequal access to skills development based on gender, socioeconomic background, and location.
[H3] Fragmented data and systems
SMEs often use many disconnected systems, and this makes it difficult for them to adopt advanced tools (e.g. ERP, CRM, etc.) and purchase cloud computing services to analyse their data and make strategic decisions.
[H2] The state of AI adoption
AI has become the norm, with only 9% of leaders saying they are not using AI tools. Operational use cases are common. For example, document processing and process automation are now at roughly one-third adoption, respectively.
However, research shows that smaller companies are slow in adopting AI technology. Unlike larger organisations, SMEs don’t have the luxury to experiment and find the right fit. Instead, they focus more on applying AI to already well-defined processes with clean data.
This slow adoption may be a blessing in disguise. In 2025, a little over four in ten businesses faced some form of cybersecurity breach. The breach reports are less than the cybersecurity landscape in 2024, but still worth considering when introducing new technologies to organisational workflows.
Attacks have also become harder to identify. Last year, over three-quarters of attacks were malware-free, prioritising social engineering techniques. This is exactly what happened with the Salesforce data breach;attackers impersonated IT support staff to trick employees into installing a malicious app, granting them access to company data.
In short, SMEs need to balance both security and capability. Businesses should use caution with third-party apps, which may lack proper security features, and proprietary tools, which may offer biased insights, thanks to the limited information pool.
[H2] External expertise as a strategic advantage
Ambition isn’t the problem. Without bandwidth, skills, and operational efficiency, SMEs will struggle to execute their vision. This is where external advisors like HLB can help by converting your requirements checklists into operational improvements.
There are three key areas where we see SMEs turning to advisory services for support:
[H3] Cybersecurity
A robust cybersecurity strategy can help protect your most valuable assets despite the rise in cyberattacks. External support can enable safe expansion by implementing useful controls, supplier-risk visibility, and incident readiness proportional to the requirements of the SME. For example, HLB’s experienced cybersecurity specialists can guide  you in creating an actionable cybersecurity strategy. We leverage the latest insights, digital forensics, and technology to maximise protection from external attacks while minimising risk.
[H3] Data analytics and business intelligence
Data analytics and business intelligence can help organisations predict future opportunities, uncover trends, and adapt to change faster than their competition. At HLB, we offer custom business intelligence solutions and implement advanced analytics platforms with tailored dashboards to visualise trends and track performance. Additionally, we help convert these insights into actionable strategies that improve operational efficiency.
[H3] Cross-border compliance and regulations
Transactions fail when there's a poor strategic fit, no clear integration plan, or overlooked issues with earnings quality. Having an experienced team guide the process dramatically improves your odds of a successful outcome. HLB's Transaction Advisory Services team takes a holistic approach to help businesses close deals across borders. Our experts can assist with deal strategy and capital solutions while mitigating risks.
[H2] An inflection point for SME leaders
Supporting data
[H3] Macro conditions reinforcing the need for this shift
The OECD expects global growth to slow in 2026, pointing to growing economic fragilities alongside persistent risks from trade barriers and policy uncertainty. The IMF echoes this caution, noting that the balance of risks is more towards the negative side due to trade tensions and geopolitical shocks. The WTO projects sharply slower trade growth in 2026, implying more variability for SMEs involved in export and import activities.
In this environment, the edge does not go to those who react fastest, but to those who have built the right foundations and a workforce equipped to adapt. SMEs that invest in and prioritise these two things in 2026 will be better positioned to convert growth ambition into sustainable performance regardless of which macro scenario ultimately materialises.In 2026, volatility has become a permanent feature of the business landscape. The HLB Survey of Business Leaders finds thatthose best equipped to handle this are willing to respond to immediate disruptions while keeping one eye on longer-term priorities.
But working from both these angles simultaneously only succeeds when an organisation has repeatable processes, reliable data, and defined decision rights. Establishing these guidelines from the start ensures that speed doesn’t degrade performance.
[H2] Optimism is the starting point; execution is the differentiator
With well over three-quarters expressing belief in business growth and profit margins strengthening, SME leaders are not lacking in ambition or confidence. But leaders looking to outperform their competition should invest in disciplined planning cycles, robust cybersecurity, AI adoption, and reliable data insights that shape strategy.
HLB's global advisory and accounting network has deep expertise across industries and regions to help SMEs execute their vision on a local and international scale. Reach out to us to learn more about our services, or — if you’d like to dive deeper into our SME report and other HLB Survey of Business Leaders findings — talk to our data with the HLB InsightsAl chatbot.

Global BusinessSurvey of Business Leaders

global-business,survey-of-business-leaders,

[H2] Related content

Retailers are no longer reacting to crisis conditions; they are building strategies to match that continued uncertainty, according to the HLB Survey of Business Leaders 2026. Execution capability, particularly around technology, cybersecurity, and talent, will determine whether their confidence translates into sustainable performance.

Manufacturing leaders enter 2026 with a markedly different mindset to that of the early 2020s. Confidence has returned, but it is a measured confidence. Our HLB Survey of Business Leader insights reveal a sector that has moved beyond crisis response and into a phase of structured reinvention.

The technology sector has entered 2026 with renewed confidence. After several years defined by inflationary pressure, capital constraints, and rapid shifts in customer demand, technology leaders are now looking ahead with a stronger sense of momentum. Discover more from the HLB Survey of Business Leaders 2026

[IMG: Image]
Get in touchWhatever your question our global team will point you in the right directionStart the conversation
[IMG: Image]
[H2] Sign up for HLB insights newsletters

[H3] Share to: