The CFO survey is a single element in a range of insight gathering, collaborative learning, training and support services offered by the Deloitte Middle CFO Program.

The seventeenth Deloitte Middle East CFO Survey provides CFOs with insights regarding their peers’ perspectives and sentiments across a variety of topics. The report documents how financial leaders across the region are responding and planning to thrive in a post COVID-19 world.

Key findings from this year’s survey include:

• Business leaders have faced unprecedented uncertainty since the start of the pandemic. As we moved to 2021, leaders have also made significant progress in implementing an action plan which demonstrated their resilience and agility and have likely made them better prepared for future unpredictability.
• More than 50% of businesses have moved to the Thrive phase in 2021. Among the various industries, Energy, Resources & Industrials; Consumer Businesses and Financial Services have made the most progress in shifting from a short-term focus on ensuring continuity and survival to a more long-term focus on the post-pandemic future.
• The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for digital transformation initiatives for businesses. Digitalisation has turned out to be the most effective measure in mitigating the impact of COVID-19, 58% of CFOs ranking it as the highest priority item.
• CFOs are not looking to adopt the hybrid work model with 81% expecting their workforce to return to office full-time. As a result of this, there is no plan to reduce the real estate footprint of businesses. In 2020, only 23% of CFOs didn’t expect their real estate footprint to be smaller – this proportion has grown to 70% in 2021.

Download the report to view all of the survey findings.