A global survey of business women shows that Irish female business leaders embrace disruption and are confident about future growth.

The first ever Global Female Leaders study from KPMG says that 88% of female business leaders here expect revenue growth over the next three years, with 45% saying organic growth is the most important. 

These results are aligned with expectations for headcount growth -- a majority of 59% expect employment to grow in the next three years, marginally less than their global peers (62%). However, Irish respondents are cautious when it comes to the impact of artificial intelligence on headcount, with only 50% saying it will create more jobs than it will eliminate, caution reflected in the global finding of 47%.

Ireland managing partner Shaun Murphy said: “Digital transformation offers significant opportunities but is challenging business leaders to ensure they have the right people and resources in place. For example, the speed at which decisions have to be made in response to customer expectations is accelerating. Leaders need to possess the skills and the conviction to lead their companies through these disruptive times.

“Our survey respondents are highly successful business leaders. However, they still see the need for accelerators to support gender equality.” 

In Association with

There was unanimity (vs 83%worldwide) in seeing enablement programmes for women as a means of growing the pool of talented senior females in business.

Almost four in five (79%) of Irish respondents see the need to improve innovation processes and execution over the next three years in comparison with their global peers (93%). Almost nine out of ten (88%) will increase usage of predictive data models and analytics, compared with 77% worldwide.

Only 18% of Irish female business leaders think their board of directors has an unreasonable expectation regarding return on investment related to digital transformation projects, but 59% are confident that the existing leadership team is fully equipped to oversee the radical transformation that they believe their business needs.

They also cited strong communication skills (37%) as the most important component of future personal success in contrast with under a quarter of their peers worldwide, who rank an active personal network (26%) as the most important factor.