CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 12 September 2025

Competition

“In today’s world, all industries, all businesses, they have to be good at one thing at least – pace.” Nuno Matos, CEO, ANZ Bank

“Our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumer-driven.” Maziar Mike Doustdar, CEO, Novo Nordisk

Trade Policy

"Trade policy has been a headwind for growth to some degree. And the uncertainty, I think, has slowed investment. And obviously, there's still uncertainty as to how this all resolves, how it plays through, how we see it in the economy, but the fiscal stimulus has really kept the economy going quite well." David Solomon, CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group

Renewable infrastructure

“We can’t afford to wait on big transmission builds.” Matt Kean, Chairman, Climate Change Authority

Surcharging

“If the RBA bends to the banks and limits surcharging without fixing merchant fees, it will be the biggest own goal in the history of the payments industry.” Wes Lambert, CEO, Australian Restaurant & Cafe Association

Inflation

“We think CPI is likely to be more elevated for longer than most.” Raphael Arndt, CEO, Future Fund

AI

“AI is obviously an extremely significant thematic from an investment point of view now, that will have an impact on our economy and an impact on labour force requirements – and an impact on skills that are going to be needed in the labour force.” Greg Combet, Chairman, Future Fund

“People have to do things in English that isn't native. We see lots of people using Copilot, actually, to help them communicate in something that is not their native tongue, incredibly eloquently as an example. It's a small thing, but it really matters. It's a great example of something that's not currently being measured but makes a big difference at the personal level.” Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft

“Eventually, AI will change everything. But right now, AI is fundamentally transforming Oracle and the rest of the computer industry, though not everyone fully grasps the extent of the tsunami that is approaching.” Larry Ellison, Co-Founder & CTO, Oracle Corporation

Economy

“I think the economy is weakening. Whether it’s on the way to recession or just weakening, I don’t know.” Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan‍

Automotive

“I think in the fullness of time, we're going to see the commercial space will electrify. I think for a lot of reasons, it's gone slower than we thought it would. And I think the natural big buyers of commercial vehicles have been slower to adopt. And there are lots of compounding factors for that, one of which is some of the businesses that would be buying these are capital-constrained.” Robert Scaringe, CEO, Rivian Automotive Inc

“It's a much different way of selling in China versus here with the Ford customer, yes, we do have digital natives, but we also have a lot of older folks who are kind of like, hey, introduce this to me at a little bit of a slower rate. So we want to make sure we're respectful of where our customers are at.” Michael Aragon, President Integrated Services, Ford Motor Company

“Like in any market, there are fluctuations in the near term, but we fundamentally see the demand for batteries and electric vehicles and, increasingly, in large-scale energy storage solutions increasing over the longer term.” Dave Andrew, VP New Market Development, Exxon Mobil

Commodities

“In the short to medium term, we do see that the market is overall balanced in aluminium. China is continuing to buy metal from the rest of the world, and North America and Europe remain in deficit. We do think in the longer term, both primary and secondary aluminium, the demand trends are looking very strong. We believe that additional capacity will need to come online.” Molly Beerman, CFO, Alcoa Corporation

Digital Infrastructure

“We’ve got a lot of land, and a lot more access to renewable energy. If you look at places like Hong Kong and Singapore, they really struggle with access to those resources.” David Di Pilla, Managing Director, HMC Capital

“It’s not a given that the industry has the capacity to invest in these things [digital infrastructure] that are so critical to the nation. We need returns to be able to deliver them.” Vicki Brady, CEO, Telstra Corporation

BNPL

“There is no doubt BNPL is the fastest growing payment method for Gen Z and Millennials, globally.” Nick Molnar, founder, Afterpay

Digital Health

"Everyone already has kind of a supercomputer in their pocket — everyone should have a wearable device which is monitoring them continuously that just fits into their life, and then a machine intelligence which is overlooking them to provide them preventative personal care to help them live their best and healthiest life.” Tom Hale, CEO, Orua Health Limited [Finnish Health Company, maker of Oura rings]