“Our vision is essentially centred around the idea that eyeglasses will be more and more equipped and empowered by technology as a new platform that can offer a wider range of digital function from good vision and good hearing to online connectivity”
Superannuation & Retirement
“Australia is now firmly focused on retirement, and I believe that this will be a pivotal year for our industry” Nicolas Hamilton, CEO, Challenger Ltd
Education & International Students
“On the demand side, our source markets have large and growing youth populations and underdeveloped higher education systems. And on the supply side, we see aging populations in destination markets forcing governments to focus on attracting international students to support education ecosystems and to grow skilled workforce pools” Tennealle O’Shannessy, CEO, IDP Education Ltd
Domestic Economy
“There’s no doubt that the economy will improve” James Warburton, CEO, Seven West Media Ltd
“Our own data shows that those impacts continue to be felt unevenly across our customers and the economy. Fortunately, unemployment remains near record lows. We realize that many people are needing to take on second jobs or work additional hours to supplement their incomes” Matt Comyn, CEO, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd
Australian Consumers
“Everybody has a view on EVs, but I would say less than 20 per cent of Australians have actually driven one, so my big focus is building brand awareness through test-drives” David Smitherman, Australia CEO, BYD Automotive
“We need to see consumer sentiment go up…We know this is going to come back. A big part of that is interest rates. You get an interest rate cut and then you start to see repair and remodelling accelerate” Aaron Erter, CEO, James Hardie Ltd
“For JB Hi-Fi the major categories are not viewed as luxury but as necessities and they're so integrated into our customers' everyday lives” Terry Smart, CEO, JB Hi-Fi Ltd
Infrastructure
“In other parts, it's interesting when you look at sort of infrastructure more broadly, there is a pause on some of the larger sort of transport infrastructure construction” Peter Tompkins, CEO, Downer EDI Ltd
Food & Beverage
“Organic volume performance was impacted by a moderation on in category growth as consumer budgets have been affected by elevated borrowing costs and lower personal savings, which have driven preferences towards smaller pack sizes and immediate consumption channels” Ramon Laguarta, CEO, PepsiCo Ltd
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Derivatives & Risk Management
“Moving into 2024, we continue to see a wide range of views as it relates to the health of the global economy…2024 is still very much the age of uncertainty and our products remain critical risk management tools for our clients. We have seen this reflected in our strong start to 2024, where we delivered our highest January average daily volume in our history” Terrence Duffy, CEO, CME Group Inc [world’s leading derivative exchange]
Technology
“Our vision is essentially centred around the idea that eyeglasses will be more and more equipped and empowered by technology as a new platform that can offer a wider range of digital function from good vision and good hearing to online connectivity” Francesco Milleri, CEO, EssilorLuxottica Group [world’s largest eyewear company]
“I think we and our government clients have also learned some of the lessons from COVID, both in terms of more flexible work arrangements for us, how we do remote hiring. Flash back to 2018 and 2019, we were still holding a lot of hiring events, big conference rooms like this. It's hard to believe, right? And it's just so much more efficient to hire the way that we're hiring now using technology” Mathe Calderone, CFO, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp
Freight Rates & Geopolitical
"You're starting to see spot rates move up because of what's happening in the Suez Canal and Red Sea. Just to remind everyone, every ship that doesn't come through the Suez Canal from Europe to Asia adds two weeks there and two weeks back. So that's 1/12th of the capacity of that that line of that corridor that effectively comes out in terms of annual throughput and 1/12th less container availability as well. So starting to see impacts there." Martin Fraser, CFO, GUD Holdings
Electrical, Heating & Plumbing
“Overall, 2024 will be a bit of a mixed picture in our market. Commercial construction should be quite dynamic industry, we also see positive trends boosted by reshoring and stimulus plans in some countries. Residential renovation, will probably start to feel the impact of a slowing construction cycle, but this will be partly offset by energy renovation trends” Guillaume Texier, CEO, Rexel Group [major multinational electrical, heating & plumbing distribution group]
Metals
“Following a difficult FY23, business conditions remained challenging in 1H FY24, especially in the New Zealand market and the Steel segment in Australia” Rhys Jones, CEO, Vulcan Steel Ltd
Inflation
“[Wage] inflation is coming in across the markets that potentially could stimulate on-trade recovery or in general category growth” Dolf van den Brink, CEO, Heineken N.V.
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