CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 22 May 2026

Corporate Space Industry

“I'd like to think of it as 50 years ago, when there was the Apollo program, and the only table in the casino was NASA. And now it's a huge casino with many tables, NASA being one of the tables. And so, there's just a lot of places to do business for our particular mix of talents and manufacturing skills.” Mike Hartnett, CEO, RBC Bearings Inc. [major precision bearings manufacturer]

Mining Companies & Geochemistry

“Junior financing has recovered strongly with global juniors and intermediate capital raisings more than doubling on a year-on-year basis…Volume growth in juniors was keeping pace with majors. However, the lag between capital raising and field activity has extended beyond the 2 to 3 months we have historically seen.” Malcolm Deane, CEO, ALS Ltd

Pallets & Labour

“These short-term repair capacity constraints have been driven by subcontractor turnover, labour availability challenges and the additional time required to repair pallets consistently to a higher standard. At the same time as repair capacity tightened, Brambles experienced higher-than-anticipated customer demand.” Market Statement, Brambles Ltd

Data & Storage

“So, the cloud, right, 8 billion people loading pictures and videos up into the cloud, sharing them on social media and so on, that continues to be very strong. In addition to that, every enterprise on the planet, including WD [us], we understand the value of data, and we're not throwing away any more data, and I think every other company on the planet is basically doing that.” Kris Sennesael, CFO, Western Digital Inc.

Agriculture

“We are very optimistic on a broad outlook for Australian agriculture at a seasonal and commodity level with the turn to average conditions…The outlook and fundamentals for livestock remain sound with prices for sheep and cattle forecast to be supported by strong international demand across a backdrop of tightening supply.” Mark Allison, CEO, Elders Ltd

"We have seen a global oversupply of grains, which has constrained margins in the first half of '26.” Robert Spurway, CEO, GrainCorp Ltd

Banks & FX

“Depending on the market, the [our] research suggested that between 77% and 87% of clients who need the products and services we provide are trying to get them from banks. And yes, there are nonbank competitors, but the real prize is still largely with the banks, who are less nimble and less customer-centric.” Skander Malcolm, CEO, OFX Group Ltd

Dotcom Bubble V AI Era

“I lived through the dot-com days, and in those days, you had customers that didn't have the financial fortitude; they had an idea. They had a plan, and they needed networks; they needed to connect. Today, if you look at most organisations that are investing heavily right now, they see this transition as being existential to their success, and they have some of the best balance sheets in the world.” Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco Systems Inc.

Online Travel Agents

“Eventually, the online travel agent model will die because there’s not going to be much of an interface where you scroll and click. Why would there be when you’ve got agentic AI models that can execute tasks based on the context that it knows about you?” Mennan Yelkenci, CEO, Booked AI [world’s first AI-powered virtual travel agent]

Coal Vs. LNG

“Global coal markets observed favourable pricing movements during the quarter, driven by concerns surrounding LNG availability, resulting in a shift from gas to coal for power generation.” Robert Bishop, CEO, New Hope Corporation Ltd.

Software Companies & AI-Related Layoffs

“They’re making it up on the fly…they’re f---ing it up when they come out and say they are going to do mass layoffs. That is not the right way to motivate your teams and to drive a business.” Ed Chung, CEO, TechnologyOne Ltd

Donations

“The U.S. market is a massive market. It's the third largest employer as a sector in the country. Donations crossed $600 billion a year in donations. It grew 6% in 2024. There's a report that comes out every June from Giving USA that kind of breaks down the sector. So, $600 billion for the last 45 years, it's pretty much tracked U.S. GDP. It went a little flat in '07 and '08, slowed down a little bit during COVID, but massive sector.” Michael Gianoni, CEO, Blackbaud Inc. [world's largest fundraising software company]

Public Vs Private Sector

“So, in the public sector, as with almost every technology change, they're amongst the last adopters. The adoption curve is much, much lower in the public sector. They don't want to be the first at anything.” Brian Miller, CFO, Tyler Technologies Inc.

Inflation & Deflation

“There is a little bit of a headwind which we see coming through on account of higher inflation, primarily driven by higher energy prices. So, when you actually peel back what's going on from an inflation standpoint, you're certainly seeing higher energy prices come through in the nature of the headline inflation number. But then, on other categories of spend, you're actually seeing some level of disinflation, which is taking place. So, there are offsets taking place there as well.” Sachin Mehra, CFO, Mastercard Inc.

“From a pricing standpoint, we’re taking price to offset inflation and also to hold our margin...Certainly, the Middle East conflict has driven real input cost inflation across certain raw materials.” Aaron Erter, CEO, James Hardie Industries Plc

Retail Consumers

“The more you know what the consumer is motivated by, the more likely you are to present to them an offer that motivates them that isn't about price. The reason you often depend on price is because you don't really know what else to motivate the consumer with.” Ije Nwokorie, CEO, Dr Martens Plc.