CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 24 May 2024

Renewables

“I do not think nuclear is competitive. And if you go to the examples, the three European examples – basically the Finnish, the French and the English power plants – in three cases the prices at which they are producing electricity are just beyond the belief. They are a multiple of what can be achieved in any other renewable resource.” Jose Manuel Entrecanales, CEO, Acciona

Mining & Exploration

“I think we’ve pulled back a bit, and probably reflected on what that [the China] relationship needs to look like. But I just can’t see a future where you don’t co-invest together. You’ve just got to understand there is a coexistence that needs to occur.” Peter Coleman, Chairman, Arcadium Lithium

“There has been a mismatch in the last few years where commodity prices have been very high, but investment has not increased. Usually, the response to higher commodity prices is for businesses to invest and bring on more supply. We have seen that relationship severed.” Sanjiv Manchanda, CEO, Hancock Projects

Travel & Dating

“So I tell you when you look to the long term, though. The long term is travel will continue to grow and slightly better than GDP. If you believe GDP is going to grow then we have an industry that is going to continue to grow. In addition, we got a tailwind approximately depending on which expert consulting company you want to look at, maybe half globally of travel is not done in a digital way, in terms of buying it.” Glenn Fogel, CEO, Booking Holdings Inc

“Even with the set of anxieties that we're seeing from younger users, they're more and more and more comfortable using technology for everything that they do…So we really believe that the direction is that people are going to continue to engage technology in many aspects of their lives, and they're more comfortable with online dating as a way to meet people as well” Lidiane Jones, CEO, Bumble Inc.

Computing

“AI will understand context and our intentions, be knowledgeable, reason, plan and perform tasks. We are fundamentally changing how computing works and what computers can do” Jensen Huang, CEO, NVIDIA Corporation

“AI alone is a new enabler, but it does not automatically break the rules of business. You can use this as a new thing to do. But you still have to figure out how you’re going to build enduring value, whatever you’re doing. And it’s easy to lose sight of that in the excitement of the gold rush.” Sam Altman, CEO, ChatGPT

News & Current Affairs

“So basically, for subscriber engagement, which is the highest we've seen since the pandemic… it's still a really interesting time, obviously, in technology, in the environment, in geopolitics and politics and so forth.” Meredith Levien, CEO, The New York Times Company

Semiconductors & Supply Chain

“I think the good news here is we're starting to see rationalisation between demand and inventory levels, and we're starting to see inventory come in. In smart mobile devices, for example, we're seeing some pockets of improvement in inventory levels.” John Hollister, CFO, Global Foundries Inc [major multinational semiconductor manufacturer]

“I think looking at the broader macro backdrop, I do think it has been getting more constructive, I think, largely because a lot of the consumer demand driven by the COVID pandemic, a lot of the supply chain issues as well have started to subside. And in fact, in many cases, I think you have excess supply and reduced demand and so advertising is a really effective tool” Evan Spiegel, CEO, Snapchat Inc

Security Systems

“The competitive landscape is more intense in video security and access control.” Gregory Brown, CEO, Motorola Solutions Inc

Hotels

“Since COVID, people are looking to get away from the bigger hotels and getting more intimate smaller areas” Sandy Oatley, Chairman, Hamilton Island Enterprises

Infrastructure

“It’s [the airport] the most significant piece of infrastructure in Sydney since the Harbour Bridge.” Simon Hickey, CEO, Western Sydney Airport

Foreign Currency

“We're seeing in consumer that volatility has been lower than in prior years, which in turn has driven down activity in some high-value use cases, particularly large purchases, property and wealth transfers. We have seen an improvement through April.” John Malcolm, CEO, OFX Group Ltd

Consumer Spending

“With cost-of-living pressures remaining elevated, sales in the more discretionary, commoditised general merchandise products have been softer.” Market Statement, The Reject Shop Ltd

“There is no doubt that consumer discretionary spend, and the fine jewellery category in particular, remain under pressure due to macroeconomic forces.” Daniel Bracken, CEO, Michael Hill International Ltd

Streaming Wars

“We were among the first to depart from this strategy of subscribers at all cost, right? That was this proxy metric that was looked at for a very long time and I think has led to some weird, not necessarily very rational economic developments in the industry.” Gunnar Wiedenfels, CFO, Warner Bros. Discovery