The CEO and board agenda for the next 12 months

Ten questions every South African leadership team should answer before the next strategy cycle

South African leadership teams are entering a strategy cycle that is materially different from the last one. The macro story has improved: National Treasury expects the economy to grow by 1.6% in 2026, rising to 2% by 2028, supported by structural reforms, improved confidence, lower interest rates and higher investment. But the constraints are still real: unemployment, transport bottlenecks, infrastructure backlogs, and the pace of reform in electricity, water and logistics remain decisive variables for business performance.

Globally, CEOs are also navigating a sharper contradiction: lower short-term confidence, but higher pressure to reinvent. PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, based on 4,454 CEOs across 95 countries and territories, found that only 30% of CEOs are confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months, while leaders continue investing in AI, innovation and new sectors.

For African CEOs, the picture is more optimistic, but no less demanding. PwC’s Africa perspective found that 81% of CEOs expect economic conditions in their own markets to improve, yet only 39% believe they can see disruption coming. The implication is clear: resilience is no longer enough. As PwC Africa’s Dion Shango put it, “Strategies cannot be static.”

The next strategy cycle should therefore not be treated as a planning calendar. It should be treated as a board-level test of choices, capabilities and execution discipline. These are the ten questions every South African CEO and board should answer before the next strategy cycle.

1. What must be true about South Africa for our strategy to work?

Many strategies fail because the leadership team quietly assumes a better operating environment than the business will actually experience. South African boards should explicitly test their plan against three scenarios: reform momentum, reform delay, and external shock. The base case matters, but the assumptions behind it matter more.

The board should ask: Which assumptions about growth, inflation, interest rates, logistics, energy, water, household demand and policy execution are embedded in our plan? Treasury’s 2026 outlook points to improving momentum, but also makes clear that sustained growth depends on faster implementation of reforms, fiscal prudence and better public-sector delivery.

2. Where will growth actually come from?

Growth cannot be a percentage in a spreadsheet. It must be a set of named opportunities, with accountable owners, capital choices and measurable milestones. For many South African companies, the next growth story may come from a mix of core productivity, adjacent markets, African expansion, digital channels, partnerships, consolidation, or selective M&A.

EY’s South Africa CEO Outlook says local CEOs are shifting from stabilising operations to scaling transformation and investment, with AI, cybersecurity, domestic investment and geopolitical agility becoming central to the agenda. The question is not whether the company wants growth. It is whether the leadership team can name the few growth moves that will change the company’s trajectory.

3. Which AI bets will create measurable value, not just activity?

AI has moved from experimentation to accountability. BCG’s AI Radar 2026 found that nearly three-quarters of CEOs say they are the key decision maker on AI, and companies expect to double AI spend from 0.8% to about 1.7% of revenue in 2026. PwC’s global CEO survey found that only 12% of CEOs say AI has delivered both cost and revenue benefits, showing the gap between adoption and value capture.

The CEO and board should ask: Which three AI use cases will move revenue, margin, risk, customer experience or productivity in the next 12 months? Who owns the P&L impact? What will we stop funding if those benefits do not materialise?

4. Is our operating model ready for intelligent work?

AI is not only a technology decision. It is an operating model decision. McKinsey’s Global Tech Agenda 2026 argues that top CIOs are becoming “strategy architects”, weaving AI and data into operating models to build intelligence-driven enterprises.

The same shift is visible in workforce research. Deloitte’s 2026 Global Human Capital Trends found that work design is critical to AI ROI, yet only 6% of leaders say they are making progress in designing human-AI interactions. Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index similarly argues that the biggest driver of AI impact is institutional, with culture, manager support and talent practices accounting for more than twice the reported AI impact of individual effort alone.

The board-level question is: Are we redesigning workflows, decision rights, roles and incentives, or are we merely giving people new tools inside an old organisation?

5. How resilient are we to cyber, data and trust failures?

The next wave of digital transformation will increase the attack surface of every organisation. The World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 warns that accelerating AI adoption, geopolitical fragmentation and widening cyber inequity are reshaping the cyber-risk landscape, with attacks becoming faster, more complex and more unevenly distributed.

This is now a board issue, not a technical appendix. The CEO and board should ask: Do we understand our most material cyber exposures? Are AI tools being used safely? Do we have visibility over third-party, supplier and operational technology risks? Can the organisation keep operating if core systems are disrupted?

6. What is our capital allocation rule under uncertainty?

In a volatile environment, capital allocation becomes strategy in its most honest form. EY’s global CEO outlook found that geopolitical uncertainty has moved to the centre of the CEO agenda, with 56% of CEOs identifying it as the most significant risk to their business over the next 12 months. EY also notes a shift toward disciplined growth, profitability, resilience and selective investment.

For South African companies, this requires a clearer distinction between defensive spend, efficiency spend and growth spend. The board should ask: What must we protect, what must we fix, what must we scale, and what must we exit?

7. Which ecosystem constraints should we help solve?

South African companies cannot passively wait for perfect infrastructure. Treasury is explicit that faster reform in electricity, transport and water would unlock higher investment, growth and job creation. For many sectors, these are not background issues; they are strategic constraints on revenue, customer experience, working capital and competitiveness.

The question is: Which constraints can we solve through partnerships, industry collaboration, private infrastructure investment, supplier development, data sharing or regional diversification? The next advantage may belong to companies that treat ecosystem constraints as strategic design problems.

8. Does the leadership team have the capabilities to execute the strategy?

Strategy execution is becoming a boardroom differentiator. NACD’s 2026 Governance Outlook found that boards are shifting focus toward execution, with 60% of respondents ranking board oversight of strategy execution as the top oversight improvement area for 2026. Oliver Wyman’s CEO Agenda 2026 also found rising board involvement in strategy and governance, executive performance and succession, and risk management.

The CEO and board should ask: Does this leadership team have the digital fluency, commercial sharpness, change stamina, stakeholder credibility and execution discipline required for the next phase? If not, what changes before the market forces them?

9. Are we building an investable, bankable and defensible business?

The South African strategy conversation should not only be about growth. It should be about quality of growth. Investors and lenders will increasingly reward businesses that can show disciplined capital allocation, credible governance, resilient cash flows, measurable transformation, cyber maturity, climate awareness and management depth.

KPMG’s 2026 board agenda notes that disruption, volatility and uncertainty are intensifying demands for transparency around strategy and risk oversight. The board should ask: If we had to raise capital, sell a stake, defend our valuation, or withstand activist scrutiny, would our strategy narrative hold?

10. How will the board govern strategy between strategy sessions?

The annual strategy offsite is no longer enough. NACD reports that rigid multiyear planning cycles are being replaced by more continuous, agile approaches, with boards increasing strategy discussions in board meetings and increasing dialogue between meetings.

The CEO and board should ask: What are the five strategic metrics we will review every month? What decisions must come back to the board? What early-warning indicators tell us that assumptions are breaking? What authority does management have to adapt in real time?

The real agenda: move from planning to readiness

The next 12 months will reward leadership teams that can hold two ideas at once: South Africa’s opportunity is improving, but the execution bar is rising. The winning companies will not be those with the most elegant strategy documents. They will be those that can translate uncertainty into sharper choices, AI into measurable value, governance into speed, and resilience into growth.

Before the next strategy cycle, every CEO and board should leave the room with ten clear answers: the assumptions they believe, the risks they will monitor, the growth bets they will fund, the AI value they will measure, the capabilities they must build, the constraints they will solve, and the governance rhythm that will keep strategy alive between meetings.

That is the board agenda for the year ahead.