Optimism rising among U.S. CEOs

Chief executives around the world are increasingly confident about their companies' business prospects this year.

According to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) annual global CEO survey -- which polled over 1,300 business leaders in 77 countries, including 103 U.S. CEOs -- nearly two-thirds of those executives said there are more growth opportunities today for their companies than there were three years ago.

U.S. corporate chieftains are even more optimistic, likely reflecting the stronger performance of the American economy compared with other parts of the world. Nearly half of the American CEOs -- a five-year survey high -- said they were "very confident" of their firms achieving revenue growth in 2015.

"As the U.S. recovery gains traction, it is gaining more adherents," said the PwC summary of the survey's results. "Challenges remain, yet key measures of U.S. economic health are improving. Business hopes are building that the American consumer market will start firing on more than one piston in 2015."

But that optimism doesn't appear to extend to the global economy. While PwC projects the U.S. GDP will rise by 3.2 percent this year, Bob Moritz, the company's U.S. chairman and senior partner, notes that only 37 percent of the non-U.S. CEOs surveyed are confident the global economy will grow over the next 12 months, compared to a 44 percent confidence rate last year.

"Not a surprise, when you think about the different issues that are affecting the attention of the global economy," Mortiz said during a conference call on Tuesday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Those issues include ongoing political and economic crises in Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

The big difference this year, Moritz added, was that the CEOs surveyed "have more confidence that they can do better than the economy that's in front of them."

One of the biggest overall changes in CEO behavior, according to PwC is top management's approach to new technologies. Instead of resisting the changes brought about by constantly evolving technologies such as social media, more CEOs appear to understand the need for their companies to adapt along with these technologies, if they are to succeed.

"Nobody has an enormous lock on the market," Michael Dell, CEO of computer maker Dell, told PwC. "The markets are always changing, and it's a great time to be listening, learning, figuring out what problems are unsolved with customers, because there are always emergent problems. And that's how you win."

Another takeaway from the survey: The advent of new technologies means many of what PwC calls the "classic industry lines" are softening -- to the point where over one-third of the U.S. CEOs polled say they have entered or have considered entering into a different industry over the past three years.

"It's all about who has access to the customer and the ability to introduce products and services that allow them to expand their relationship with that customer," D. Bryan Jordan, CEO of financial services firm First Horizon National, told PwC.

"The more they can put through that infrastructure, the more data they have about what's going on in the marketplace, and what's going on in that customer's wallet daily," he continued. "With that, they have the ability to produce more and broader and deeper technologies that allow them to meet more and broader and deeper needs."