Albany, N.Y.

U.S. technology chief executive officers believe tech’s growth will continue unabated for the next few years, with peak profits predicted by most for 2017 and strong hiring into 2017, according to the results of a survey by KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm.

“While some industry observers wonder whether the tech run will continue, our survey of tech CEOs and their three-year view makes clear these leaders see strong revenue and hiring growth ahead,” said Gary Matuszak, global chair, KPMG Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice. “This extends what we saw in our survey of tech executives in KPMG’s 12-month industry outlook.”

The survey of 53 tech CEOs found 40 percent expect their greatest profits in 2017, with another 23 percent seeing highest profits in 2018 and beyond. At the same time, 36 percent of the tech CEOs intend to increase their company’s headcount by 11 percent to 25 percent over the next three years, with 21 percent planning a 6 percent to 10 percent increase.

Take Care of Current Customers to Drive Growth

To drive their company’s growth during the coming 36 months, the tech leaders’ priorities are building their business with current customers and selling existing products.

The focus on current customers dominates tech CEOs’ thinking in several areas. Interacting more with customers is the top organizational priority, and the CEOs are taking steps to foster more customer-centric companies by training junior staff earlier in their careers to interact with customers, charging senior leaders to invest more time with customers and personally spending more face time with customers.

“These chief executives also believe that having stronger customer or client relationships, and as a result gaining better insight, are key to overcoming what they cited as the biggest hurdle to innovation – rapidly changing customer dynamics (57 percent),” Matuszak said. “Budget constraints are a distant second, cited by 32 percent.”

Matuszak said addressing the issue of rapidly changing customer dynamics is also related to the fact that 79 percent of tech CEOs, in a time of rapid innovation, are concerned about product relevance three years from now.

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