Tech leaders confident in revenue growth in 2023 despite economic uncertainties - Gartner survey finds

Nearly half of those leaders also believe they will outperform their competition this year, indicating buoyant market confidence

Leaders in tech expect to see revenue growth from their businesses in 2023, according to a survey of tech execs conducted by Gartner.

Of the 195 respondents across the US, Canada and Western Europe, 72 per cent said that they had plans to grow revenue and nearly half believe they will outperform competition this year.

The Gartner survey, conducted in the second half of 2022, posed to leaders the question of how economic challenges might impact their businesses and whether they'd still be able to achieve their goals this year.

The survey also found that many technology leaders actually entered 2023 prepared for a potential recession.

Gartner reported actions taken included slow down hiring/opening new positions, spending cuts and divesting from unprofitable solutions.

"Outperforming the market through an uncertain market requires an above average ability to execute on revenue ambitions," said Mark McDonald, vice president and Gartner fellow.

"The survey results indicate that almost half of firms (46 per cent) do not have a sufficient ability to execute to reliably realise their revenue goals."

Gartner forecasted overall IT spending will grow 2.4 per cent in 2023, with enterprise IT spending projected to grow 4.1 per cent.

A recent IDC report also found that ICT spending was set to grow by 4.2 per cent in Europe in 2023.

"Changes in context challenge the relevance of technology solutions. Lower relevance reduces willingness to pay and renew relationships.

"Gartner sees relevance as the connection between a provider's solution and how applicable it is to current customer needs.

"That connection exists at every level from the C-level to individual developers. Without relevance, we see sales cycles extend and renewals at greater risk," said McDonald.

He continued, "It is up to the provider to know when context changes and to rebuild context through refocusing messaging and repositioning to meet customers where they are."