NZ CEOs back themselves. They're not so sure about New Zealand.

The results from the Pivot & Pace CEO Leadership Research Survey are in, and the headline finding is uncomfortable but important.

Seventy-nine New Zealand CEOs of medium through to large companies took part in April 2026. When you look at the data, a clear pattern emerges. NZ leaders are confident in their own organisations. On confidence in New Zealand's long-term direction, they're far less certain.

That gap tells you something.

NZ CEOs are doing the work. They're protecting margins, investing in their people, managing transformation alongside day-to-day performance, and trying to get ahead of AI and the next wave of disruption. What they don't have is a country backing them with the long-term certainty they need to commit capital with real confidence. This creates real pressures and contributes to risk.

Profitability and margins are the shared near-term pressure. Looking further out, respondents flagged capital availability and infrastructure as the medium-term concerns that keep them up at night. The open comments were pointed: longer-term vision, bolder leadership, clearer national direction. The same themes, repeated across different organisations and sectors.

I spoke about this with Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB (link here). The response afterwards was significant. CEOs and senior leaders reaching out directly, not to debate the point, but to agree.

And the point is this: it's not about which party is in power. It's about whether we're mature enough as a country to agree on a direction and hold it. Health, superannuation, education, and infrastructure are thirty plus year challenges. We keep trying to solve them inside a three-year political cycle, and it doesn't work. Give us a direction beyond 2 election cycles! Yes it will need to have to iterate and change to navigate disruption but keep and deliver the the aligned strategic intent.

Yes it will be hard to achieve, but not impossible if our elected politicians can put a governance hat on and work collectively in the best interests of the country.

Election years make it worse. We're in a six-month campaign window now. Whichever way it goes, forming a government takes months, and businesses won't have real clarity on infrastructure and capital settings until 2027 at the earliest. For a CEO trying to commit to a multi-year investment, that's a long time to sit on your hands.

None of this means CEOs are waiting for politicians to fix it. The survey is clear. Leaders are getting on with it. But there's only so far you can take a business when the policy environment keeps resetting underneath you.

What I keep hearing isn't a call for more government. It's a call for a longer view. The most valuable thing politicians across the spectrum could agree on is a shared economic and infrastructure direction that outlasts any single term in office. One that endures regardless of who wins.

Until that happens, NZ leaders will keep doing what they've always done. Back themselves. Even when they're not sure the country is returning the favour.

Article authored by Kendall Langston, ED , Partner