Greater Business Complexities Skyrocket Decision Overload

Pleo’s latest report, The Power of Better Business Decisions, reveals a pivotal moment for business decision-making. Over the past 12 months, UK companies have faced market volatility, AI adoption, hiring freezes, and budget squeezes. Against this backdrop, 77% of UK business leaders report making more high-level decisions than a year ago, with three in ten seeing a significant increase. The top drivers include rising business complexity (26%), heightened business ambitions and expectations (18%), more economic or business pressures (11%), and increasing demand for environmentally responsible practices (11%).

Rising pressure, falling confidence

In today’s turbulent climate, every choice can feel like a make-or-break moment. Leaders say the strain translates into stress (47%), sleepless nights (36%), and anxiety (35%). Over half (55%) of UK business decision makers admit to experiencing decision paralysis in the past year, with 57% finding the sheer number of decisions overwhelming.

Those with a larger volume of high-level decision-making carry the heaviest burden. In the past 12 months, 60% of UK leaders facing more high-level decisions reported decision paralysis, compared with 43% of those facing the same or fewer decisions. Tooling adds further to the burden, with 79% of UK respondents using more than 20 digital tools reporting decision freezes (vs. 49% of those who use 1-5 tools).

Given so many high-level decisions centre around spending, CFOs and finance leaders are heavily leaned upon for critical decision-making. Globally, their role in high-level choices has grown more than any other senior leader. Yet UK CFOs are the least confident amongst senior leaders to make business decisions, with 58% of their decisions made without full confidence.

Søren Westh Lonning, Chief Financial Officer at Pleo, comments: “Businesses find themselves in a perfect storm right now. With business complexities and business ambitions both on the rise, financial minds are seeing their confidence levels fall and their stress levels rise. The result is that their decision-making is often uninformed, underconfident or, worse still, simply non-existent.

“Pleo has always been seen as a strategic finance partner to businesses. Ten years ago, this looked a lot like enabling trust and control. But today it has evolved into something else – confidence. We champion better decisions, enabling companies to act on foresight, not hindsight.

“As a partner to more than 40,000 European businesses, we’ve seen firsthand the challenges of the past five years. And through this shared understanding, we’ve innovated and expanded our offering – from small (expenses) to big (spend management, treasury function, cash flow tools and multi-entity) to ensure our customers stay one step ahead. Our full suite comes together to give finance leaders the visibility to make decisions faster and with greater certainty, transforming them into true value accelerators – delivering growth, stability and profit.”

But CFOs are lacking tools for confident decision-making 

Finance leaders’ ability to make timely, confident decisions is frequently undermined by poor-quality tools and data. More than half (51%) of UK CFOs say their leaders lack the tools or technology to extract the insights they need, while 58% report that limited access to contextual information weakens decision confidence, and 51% say it reduces their ability to ensure investments create opportunity rather than risk. Notably, 89% of British businesses without a spend management tool don’t have full confidence in their organisation’s ability to stress-test their financial health.

And don’t have the headspace for strategic thinking

Most (68%) UK business decision makers say they could be making smarter, more informed decisions than they currently are (only 14% disagree). And the majority (53%) say their ability to confidently make decisions is negatively impacted by not having enough time.

Sadie Restorick, MSc MABP, an expert in workplace wellbeing and psychosocial risk, comments, “Teams excel at decision-making when they can act on actionable data, test assumptions in real time, and adapt swiftly to emerging information rather than being stalled by uncertainty. Clear structures reinforce decisiveness: defined criteria, accessible information, and systematic evaluation reduce hesitation and help maintain momentum under ongoing pressure.”

In response to the growing demands of modern business, Pleo has expanded its product offering, launching Pleo Embedded, Multi-currency, and its full Cash Management Suite within the past six weeks. Its updated offering provides finance leaders with full visibility and the confidence to ensure every financial decision is a smart decision.