Despite the current economic uncertainty, 72% of high-tech leaders in the US, Canada, and Western Europe have plans to grow revenue in 2023, according to a survey released today by Gartner. Nearly half of those leaders believe they will be able to outperform their competition.

According to the report, many technology leaders entered 2023 prepared for a potential recession. However, many of the actions taken concentrated on reducing costs rather than focusing on growing revenue and market relevance. The top cost-cutting action already taken by technology service providers is “slowed down hiring for open/new positions,” cited by 55% of survey respondents, followed by “implemented spending cuts across the board,” cited by 52%.

“Outperforming the market through an uncertain market requires an above-average ability to execute on revenue ambitions,” said Gartner VP Mark McDonald. “The survey results indicate that almost half of the firms (46%) do not have a sufficient ability to execute to reliably realize their revenue goals.”

Meanwhile, Gartner forecasts overall IT spending will grow 2.4% in 2023, with enterprise IT spending projected to grow 4.1%. The report noted that the context of IT spending is changing as buyers increasingly value and make investments in business outcomes rather than buying solutions.

For the report, Gartner surveyed 195 respondents in the US, Canada, the UK, France and Germany in the second half of 2022 to understand how economic turbulence poses challenges to general managers.