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What’s the #1 attribute that a CEO must possess? According to the hundreds of chief executives polled by PwC for its 2015 Pulse survey, the key ingredient to be at the top of your game in this line of work is “strategy.”

The respondents were not named (for obvious reasons), but PwC highlighted some of their answers in quotes. One CEO piqued, “The crucial thing a CEO has to be capable of is to think strategically, which means to recognise changes in the market early and then formulate the consequences for their business.”

Consumers rule the land

You’d think that because CEOs are synonymous with wealth and fortune, they should be the ones to have the final say. In reality, business leaders make decisions based on the decisions that have already been made by the customer. If yesterday’s CEO had to be a good salesman, tomorrow’s CEO needs to be much more than that, all because of the connected world we live in.

One of the biggest game changers in business today is the rising power of customers, most business leaders agree. Customer centricity is old news. Today, a CEO’s agenda includes emerging customer trends, data technologies and cutting through the noise. What does that last part mean? Take a look at these numbers:

• more than 80% of CEOs agree that thanks to technology, they are more connected to their employees
• 85% see more interaction with their users / customers
• 96% acknowledge a tremendously positive impact in their marketing
• 40% say the ‘always-on’ societey robs them of their personal time to think

Blindfolded but still apt for decision-making

CEOs everywhere also agree that risk taking continues to play an important role, despite technology enabling ever-more efficient ways to gauge and analyze customer preferences and trends. Sometimes a company is forced to make a decision – regularly pressed by the competition – with less-than-perfect information.

“Fast, flexible and agile decision-making [is a must for one CEO. For another, it’s the ability to] “streamline, simplify and shorten the decision-making process,” another business leader is quoted as saying.

Bottom line, leaders no longer have the luxury to debate their options at length, as the world evolves at breakneck speeds. Armed with social networks, more options than they can choose from, and prepared to smell poor marketing a mile away, customers today dictate a CEO’s every move.