Souls Patts CEO says economy faces headwinds including poor productivity and wages growth

Souls Patts boss Todd Barlow says continuing poor productivity, wages growth and other inflationary pressures ‘should weigh down the economy’.

Soul Patts CEO Todd Barlow. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

CEO Survey 2026: FULL COVERAGE

Economy

How would you rate the momentum of the Australian economy as we head into 2026? Are cost pressures in your business: increasing/stable/easing? Are you likely to increase, hold steady, or trim your investment spend or employment over the next 12 months?

For us, 2026 looks less like a race for growth and more like a period where disciplined capital allocation will be rewarded. Continuing poor productivity, wages growth and other inflationary pressures should weigh down the economy, and consequently we are moving to more resilient asset classes.

Technology

Which best describes your organisation’s AI adoption? (Exploring/Piloting/Implementing selectively/Scaled across business) Ifimplementing or scaled, are the productivity benefits starting to come through or do you expect more time for the full impact. Has the use of AI started to influence employment decisions across your organisation.

Soul Patts is currently in the implementation stage of AI adoption. Our early focus is on using AI to aggregate and analyse large datasets more quickly and accurately. We do not expect AI to replace human judgement in our investment process. Experience, intuition and the ability to navigate complex risks remain essential. The role of AI in our business is to enhance productivity and insight, not to reshape workforce size or structure.

As it relates to our broader investment portfolio, we see AI as a meaningful catalyst for building more resilient businesses – particularly the industrials sector, where supply chains can be complex and inefficient. Harnessing AI responsibly is going to be a defining theme over the coming years.

People

Has your organisation evolved its approach to flexible working during the past year? Does your organisation have a policy around office attendance. What feedback, if any, do you have for governments considering prescribing working from home for a set amount of days per week.

Soul Patts’ approach to flexibility has not materially changed over the past year. Culture is deliberately seen as a key competitive strength for Soul Patts, and given the nature of our business, our team works from the office five days a week to support collaboration, mentoring and fast decision-making. While this sounds quite structured, we also support employees’ needs for flexibility, and our most recent engagement survey again recorded strong scores on this balance.

We do not operate a formal “work-from-home quota” policy. We believe organisations are best placed to determine the working model that supports productivity and career development, so we would not support governments prescribing mandatory work-from-home days.

Geopolitics

How significantly are global trade tensions/tariffs impacting your business? Is Australia getting the balance in managing its big economic and political relationships with major trading partners?

Limited impact on our business directly. However, we are seeing clear trends towards deglobalisation, onshoring, protectionism and building resilient supply chains. Australia’s ability to effectively balance its major political and economic relationships while remaining a reliable trading partner is an increasing risk.

Energy

Do you have any concerns about Australia’s pathway to renewables? Should there be more flexibility in settings leading to 2035? Are energy costs becoming an increasing factor around your longer-term planning?

Australia’s shift to renewables has passed the point of no return, but the transition is complex, and the challenges are understated. Energy policy settings need to be anchored in reality rather than ideology and consider the real world challenges of the energy transition and the likely implications.

Rising energy costs are already affecting parts of our portfolio, and we factor this into long-term planning. Our approach is to invest across the energy spectrum and back businesses with the governance and balance-sheet strength to adapt through the transition.

Reform

What would nominate as your top policy priority that can be used to lift Australia’s competitiveness or productivity? Should the Albanese government be pushing for even bolder policies around reform?

Promoting more business investment through regulatory certainty or less intervention can facilitate investment in automation, digital technologies and workforce upskilling. Industrial relations reform would assist with productivity growth. And shifting the bias of all governments from their default of “no” to a default of “yes” on productive investment. Clear, consistent policy settings, not short-term stimulus, will do more to lift productivity and living standards over time.