There is a clear distinction between organisations that can be regarded at the “digital vanguard” and which have mastered digital strategy – and those that still have a long way to go, a new study suggests.
The 2018 global CIO survey released by Deloitte sets out to identify key trends among CIOs and explores how CIOs can shift from “trusted operators” to leading business growth and transformation in the digital era.
This year’s third and final report in the audit, consulting, tax and advisory services firm’s CIO legacy project, builds on two previous surveys of more than 1,200 global CIOs.
Remarkably, the survey found that 44 per cent of responding CIOs are neither actively involved in developing nor executing their organisation’s digital strategy, even though digital strategy is an increasingly critical part of business strategy as a whole.
Two-thirds of CIOs surveyed indicated that they did not have leadership roles in developing enterprise digital strategy.
Only a quarter of all respondents, regardless of role, indicated that they have an enterprise-wide digital strategy at all and Deloitte calls on CIOs to “take the reins”.
The report findings are consistent with a recent survey carried out by Rialto Consultancy which showed that many leaders lack the necessary skills and capabilities to move their organisations forward in an increasingly disruptive marketplace.
The Supercharge your leadership skills for the future research report found that one quarter of respondents do not feel sufficiently confident in their skills as leaders. The report revealed that the lack of confidence stems from a range of factors, including insufficient support, lack of relevant experience and a lack of opportunity to develop capabilities.
More than half of the CIOs surveyed by Deloitte are still focused on delivering “efficient, reliable information technology operations” rather being a catalyst for growth and transformation within their organisations.
To become a “vanguard CIO”, Deloitte recommends CIOs respond to the rapidly-changing digital world by looking inward and redefining their role; looking across and reimagining their IT organisations and talent; and looking beyond to rebalance their organisation’s technology capabilities as new innovations come to market.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of leadership at all levels of transformation,” said Kristi Lamar, managing director and experience leader in Deloitte Consulting’s CIO programme and co-author of the report.
“All CIOs can learn from the inward, across, and beyond framework to take stock of their organisation’s capabilities and challenges and move forward in an increasingly disruptive marketplace.”
The vast majority of UK workers reckon that a multi-generational workforce leads to increased innovation and problem-solving and would prefer to work in age-diverse teams, a new study finds.
Data from Randstad’s quarterly Workmonitor report reveals that 85 per cent of respondents say that they come up with more innovative ideas and solutions as a result of working in age-diverse teams (10-15 years difference in age); 86 per cent would choose to work in a multi-generational team. The study covers 34 countries around the world.
Exploring the business benefits and challenges of an age-diverse workforce, the study shows most workers on a worldwide basis find the variety to be mutually beneficial but workers in China, India and Norway rated its importance to innovation most highly at 94 per cent respectively.
However, the study also found communication is often where the alignment between generations breaks down. Three quarters of UK workers (76 per cent) agree the primary difference between generations in the workplace is communication styles with nearly one third (31 per cent) admitting they find it difficult to communicate with co-workers who are not from their own age group.
While the majority of workers feel their managers are generally effective in managing and working alongside employees from different generations, the study also suggests there may be room for improvement.
Three-quarters of UK workers reckon their direct managers are talented at working together with various generations. But three-fifths say their direct managers treat colleagues from various generations differently. Whether this is perceived as a positive thing or not varies from person to person, but it is evident that managers should tailor their communication styles to individual team members, the report states.
“Part of the challenge of managing effectively is knowing how to relay your message, which requires understanding the individual communication styles of the people on your team and how they approach their work,” said Jim Link, chief human resources officer for Randstad North America.
“There are more generations in the workforce than ever before, which has resulted in a greater variety of expectations around workplace communication. People in different stages of their lives and careers are also motivated in different ways, and managers must work to tailor feedback to help individuals maximise their potential.”
Many FTSE 100 firms are still failing to share important workforce data in their annual reports despite an increase in the quantity of workforce reporting, according to new research from the CIPD. The study found reporting on skills shortages to be, notably, woefully lacking.
In response, the professional body for HR and people development, is calling for improved reporting and transparency from Britain’s biggest businesses. The body warns that failure to capture and disclose key workforce data is keeping investors, employees and other parties in the dark on key business indicators.
The CIPD’s research examines how workforce reporting has changed over the last five years and how transparent organisations are being about risks and opportunities relating to the workforce.
The report, Hidden Figures: How workforce data is missing from corporate reports, found:
- Workforce reporting in FTSE 100 organisations’ annual reports increased by 9 per cent between 2015 and 2017, a much smaller increase compared to the 19 per cent increase seen between 2013 and 2016 when the CIPD first analysed FTSE 100 workforce reporting
- Regularly reported: The most commonly reported workforce issues were talent management, succession planning and employee turnover
- Skills reporting in short supply: Only 12 per cent of FTSE 100 firms reported their perspectives on skills shortages and only 21 per cent reported on skills gaps, despite many businesses expressing concern about access to skills after the UK leaves the European Union in 2019
- Going up…Apprenticeships (64 per cent more reporting), employee well-being (76 per cent), entrepreneurship (28 per cent), talent management (26 per cent) all saw increased levels of reporting between 2015 and 2017
- Going down… Internships (32 per cent less reporting), commitment (31 per cent less), flexibility (30 per cent less) and employee engagement (21 per cent less) all saw decreased levels of reporting between 2015 and 2017.
“It’s positive to see that the quantity of workforce reporting is increasing, but there’s still a considerable challenge regarding the quality, consistency and transparency of data being reported. Organisations seem to focus their efforts on complying with legislation and governance codes and report on very little else voluntarily,” said Edward Houghton, senior research adviser for human capital and governance at the CIPD.
“Reporting is also often subject to trends or pressure from government rather than ongoing strategic imperatives. We need to see much more consistency in what is being reported, the language used to report it and the measurements being applied so all stakeholders get a complete picture of workforce opportunities and risks.”
According to the CIPD, without full transparency there’s a “real danger” that businesses are painting an overly positive picture of how they manage their people and people risk. Gender pay gap reporting regulations have shown that a framework and a common language can improve disclosure and prompt healthy debate on important issues among key stakeholders. It’s also awakened an appetite among investors for even more workforce data, said the CIPD, and businesses need to be ready to respond to this demand.
“We need senior leaders to get comfortable with being more transparent about their workforce practices and we need investors and government to be demanding far more of these insights,” added Houghton.
More than half of technology CEOs surveyed globally (54 per cent) consider that a “return to territorialism” poses the greatest risk to their organisational growth, according to a new report by KPMG.
KPMG’s tech industry CEO outlook (#tech #CEOoutlook) canvassed the views of 104 tech CEOs globally on a range of key topics, among them, territorialism, growth, cyber and trust, artificial intelligence (AI), customer centricity and millennials.
The research also identified five “evolving forces” that are continuing to “raise the bar” for tech CEOs which are: drive for growth; visionary leadership; relentless customer centricity; technology for social good; and reimagining the workforce of the future.
Despite these concerns over issues like the UK’s exit from the EU and renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), tech CEOs are confident of their companies’ ability to outpace the tech sector and the global economy. Three per cent of CEOs expect their top-line revenue growth to exceed five per cent over the next three years, while half (49 per cent) indicate it will be between 2 per cent and 5 per cent, and 48 per cent indicate it will be less than 2 per cent.
Over the next three years, 42 per cent of CEOs predict they will expand their company’s headcount by between six per cent and 10 per cent and 43 per cent say they will expand less than five per cent.
“The rise of nationalism and affiliated global economic tensions are among factors bringing caution to revenue growth expectations. Still, nearly nine out of 10 tech CEOs remain confident in the growth prospects for their company,” said Tim Zanni, global and US technology sector leader, KPMG.
“Tech CEOs are focused on profitability and investing in technology and their people, as well as considering new business models.”
Two thirds (64 per cent) of CEOs agree that agility is the new currency of business and when it came to visionary leadership seven in 10 are personally prepared to lead their organisations through radical transformation of existing operating models to maintain competitiveness.
Meanwhile, on the issue of technology for social good, more than one third of respondents (35 per cent) report they are struggling to link their growth strategy with a societal purpose for their company.
“There’s a growing expectation for tech leaders to link their strategies with technology for social good. It’s important that CEOs communicate a clear and consistent strategy about their organisations’ vision, and beliefs, and how their strategy is impacting their customers, employees and society at large,” added Zanni.
Organisations are highly receptive to adopting new technologies and are continuing to expand their IT budgets with growth and innovation being one specific focus, according to new research.
The 2018 CIO Tech Poll: Economic Outlook from CIO, IDG’s executive-level tech media brand, found that nearly one third (31 per cent) of tech budgets are focused on areas like machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Some organisations are more focused on the ‘what’s next?’ as 16 per cent of respondents say at least half of their IT budget is allocated towards growth and innovation.
The average total annual tech budget is £91m ($121m), and when asked how their tech budget is expected to change in the next 12 months, three-fifths of respondents (57 per cent) anticipate a budget increase.
The survey also showed that on average, two thirds of IT budgets are dedicated to solutions that maintain the current business. These include tools that run the business such as administrative initiatives, operational activities and inventory replacement.
As organisations become more invested in innovative technologies, the research examines who is primarily responsible for driving investment in six specific technologies: AI, cloud, data and analytics, IoT, machine learning and mobility.
Within this mix of emerging and established tools IT holds primary responsibility in all these areas, especially when it comes to cloud computing (76 per cent).
While the IT department leads tech investment, they collaborate with colleagues in various departments on new technologies. With departments throughout the organisation needing tech enhancements, operations (50 per cent), marketing (47 per cent) and engineering (38 per cent) are all expected to experience an increase in their budgets dedicated to technology within the next 12 months.
“Technology solutions continue to evolve as digital transformation creates opportunity for new and revamped products,” said Adam Dennison, senior vice president/publisher, CIO.
“Organisations see the value tech enhancements bring to their business and tech executives are not slow to reevaluate their plans and align their best practices with these next best tools. IT executives are consistently increasing their tech budgets to research key technologies and expand their solutions at the best interest of their organisation’s success.”
Throughout a fiscal year, the study notes, it is common for priorities to shift and budgets to be redirected. The majority of respondents said that their past budget shifts occurred due to IT initiatives/projects starting and stopping (47 per cent), system upgrades/maintenance (43 per cent) and a change in the number of IT initiatives starting in given year (40 per cent).
Future budget changes are expected to be driven by new mandates from executive management, and pressure from line of business to make changes to IT operations or strategy.
Survey results are based on 240 respondents who indicated they are the top IT executive at their company or business unit in the US and other countries.
Individuals may be more accepting of the inexorable rise of artificial intelligence (AI) at work but organisations are not doing enough to help employees embrace AI and that will result in reduced productivity, skillset obsolescence and job loss, a new study warns.
According to a survey of HR leaders and employees from Oracle and Future Workplace, an overwhelming majority reported they were ‘ready’ to take instructions from robots at work which directly correlates with their familiarity of AI technology at home.
The report, AI at Work, which quizzed 1,320 HR leaders and employees, found that while people are ready to embrace AI at work, only six per cent of HR professionals are actively deploying AI and one quarter of employees (24 per cent) are using some form of AI at work. This contrasts starkly with 70 per cent of respondents using some form of AI in their personal lives.
To determine why there is such a gap in AI adoption when people are clearly ready to embrace AI at work (93 per cent would trust orders from a robot), the study set out to examine HR leader and employee perceptions of the benefits of AI, the obstacles preventing AI adoption and the business consequences of not embracing AI.
“As this study shows, people are not afraid of AI taking their jobs and instead want to be able to quickly and easily take advantage of the latest innovations,” said Emily He, SVP, human capital management cloud business group, Oracle.
“To help employees embrace AI, organisations should partner with their HR leaders to address the skill gap and focus their IT strategy on embedding simple and powerful AI innovations into existing business processes.”
Despite its clear potential to improve business performance, HR leaders and employees believe that organisations are not doing enough to prepare the workforce for AI. Respondents also identified a number of other barriers holding back AI in the enterprise.
The vast majority of HR leaders (90 per cent) are concerned they will not be able to adjust to the rapid adoption of AI as part of their job and to make matters worse, they are not currently empowered to address an emerging AI skill gap in their organisation.
While half of employees (51 per cent) are concerned they will not be able to adjust to the rapid adoption of AI and 71 per cent believe AI skills and knowledge will be important in the next three years, nearly three quarters of HR leaders (72 per cent) noted that their organisation does not provide any form of AI training programme.
“AI will enable companies to stay competitive, HR leaders to be more strategic and employees to be more productive at work,” added Dan Schawbel, research director at Future Workplace.
“If organisations want to take advantage of the AI revolution, while closing the skills gap, they will have to invest in AI training programmes. If employees want to stay relevant to the current and future job market, they need to embrace AI as part of their job.”
Customer experience (CX) rates significantly higher than brand promise when consumers are making a purchase with expectation in the US far higher than Europe for personalised experience, according to new research.
Data from the Customer Experience Tipping Point survey, published by Medallia, a customer experience management software firm, together with independent market research consultancy Ipsos, reveals that consumers are quick to both penalise and reward a brand based on their experience(s).
Some 8,000 consumers were surveyed across the US, UK, France, and Germany, and across six industry sectors: online retail; offline retail; banking; insurance; mobile network providers; and hotels.
More than three-quarters of respondents (77 per cent) claim to have chosen a product or service from a company because of good experiences they had with it, while two thirds of respondents (64 per cent) said they have avoided a brand because of a bad experience they have had within the last year.
“Consumers today are sophisticated and do their research before making a purchase. They expect to have a seamless and positive experience and if those aren’t met, consumers know they have options,” said Rachel Lane, solution principal, Medallia.
“For companies looking to create a competitive edge, having a strong brand recognition, or even stellar product isn’t enough. Customer experience is the tipping point, and without a strong plan to create and maintain a positive experience, businesses will lose out.”
According to the survey, the demand for a positive customer experience is especially high in the US, and while loyalty is on the decline, expectations are on the rise, particularly among younger groups of consumers. For example, in banking and online retail, one third of Gen Z (30 per cent) and one fifth of Millennials (22 per cent) surveyed indicated that their expectations of customer experience are higher today than they were two years ago.
Expectations have risen in the US across all six industries examined, and US respondents reported significantly higher expectations than European consumers for personalised experiences, real-time response, and ability to chat with a live agent.
The findings also demonstrate the importance of organisations recognising “every touchpoint matters” with consumers expecting “seamless and efficient” experiences on- and offline. For instance, nearly three fifths (56 per cent) of online retail shoppers and half of retail offline shoppers (49 per cent) expect consistent levels of service across physical and digital channels.
“Acknowledgement of customer experience as a driver of business performance is at an all-time high. Failure to properly understand customer needs leads to wasted money, time, and energy,” added Jean-Francois Damais, chief research officer at Ipsos.
“[Our] research has shown that when it comes to dealing with customer issues, the key is to reduce perceptions of unfairness. That’s all about getting the balance of effort right. It’s a time-critical case of reacting intelligently, being mindful of your customer and knowing when it’s enough to say sorry. And perhaps more importantly, when it isn’t.”
Growth is the number one priority of CEOS in 2018 and 2019 and, to help achieve it, they are shifting their focus to embrace digital business, according to a recent study.
The Gartner 2018 CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey found that as simple, implemental growth becomes harder to achieve, CEOs are concentrating on changing and upgrading the structure of their companies. This also includes forming a deeper understanding of digital business.
In total, 460 business leaders in organisations with more than $50m in annual revenue were qualified and surveyed.
The findings show IT remains a high priority, coming in at third position, with CEOs highlighting digital transformation, in particular. Workforce has risen rapidly to become the fourth-biggest priority, up from seventh in 2017.
The number of CEOs mentioning workforce in their top three priorities rose from 16 per cent to 28 per cent. When asked about the most significant internal constraints to growth, employee and talent issues were at the top.
CEOs cited lack of talent and workforce capability as the biggest inhibitor of digital business progress.
“Although growth remains the CEO’s biggest priority, there was a significant fall in simple mentions of it this year, from 58 per cent in 2017 to just 40 per cent in 2018. This does not mean CEOs are less focused on growth, instead it shows that they are shifting perspective on how to obtain it,” said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner fellow.
“The ‘corporate’ category, which includes actions such as new strategy, corporate partnerships and mergers and acquisitions, has risen significantly to become the second-biggest priority.”
Survey respondents were also asked whether they have a management initiative or transformation programme to make their business more digital. The majority (62 per cent) said they did. Of those organisations, 54 per cent said that their digital business objective is transformational while 46 per cent said the objective of the initiative is optimisation.
In the background, Gartner reports, CEOs’ use of the word ‘digital’ has been steadily rising. When asked to describe their top five business priorities, the number of respondents mentioning the word digital at least once has risen from 2.1 per cent in the 2012 survey to 13.4 per cent in 2018.
This positive attitude toward digital business is backed up by CEOs’ continuing intent to invest in IT. Three-fifths (61 per cent) of respondents intend to increase spending on IT in 2018, while one third (32 per cent) plan to make no changes to spending and only seven per cent foresee spending cuts.
The 2018 CEO survey showed that the percentage of respondents who think their company is an innovation pioneer has reached a high of 41 per cent (up from 27 percent in 2013), with ‘fast followers’ not far behind at 37 per cent.
“CIOs should leverage this bullish sentiment by encouraging their business leaders into making ‘no way back’ commitments to digital business change,” added Raskino.
“However, superficial digital change can be a dangerous form of self-deceit. The CEO’s commitment must be grounded in deep fundamentals, such as genuine customer value, a real business model concept and disciplined economics.”
Rather than putting jobs at risk, factory automation and robots could help tackle ‘worringly’ industry-wide knowledge and skills gaps, new research suggests.
A survey of 2,500 business respondents across 14 countries, from Epicor Software Corporation, found that more than half (54 per cent) reckon robots automate repetitive or mundane work that they would otherwise have to do themselves,
According to the global provider of industry-specific software, that humans are happy to work alongside robots is good news for employers that want to use cutting-edge technology, to plug a growing skills gap on their factory floors.
The same research found that the industrial workforce is getting older, and that only a quarter (23 per cent) of businesses are currently able to attract recruits with the right knowledge.
Use of robots can introduce efficiencies where human resource is low, and they can also encourage young talent into industry – with one third of millennials wanting to work at the cutting-edge of new developments.
Many employees are aware of the benefits of automation, because they already have first-hand experience of robot workmates. One third (31 per cent) report that artificial intelligence (AI), robots, and highly automated machinery, are now a common feature of their day-to-day work, while a similar figure (34 per cent) agree that robots are more efficient than humans in the workplace.
Individuals that work in finance, and those that work in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region may be more up for working with robot co-workers than anyone else – 47 per cent of respondents in APAC agree robots are more efficient than humans (compared to 29 per cent in Europe and Middle East).
One third of those who work in finance agree robots can take stressful tasks away from humans (compared to 23 per cent in IT and one fifth of CEOs).
“The study shows us that the use of robots is a very real, but also very welcome way of solving an otherwise worrying industry-wide knowledge and skills gap,” said Terri Hiskey, vice president, product marketing, manufacturing, at Epicor.
“With employers struggling to find candidates with the right skills or knowledge for entry-level roles, and with employees struggling to keep up with the pressures of business growth, automating aspects of the workforce offers a new way of building efficiencies into the supply chain, and enabling digital transformation.”
