The IBM Global CEO Study, largest study of chief executives ever conducted has revealed a dramatic increase in the number of global business leaders who see important changes ahead.
The study, based on face-to-face interviews with 1,130 CEOs from 40 countries including African countries, across 32 industries, is designed to capture insights on how the challenges CEOs face today will impact the future of business.
titled "The Enterprise of the Future," the study was conducted by IBM Global Business Services in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
"The enterprise of the future accepts change as a permanent state in an organization. Those CEOs who demonstrate the capacity to manage major change know they can beat the competition by reaching new classes of customers, and making bold moves to shift business design around principles of global integration," said Mark Harris, managing director of IBM Sub Saharan Africa. "And it’s clear that out-performers are distancing their enterprises from the competition based on their organizational capacity to take advantage of change."
The "information omnivore", the study revealed, craves all types of information and often broadcasts its views and expectations worldwide via the Internet. These customers are swapping passive roles for much deeper involvement. "Consumers" are becoming "producers," often creating entertainment and advertising content for their peers, while demanding flexibility and responsiveness from companies with whom they choose to do business.
Although these customers are more demanding, the majority of CEOs do not see them as a threat, but as an opportunity for differentiation based on meeting the heightened expectations of this group, and capitalizing on new market opportunities that will emerge.
Overall, CEOs are planning a 22 percent increase in investments in the next three years to serve these more sophisticated and demanding customers.
The investment is even more pronounced among financial out-performers. CEOs of firms with higher net profit margin growth indicate that investments targeted at information omnivores will increase 36 percent over the next three years. The majority of these new investments will be dedicated to new operational capabilities that improve collaboration and product innovation, and that are more oriented to transparency and tailored to specific market segments.
CEOs agreed that customer expectations around corporate social responsibility (‘CSR’) are increasing, and that CSR will play an important role in differentiating an enterprise in the future. Customers are coalescing around organizations’ CSR profile – including, but not limited to "green" initiatives — and are increasingly demanding socially-minded products, services, and even supply chains.
CEOs indicated that while customers have always cared about societal issues, those concerns are now more frequently turning into action as the more socially aware customer evaluates an enterprise’s CSR profile before making purchasing decisions.
The business leaders also revealed that CSR reputations are also an important tool to attract and retain employees. They are also recognizing that their organizations are being held mutually accountable, along with the public sector, for the socioeconomic well-being of the regions in which they operate.
Overall, the CEOs see opportunities in CSR and are using it for their competitive advantage. They indicated that CSR is critical to maintaining current market share.
To better understand and reach the new socially-minded customer, CEOs plan to increase their investments by 25 percent over the next three years, the largest percentage increase of any trend identified in the study.