Only a bare majority (52%) of business executives worldwide agree that their organization has a clear and coherent digital strategy, according to recently-released results from the 2015 Digital Business Global Executive Survey conducted by Deloitte and MIT Sloan Management Review. Customer experience and engagement appear to be the backbone of digital strategies, per the report.
Indeed, more than 9 in 10 agreed that improving customer experience and engagement are objectives of their digital strategy, outweighing other components including increasing innovation (81%) and fundamentally transforming business processes and/or business models (77%).
Current attempts at digital strategies seem to be hampered by leadership and staffing abilities: just 52% agreed that their organization’s leadership has sufficient knowledge and ability to lead their organization’s digital strategy, and even fewer (43%) could say the same about their employees’ ability to executive on such a strategy.
A digital strategy seems as though it should be paramount, given executives’ beliefs about digital disruption. Virtually all respondents feel that digital technologies will disrupt their industry to at least some extent, though only 44% feel that their organization is adequately preparing for the disruption to be wrought by digital trends.
As for the impact of digital trends and technologies (such as analytics, the internet of things, mobile, and the cloud), the report indicates that:
- Two-thirds believe that demand for their organization’s core products or services will increase as a result; but
- 2 in 3 also agree that it’s likely their organization will develop new core business lines in the next 3-5 years in response to digital trends.
In order to steer the ship, executives believe that the most important skill an organizational leader should have to succeed in a digital workplace is a transformative vision. That entails knowledge the market and its trends, business acumen, and problem-solving ability. So while technology is the key disruptor, leaders’ technological understanding and experience falls behind managerial and strategic skills when it comes to enabling success.
About the Data: The study is based on a survey of more than 3,700 business executives, managers and analysts around the world. More than 2 in 3 respondents were from outside the US. Professional services (15%), education (14%) and IT and technology (14%) were the most heavily represented industries. Some 48% of respondents are primarily B2B-focused.
