Fundamental Change; New Kinds of Innovation
Posted By Rob Millard - 0 Comments -
IBM's recent study on the world's top corporate CEOs is, they say, the most comprehensive survey of its kind ever conducted. It polled 750 top CEOs worldwide. The study discovered that the majority of these global CEOs plan fundamental change in their organizations over the next two years, and expect new forms of innovation to drive growth.
Frankly, though, some of the results are worrying .....
On the one hand, 65% of the world's top corporate CEOs declared that pressures from competitive and market forces make them plan to radically change their companies in the next two years. On the other, fewer than half of the respondents said that they had been "very successful" or "successful" in change management previously. Fully 20% said that they had previously had "little or no success" or "no change experience." Wow! With these credentials, how did they manage to become / remain CEOs of major corporations?
Let's hope that these 20% of CEOs that have either messed up previously or have no experience with change are not amongst the 65% of CEOs that are planning major change!
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The good news is that during times of change, clients typically need more help from their outsourced professionals. But it is often during fundamental change, or immediately afterwards, that they change law firms and other service providers, if they are perceived to be slow in evolving to match their new circumstances and needs.
So, if there was ever a time to pay particular attention to what your client is planning over the next two years, and to use that information to really get under their skin, it is now.
A few other snippets from the study:
1) About 66% of CEO change initiatives are targeted at business model and operational innovation, rather than just new products and services.
2) 61% of CEOs who have a primary focus on business model innovation fear that changes in the business model of a competitor could likely result in a radical change to the entire landscape of their industry.
3) In terms of how to drive innovation, the study found that 76% of CEOs ranked business partner and customer collaboration as top sources for new ideas. This greatly contrasts with internal R&D, which ranked only eighth as a source for new ideas.
4) An unsupportive culture and limited funding were cited as the most serious obstacles to innovation.
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