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The Business of IT

After reengineering the rest of the business, IT’s children deserve some shoes. With shrinking budgets and increased scrutiny over ROI, many IT organizations are under pressure for bottom-line company earnings. This manifests in two ways: enabling the business to be more effective in the market (IT for the business), and driving efficiency of IT operations (The Business of IT). To do both, IT organizations should automate and integrate their core processes and services, just as they’ve done previously for manufacturing, finance, and sales. When it comes to supporting business performance, IT has a thirty-plus year record of delivering what’s needed. First it was the transition from manual processes to technology-driven solutions. Then, from standalone systems to integrated offerings. And now, IT is striving for similar returns from information, digital, and innovation. In the years ahead, however, IT’s value proposition will likely increasingly be shaped by how well it addresses its second mandate: to improve operational efficiency in the business of IT itself.

2013

Tech Trends 2013 Elements of postdigital

Deloitte

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The disruptive decade

The global economic outlook is certainly enough to test even the strongest enterprises. The eurozone is still mired in recession and the US economy is forecast to expand by just 2.2% this year.1The situation in some of the growth markets is also getting harder, as the slowdown in the BRIC economies demonstrates. While market conditions in many countries are still very difficult, CEOs are more positive about the prognosis than they were last year: 52% think the global economy will stay the same for the next 12 months and only 28% believe it will shrink. In 2012, by contrast, 48% were convinced the global economy would contract.But economic plateaux aren’t exactly grounds for cheer. That’s why short-term confidence about the prospects for revenue growth has continued falling (see Figure 1). CEOs in Western Europe are especially nervous. Only 22% feel very confident they can increase their company’s revenues in the coming 12 months, compared with 53% of CEOs in the Middle East and Latin America.

2013

16th Annual global CEO Survey

PWC

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What worries CEOs most?

Today’s CEOs are concerned about a wide range of potential and ongoing threats to their business growth prospects. These include catastrophic events, economic and policy threats and commercial threats.We asked CEOs about their organisation’s ability to cope with the potential impact of various disruptive scenarios. The majority thought their organisations would be negatively affected, with major social unrest being cause for the greatest concern (see Figure 3). Indeed, CEOs are far more concerned about this than they are about a slowdown in China, possibly because they’ve already factored the latter into their calculations.

2013

16th Annual global CEO Survey

PWC

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A three-pronged approach

So what are CEOs doing to make their organisations more resilient in this era of ‘stable instability’? Our survey shows that they’re taking three specific approaches:A) Targeting pockets of opportunity: CEOs are focusing on a few well-chosen initiatives, primarily in their existing markets, to stimulate organic growth. They’re more wary about entering new markets or engaging in mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and diluting their resources too much. B) Concentrating on the customer:CEOs are looking for new ways to stimulate demand and foster customer loyalty, such as capitalising on digital marketing platforms and involving customers in product/service development. But they’re also aiming to keep their R&D costs down and make the innovation process more efficient. C) Improving operational effectiveness:CEOs are balancing efficiency with agility. They’re trying to cut costs without cutting value or leaving their organisations exposed to external upheavals. They’re also delegating power more widely and collaborating with organisations to share resources and develop new offerings.

2013

16th Annual global CEO Survey

PWC

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It’s a question of trust

We’ve discussed what CEOs are doing to make their organisations more agile, more appealing and more profitable. To succeed in, and align, these three goals, CEOs know they’ll have to repair the bridges between business and society. CEOs also recognise the important role that business can play in addressing social challenges and improving national outcomes.

2013

16th Annual global CEO Survey

PWC

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Relationships at Scale

Businesses need to rethink their digital strategies to move beyond e-commerce and marketing. Although mobile technology, social networks, and context-based services have increased the number of digital connections with consumers, most companies are still just creating more detailed views of consumers, consumer attributes, and transactions. Individually, these connections may represent new types of user experiences, even new sets of sales channels—but that’s not the real opportunity. Taken in aggregate, digital represents a key new approach to consumer engagement and loyalty: companies can manage relationships with consumers at scale.

2013