68 percent of CEOs to take on a major investment in data and technology over the next 12 months: EY

The pandemic of COVID-19 forced companies to reassess their priorities and accelerate their transformation efforts to generate long-term value. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of CEO respondents from the world’s largest companies say that they plan to take on a major investment in data and technology over the next 12 months, while 61 percent plan to undertake a major transformation initiative over the same period, according to the global EY CEO Imperative Study 2021.

Central to this, many CEOs recognize the importance of human factors to the success of their transformation projects, with 68 percent of respondents saying they have at least one transformation priority related to the importance of people, the cultivation of future talent and organizational culture.

“The digital transformation of companies, with fundamental changes in business models and operations, has been on the CEO agenda for some time. However, the pandemic moved this imperative from important plan to urgent plan. Furthermore, leaders need to seize emerging growth opportunities for their companies in order to strengthen their competitive position. It takes not only a well-defined strategy, but also the courage to reshape the entire organization with the clear goal of creating long-term value”,says Bogdan Ion, Country Managing Partner EY Romania & Moldova and Chief Operating Officer for EY South-East & Central Europe and Central Asia (CESA).

Diverging “Thrivers” and “Survivors”

The research looked at the revenue growth rate of companies across the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic, prior to, at its height and ahead to the next three years. EY segmented them into three distinctive groups and analyzed their respective growth priorities and prospects:

• Thrivers: Thirty-four percent of businesses were already benefiting from a period of financial growth before the pandemic hit, and this group will continue outpacing their peers over the next three years. CEOs of those businesses are actively leaning into this pivotal moment and accelerating their transformation agendas.
• Maintainers: Thirty-four percent of companies that had low or flat growth prior the pandemic and expect to remain there for the next three years and expect no change to their transformation agenda over the same period.
• Survivors: Thirty-two percent of leaders outlined that prior to the pandemic, their organizations were experiencing a decline in revenue and expect that their revenue would either continue to shrink, or level off over the next three years, and over the same period CEOs in this group will slow their transformation agendas.

This analysis highlights that while the CEOs of Thrivers are already taking advantage of the present opportunity, those within the Survivors and Maintainers groups must immediately act to avoid falling further behind. 

Data trust gap threatens transformation, competitiveness

As data security and privacy regulations move to the forefront of public discourse, there remains a considerable trust gap between the capabilities of intelligence technologies and what people are willing to let these innovations do. Only 34 percent of respondents affirm that customers trust them with their data, reinforcing the need for CEOs and the C-suite to scrutinize processes around data collection, management and use, while increasing transparency with customers and other stakeholders. If left unaddressed, this issue could limit growth, slow innovation and stall transformation efforts.

Despite this gap, 88 percent of respondents state that the use of data science to anticipate and fulfill individual customer needs will be a main differentiator in the next five years; while 87 percent of respondents say delivering data-driven experiences will drive competitive advantages during the same period. In the more immediate term, 41 percent of respondents believe artificial intelligence (AI) and data science requires increased attention from the C-suite over the next 12 months.

Stark divisions in sector transformation priorities

While digital innovation was the top transformation driver overall and the greatest area of increased focus to generate growth, there were important distinctions among different sections. Most notably in the Energy sector, where less than one-third (32 percent) of respondents believe digital transformation requires attention. Instead, respondents within the Energy sector are more focused on climate change and geopolitical risk. In the Finance sector, just over half (51 percent) of respondents were focused on digital, while two-thirds (67 percent) look to cybersecurity.

Among the starkest divides is in the area of long-term value, where 69 percent respondents in the Manufacturing sector believe this is where their focus should be, compared with just 17 percent of respondents in the Technology sector.

The long-term value creation “say-do” gap

The research found that over the next five years, 87 percent of respondents believe the creation of long-term value across stakeholders will be welcomed and rewarded by the market, while 91 percent of respondents believe new business models will increasingly incorporate aspects of the circular economy. Alongside this, 80 percent agree there is likely to be a global standard for measuring and reporting long-term value creation and 80 percent agree that their organizations will take significant new steps to take environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) responsibility inside their operations. However, analysis of responses against key long-term value dimensions such as societal, human, financial and customer, revealed a clear “say-do” or intention-action gap.

DNA of the future enterprise

The research found leaders face key capability and execution gaps, with actions failing to meet intentions when it comes to generating long-term value, changing organizational structures from inhibiting agility, and sluggish investment in ecosystems hampering resilience. Addressing these gaps will require a top-down strategy focused on three interconnected value drivers:

1. Placing humans at the center of everything the organization does, increasing agility to react to changing market and consumer demands.
2. Technology at speed, empowering organizations to deploy new solutions faster.
3. Innovation at scale, collaboration among organizations across an ever-increasing ecosystem to move into new markets.

By focusing on these value drivers, CEOs can reorient their organizations around a culture built for continuous transformation and set their businesses up to outperform competitors in the short-, medium- and long-term.