1、Find your essentialHow to thrive in a post-pandemic realityC-suite Series:The 2021 CEO StudyThe IBM Institute for Business Value,in cooperation with Oxford Economics,interviewed 3,000 CEOs from nearly 50 countries and 26 industries.These interviews were conducted virtually.In addition,through live v
2、ideo conferencing and phone interviews,and when safe,in-person meetings,the IBV conducted deep-dive conversations with two dozen select CEOs from 11 industries and 11 countries.Contents2 Introduction6 Chapter 1 Essential priorities Perform with purposeful agility,make tech matter more,and embrace em
3、erging regulations14 Chapter 2 Essential advantages Five factors that set Outperformers apart28 Chapter 3 Essential lessons Define next-level competitive advantage around customers,products,and operations46 Action guide Essential truths50 Research and analysis methodology This is a moment to take st
4、ock in an entirely new way.Whether COVID-19 impacts subside from here or persist,2020 served as a dramatic inflection point.Never before has the entire planet reconfigured its behavior simultaneously,participating in lockdowns,quarantines,and enforced social distancing.For businesses and governments
5、,the implications have been extreme,with assumptions and plans radically altered.From Asia to the Americas,the status quo has evaporated both within and across industries.The future is murkier than everyet presents both new opportunities and new risks.To better understand this singular moment,the IB
6、M Institute for Business Value(IBV)launched its most extensive Chief Executive Officer(CEO)research project ever.Building on almost 20 years of C-suite studies,the IBV gathered insights from more than 3,000 CEOs and the most senior public sector leaders across the economy and around the world,supple
7、-menting its own deep expertise with that of Oxford Economics,a leader in global forecasting and quantitative analysis.In addition,IBV hand-selected two dozen CEOs for extensive,exclusive interviews that delve into the mindsets,themes,and challenges that top leaders are grappling with right now.What
8、 weve learned is extraordinary.We discovered eye-opening surprises that reflect just how unprecedented the next era will be,with new priorities and new areas of focus.From emerging expectations around remote work to accelerated technological adoption,the leading practices of yesterday and requiremen
9、ts of tomorrow are far from aligned.Introduction2“COVID-19 has changed how we look at the future,”says CEO Fernando Gonzlez of CEMEX,a global leader in the building materials industry.“We started questioning and challenging everything.The traditional ways of planning are outdated.We sense every hour
10、,every day,every week,and react to it.”As CEO and President Mark Little of Suncor,Canadas largest energy company,puts it,echoing nearly every CEO we interviewed,“Well never go back.”The central,overarching question of this new era:what will it take to be essentialto customers,employees,community,and
11、 investors?The CEOs we spoke with almost uniformly emphasized that focusing on the sharpest edge of their businesses,what differentiates their organizations and delivers the most value,has become the overarching imperative.Out of the chaos has come clarity:get rid of diversions and indulgences,root
12、out“tradition for traditions sake,”and exploit distinctive advantages.This applies externally,in products and services,as well as internally.Who is essential to your organi-zation,and what is essential to the operation of your business?While many of our findings were indeed extraordinary,we also dis
13、covered that a retrenchmentfocusing on the basicsmay be equally as important as we move beyond the COVID disruption into whatever comes next.“We must have the courage and conviction to focus on a handful of priorities,”says CEO Jeff McElfresh of AT&T Communications,which serves more than 130 million
14、 US customers and nearly all of the Fortune 1,000.“We can no longer juggle a hundred plates.Strip away distractions,and then invest all of your energy,your resources,to only the things that are going to make you the most successful.Shift activity in the company to rely on partners for some functions
15、.What are we really good at?Rely on somebody else for other ingredients.”“Strip away distractions,and then invest all of your energy,your resources,to only the things that are going to make you the most successful.”Jeff McElfresh,CEO,AT&T CommunicationsIntroduction|3Open innovationCEOs anticipate fe
16、wer partnershipsbut of higher strategic importance.Why do everything yourself if you can partner with someone else who does it better,and together unlock fresh opportunities?CybersecurityCEOs at the top-performing organizations put higher strategic importance on protecting against cyber risks and da
17、ta exposures.They recognize that trust has become the currency of business ecosystems.This report is divided into three chapters.Chapter 1,“Essential priorities,”presents key results from the entire pool of 3,000 CEOs surveyed.Chapter 2,“Essential advantages,”goes a layer deeper,zeroing in on CEOs o
18、f Outperformer organizationsthose who thrived relative to peers in their industry,both before the pandemic as well as during itand illuminating what differentiates them from their Underperformer peers.Chapter 3,“Essential lessons,”draws insights from three groups of respondents revealed by our data.
19、Consistent with the theme of finding your essential advantages,we discovered that respondents naturally grouped into segments of expertise:customer-focused,product-focused,and operations-focused(see“Research and analysis methodology”on page 50).The key themes that emerged from our CEO study:Leadersh
20、ipFlatter,faster,and more flexible structures are succeeding.“This entire experience has made us less bureaucratic,more responsive,”says Alex Gorsky,CEO of Johnson&Johnson,a global producer of medical devices,pharmaceuticals,and consumer packaged goods.The top-performing organizations also put more
21、emphasis on the core value proposition.As Gorsky says,“You have to be ready to go all in.”TechnologyTech maturity is an even more important performance differen-tiator,with cloud computing,artificial intelligence(AI),and the Internet of Things(IoT)at the top of the essential tools list.Organizations
22、 that invested in these areas performed better than peers during the disruptions of 2020.EmployeesRemote work will be a permanent fixture as part of a hybrid workforce that blends in-person employees with virtual colleagues.This will shift organizational culture and demand new management approaches
23、and upgraded executive capabilities.4|IntroductionWhile these designations may seem familiar,the reinventions required by this unique era ask for a decidedly nontraditional formulation.In this third chapter,we highlight lessons from within each group,including Outperformer and Underperformer distinc
24、tions specific to each segment.What is essential for one type of business,we learn,differs dramatically from the others.Today,of course,every significant organization includes elements of customer,product,and operationswith a requirement to be competitive in each.(Customer engagement,for instance,is
25、 a priority that runs across all three groups.)This is fundamentally different from the previous era of strategic planning,where focusing on one segment alone might“do the job.”It also makes each segment-focused analysis valuable for virtually every organization.Yet CEOs cant prioritize everything,w
26、hich is why finding their essential differentiators(and relying on partners to help address the other areas)is so compelling.The performance gap between Outperformers and Underperformers has widened in the past year,with differences between strategic focus areas becoming even more pronounced.Our rep
27、ort concludes with an action guide that highlights how to put these findings to work for your organization,as well as“essential questions to ask”within each chapter.Along the way are targeted Perspectives that address provocative topics,such as the C-suite role thats lost its relevance;the troubling
28、 metric that points to continued diversity-and-inclusion issues;and the emerging technology that CEOs should not let slip into a blind spot.We also dig into respondents by industry,identifying some unexpected patterns.In the year ahead,the IBV will continue to augment this report with studies of spe
29、cific industries and targeted top-executive roles,combining deep quantitative research and distinctive qualitative analysis that help business leaders make smarter business decisions.Introduction|5“Weve been building some muscle in the organization to be better at partnering because we cant do every
30、thing ourselves.We dont want to.”Ross McEwan,CEO,National Australia BankThe business environment of 2020 has seen longstanding plans and rules replaced by urgencies of the moment.Yet once CEOs addressed what must be done,the questions turned to what should be done.What are the learnings,drawn from h
31、istorical leading practices as well as from the most successful COVID pivots,that will produce the best results in the next two to three years?Perform with purposeful agilityAfter the uncertainty of the past year,CEOs stress organiza-tional agilitythe capability of an organization to respond quickly
32、 and pivot without losing momentumas a top priority for leaders to an unprecedented degree.As Suncors Mark Little puts it,“Whats going to differentiate you is your ability to be agile.”According to our research,56%of CEOs emphasize the need to“aggressively pursue”operational agility and flexibility
33、over the next two to three years(see Figure 1).Chapter 1Essential prioritiesThe IBVs exclusive survey of 3,000 global CEOs unearthed clear priorities that span key areas:Perform with purposeful agility Make tech matter more Embrace emerging regulations6Threes a charm:Agility,security,transparencyFig
34、ure 1Enhance operational agility and flexibility 56%Secure data and systems41%Improve data transparency40%Establish greater accountability38%Establish flexible partner networks37%Reduce silo-to-silo handoffs36%“If you can embrace agile setups,experiments,and constantly nurture a learning culture,”sa
35、ys CEO Piyush Gupta of Singapore-based DBS Bank,one of Southeast Asias largest banks,“then you become adaptive and nimble,which means you can respond a lot more quickly to opportunity and changes in the environment.”He adds:“Thats what were trying to do.”Looking ahead,CEOs recognize like never befor
36、e the importance of purposefully preparing for changeswhether driven by competition,government,or external events and having an infrastructure that can adjust rapidly.The challenge often lies in identifying the clear impact of agile initiatives,while in some cases,even“agile chaos”has resulted.There
37、fore,agile ways of working need to be more purposeful.They should include a clear focus on business outcomes and guidelines that indicate where innovation will lead to essential next-level advantagesso that agile initiatives result in material,valuable changes and real-world impact.“If you can embra
38、ce agile setups and experiments,then you become adaptive and nimble.”Piyush Gupta,CEO,DBS BankQ.Which of the above will you most aggressively pursue over the next 2-3 years?Top three actions of CEOs to build a change-ready organization.Essential priorities|7CEOs recognize that this new way of drivin
39、g flexibility and delivering innovation can only be realized with an empowered remote workforce.While 2020 amplified a host of strategic prioritiesfrom supply chain continuity to virtually engaging customersempowering remote work was noted by CEOs as their top concern more frequently than anything e
40、lse(see Figure 2).“The leadership component of big business is going to be stressed by remote work at a level that I dont believe most executives appreciate,”asserts Jeff McElfresh of AT&T Communications.“Its unclear to me that anyone has cracked the code on how to operate the distributed workforce
41、model that COVID has accelerated us into.Not all leaders are comfortable managing in a distributed model.You have to be more precise about each role and the kind of leader that best fits.Weve got work to do to unlock the potential.”This is forcing very practical struggles.“We are imagining the post-
42、pandemic employee experience,”says CEO Roberto Nobile of Telecom Argentina,Argentinas leading telecommuni-cations and entertainment company with 23,000 employees all over the country,referring to his future workforce.“How are the dynamics going to be?We are thinking in terms of digitization,e-collab
43、oration,agility,and total flexibility so as each team will decide how to work.We are co-designing the processes together,breaking down silos and old paradigms.”Ramping up remoteFigure 2Empowering remote workforce61%Accelerating agility54%Reducing operating costs48%Engaging customers virtually 41%Enh
44、ancing supply chain continuity41%Balancing business portfolio41%Q.How important has implementation of the above been to your organizations strategy since beginning 2020?Emerging expectations make flexibility a top strategic priority.8|Essential prioritiesMake tech matter moreThe 3,000 CEOs surveyed
45、cite technological factors as the number one most important external force that will impact their enterprises over the next two to three years.That emphasis is well placed.According to the IBVs recent“Digital acceleration”report,digital maturity is significantly correlated with financial performance
46、.The study found that during COVID-19,more tech-savvy organizations outperformed their less tech-savvy peers on revenue growth by an average of 6 percentage points,across 12 industries.1 In related research,60%of executives surveyed indicated that they are accelerating their companies digital transf
47、ormations during the pandemic.2“Organizations with really good technology platforms have stood up,while those without have really struggled,”says CEO Ross McEwan of National Australia Bank,one of the worlds 25 largest banks.He adds gratefully,“This bank had spent quite a bit of money on redoing its
48、platforms.”Technology not only enables agilityit is central to enabling a hybrid workforce,as well as both operational efficiency and customer engagement.“How do we leverage technology to allow new flexibility?”asks Barri Rafferty,former CEO of Ketchum,a global communications consultancy,and now Exe
49、cutive Vice President and Head of Communications at Wells Fargo.Which technologies are most important?The new CEO survey results rank IoT,cloud computing,and AI as the top three technologies expected to help deliver results(see Figure 3).Figure 3The tech to tackle nowQ.Over the next 2-3 years,which
50、technologies will most help you deliver results?Internet of Things79%Cloud computingArtificial intelligence52%CEOs look most to IoT,cloud computing,and AI to deliver results.74%Essential priorities|9These findings echo the IBVs“Digital acceleration”report,which identified cloud and AI as performance