Improving operational effectiveness

16th Annual Global CEO Survey (PwC)

PwC has released its annual CEO survey results, sharing the challenges and opportunities for the upcoming year.  This post will focus on the data collected from CEOs in the US, UK and Canada and how technology may help in their quest for operational effectiveness.

“It’s essential that you streamline operations and become leaner wherever you can, so as to be able to react more quickly to changing market conditions” – CEO Survey

The following screen shot shows 45% of Canadian CEOs are concerned (“somewhat” or “extremely”) with the pace of technological advancement and the potential impact adoption may have on growth.  US CEOs are next at 43% followed by the UK at 31%.  The high rate of concern in North America maybe in part to the business reality of the region.  With 40% of all CEOs indicating “key business operations” are located within North America.  This may imply the need for North American operations to be the driver in implementing cross functional applications that tie multiple business operations together.  It’s also important to note the sample size and typical adoption curves are unique by region and industry.  To help mitigate fears on technological hype (Big Data, BYOD, etc) here is an article outlining 5 tips to consider.

As the title of this post suggests, CEOs view improving operational effectiveness as one of three major initiatives over the next 12 months.  Process improvements coupled with technology to automate repetitive tasks whereby freeing up time and money better spent on activities that return value.

To help support the CEOs quest for operational effectiveness there is also increased capital investment.  Although not all investment is technology related the fact that 66% of Canadian and 51% of US and UK CEOs are approving additional capital spend is re-assuring.  It’s also important to note that in addition to any capital increases many line of business’ often invest in SaaS or cloud based solutions making for an operational expense.

Lastly, we have the CEOs view on strategy and how more than 70% of business leaders in Canada, the US and UK have very focused strategies.  In prior entries I have shared views on how to support business strategy with technology.

How to improve operational effectiveness from a solution perspective:

• Invest in technology that provides a foundation for growth and that provides scenario planning to help bounce back from disruption – BI | CPM
• In order to more effectively compete ensure structure and processes are in place that allow you to quickly react with timely and accurate information – BI | CPM | ERP
• Customer interaction is critical for long-term success. Ensure you have the right processes and systems to manage the customer experience – CRM

Related:
How to support business strategy with technology
Improving finance’s increasingly strategic role
Want to change the BI status quo
Do CIO initiatives support CEO priorities
Do you agree with 42% of CEOs

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