Only 12 percent of CEOs Seen as Strategic and Adept at Evaluating and Implementing New Technologies for Competitive Gain and Growth

Are companies gaining business lift from the digital shift? According to a new survey of senior corporate executives, entitled “Digital Enterprise Execution: Ailing or Excellent?”, there’s near-unanimous validation of the business gains from digital transformation, but it’s not entirely due to strategic leadership from the corner office.

An overwhelming 89 percent of survey respondents believe digital transformation is enabling enterprises to achieve greater business value, performance, and innovation. However, less than 12 percent of chief executives are seen as highly strategic and adept at evaluating and implementing new technologies for competitive gain and growth. Most (44 percent) are seen as moderately strategic.

The CMO Council and the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network fielded a global survey of more than 250 enterprise executives (technology buyers, specifiers, and influencers) across companies of all sizes. The quantitative research fielded in Q3 2022 explored areas of focus and challenge in digital transformation; perceived value and benefits; as well as considerations and requirements for digital change agent/partner selection and success.

Contextually, global enterprises will spend some $4.4 trillion in 2022 on technology acquisition, and more than a quarter of this on digital transformation. With new software investments approaching $700 billion, survey participants were asked to rank how well these solutions are being deployed to improve business execution in critical areas of eCommerce, marketing automation, customer experience, organizational collaboration, and operational excellence.

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Here’s what our research revealed:

• According to respondents, the top five operational areas where enterprises can benefit the most from digital transformation are: 1) Digital commerce and multi-channel engagement 2) Data asset management, analytics, and insights 3) Marketing automation and campaign execution 4) Revenue optimization and customer value creation 5) Business continuity, availability, and agility.
• The three biggest obstacles to effective digital transformation in the enterprise are: 1) Cultural resistance to change and application uptake in the organization 2) Lack of digital enterprise transformation strategy and roadmap 3) Insufficient skills, capabilities, and digital leadership resources internally.
• Respondents believe the success of digital change agents in using technology to modernize or streamline business processes is most influenced by their ability to: 1) Evidence where and how digital solutions will deliver improved revenue and margin 2) Show how digital transformation creates competitive advantage and shareholder value 3) Achieve buy-in and support from the CEO and the C-suite influencers.
• Software applications considered most vital to modernizing and automating enterprise operations are those dedicated to 1) digital transformation 2) data analytics 3) AI and intelligent automation 4) security, in addition to 5) focused industry solutions.
• Strategic understanding of customer needs and competitive market dynamics is viewed as the most important quality of a digital enterprise transformation partner or leader. Surprisingly, a warm, human-based relationship approach; satisfied customer references and track record; and commitment to sustainability were least important to decision makers when evaluating a digital execution partner.
• In contrast, nearly 60 percent of survey participants believe sustainability is either highly or moderately strategic in realizing digital enterprise transformation growth objectives. Thirty eight percent expect an increased focus in this area. Pursuant to this, some 67 percent say they will very likely, or somewhat likely, select a vendor who helps them reach sustainability goals through digital innovation.

The online survey was conducted in Q3 2022 targeting executive business decision makers across companies of all sizes, industry sectors, and geographies. Nearly 30 percent of the 254 respondents represented companies with annual revenues of more than $1 billion. Just under 10 percent represented companies with revenues of between $100 million and $1 billion. And a further 60 percent had annual sales of less than $100 million.

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