LEADERSHIP & BOARD WORK ARE CHANGING WHEN DIGITAL IS DISRUPTING BUSINESSES – Q1 Survey results

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LEADERSHIP & BOARD WORK ARE CHANGING WHEN DIGITAL IS DISRUPTING BUSINESSES – Q1 Survey results

One of the most profound trends impacting business today is the digital technology progress. We know from experience and research that both leaders and companies are struggling to embrace that change, and Digoshen and business partners have the ambition to provide insights and services to support that transition in a constructive way, based on our vast experience in leadership development, strategy and business transformation as well as our understanding the impact of digital technology.

 Digoshen has partnered with Swedish Academy of Board Directors, and during February and March we surveyed their members.  We used our proven survey “Digital Business- & Leadership Capability”, constructed by Digoshen and based on our research and work with clients. The Digoshen survey is also drawing on research results found by institutions like MIT, Institute For The Future, Centre for Creative Leadership, Altimeter and others.

 The conclusions from the survey highlight some critical issues for owners and boards, but also points to some ways to move forward.

 The survey measures both digital business vision and leadership as well as current digital business capabilities at companies. Additionally, it revisits required individual leadership capabilities, and identifies strengths and areas of improvement.

 INDUSTRY PROGRESS TRENDS

 The survey results show that there is a wide spread amongst boards and companies. There is a clear difference between leaders and laggers within industries, and we can see differences between industries as well. Not surprisingly, digital business leaders can be found among Technology, IT and internet companies, many of whom both operate on global basis and being part of driving the change themselves. Lagging furthest behind are the construction industry and parts of manufacturing industry companies.

 DIGITAL BUSINESS CAPABILITY TRENDS

Digital transformation is at the heart of business strategies, but 70 % of the boards still lack a digital business vision.  From the survey we find that companies have started to get their strategy influenced by digital trends, but the transformation is pre-dominantly functionally oriented, where most of the companies have started to digitalize their marketing.

 DIGITAL BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

The survey concludes that only 20 % of the board members have enough digital competence, as judged by their peer board members. 70% of the boards do not believe that their companies are facilitating enough business experiments to capture the digital business opportunities.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY

SENSE AT SCALE

65% of the board members still do not proactively monitor digital trends nor implications. 60% are not yet proactively trying to learn about the new digital world, have not taken any open online courses and are not yet testing services in the new sharing economy.

INVOLVE TO INNOVATE

70% of the board members help innovate for their companies and the majority leverage the relationships they have outside the company. 70% are not helping their companies create visibility on social media and are not positioning themselves there as individual leaders.

ALIGN ACTIONS

80% of the board members are seeking suitable opportunities and have an optimistic view.  50% need to increase their cultural understanding to ensure they can help their companies going forward.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Digital progress is creating a vast number of new business opportunities for the value adding boards ready to revisit their company’s business models and promote business experiments.

Board members need to continue to learn and keep themselves updated about the business opportunities arising from digital technology, to go on their own digital journey. They also need to help revisit their companies’ vision and business strategy clearly impacted by digital, and help create clarity for the organization.

  • If you have not done so yet, take a moment to complete the survey yourself. It is confidential, takes only 10 minutes and will provide you with your own personalized assessment with recommendations. You find the survey here.
  • We invite you to join the Digoshen Insight platform to keep yourself updated with new research findings, innovation examples, digital magazines and sharing by other inspiring leaders, the insight services are completely free of charge.
  • When joining our platform, you get access to the full version of the downloadable report with all detailed results.

 Digital business progress is still early days and the development potential is great for both boards and businesses. At Digoshen, we are convinced that we will see positive changes going forward. If there is digital competence at the board, the probability increases that it will influence more of the business success in the digital era.