IBM's newest CEO study, which canvassed over 1700 CEOs from around the world, reports that CEOs see social media growing to 57% of their important customer interactions from 16% today. The survey, called "Leading Through Connections," is in its fifth year and while many of the responses were not substantally different from prior years, there were some significant surprises, according to the researchers, particularly the tilt toward social media. In its first briefing yesterday in New York, to analysts and to Social Media Today, the IBM team led by Peter Korsten, Partner and Global Leader for IBM Institute for Business Value, also spoke about the substantial shift to "openness" as a declared value for dealing with employees.
The press release is here, and we'll be following up this report with infographics from the research, but I'd like to invite our bloggers as well to comment on the findings and to blog about them here. Anyone who needs further evidence that social is not only a way of communicating but a core strategy for global CEOs need look no further than this report.