I sometimes wonder why anyone in business aspires to be the CEO. The corner office is often a lonely place to be, and it's all too easy to become isolated and unaware of the prevailing mood in the organization, something that is almost guaranteed to dilute the impact of business initiatives.
Rarely is this more evident than in the technology-driven generational divide that typifies many 21st-century businesses - the elephant in the room, stifling many innovative programs before they get off the ground. How often do you see people paying no more than lip service to the latest "great idea" put forward by their leadership team? And how quickly does support for a project die away once people realize that the CEO isn't getting involved?
Advocacy programs are no different. If the C-suite isn't leading from the front - you may as well not bother. A number of new pieces of research into "digital transformation" make interesting reading; while they don't dwell on employee engagement and empowerment alone, there are plenty of lessons to be learned.
What CEOs Think
Let's start by looking at things from the CEO's perspective. PricewaterhouseCoopers, in its 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, reports that 61 percent of CEOs consider socially enabled business processes to be a "strategically important" element of digital technology and that, although they see it as a challenge, most CEOs "no longer question the pace of technological change." So far, so good.
"In this digitally-led economy," continues PwC, "CEOs are building diverse collaborative networks that embrace not just traditional partners, but customers, academia, NGOs and even competitors." Social media is playing a significant part in developing and expanding these networks.
It's clear that the technological evolution is placing new demands on the C-suite. Aside from learning how these new tools work - not always a simple task for those not brought up in an always-connected era - leaders need to understand how this technology facilitates the desired collaboration with stakeholders everywhere, and how to apply it to best effect.
It gets better. When asked by PwC to rate factors that are important in getting the most out of an organization's digital investments, 86 percent of CEOs cited their personal involvement "to champion the use of digital technologies" and 83 percent recognized the need for a "well-thought-out plan for digital investments, including measures of success."
So there you have it. CEOs recognize the strategic importance of new technology and are aware of the role they need to play in implementing it in their organizations. Perfect.
Except ...
That's Not How Everyone Else Sees It
Just walk across the street with me and see how it looks from the other side.
We're taking a peek at Embracing Digital Technology, a 2013 research report from the MIT Sloan Management Review in collaboration with Capgemini Consulting; it's another in-depth survey of attitudes toward digital technologies, but one that asks questions of managers throughout organizations, not just those at the very top. Do we find the same picture of digital acceptance and readiness?
At first glance, you might think so. The headline numbers are similar:
- 78 percent of respondents say that "digital transformation will become critical to their organizations within the next two years."
- In organizations where digital transformation is "a core strategic consideration," 82 percent believe their companies will become more competitive in the same timeframe.
- Where CEOs have shared their vision for digital transformation, 93 percent of employees feel that it is "the right thing for the organization."
Dig a little deeper, though, and the picture becomes less cheerful. The authors' thinking is clear:
"Companies routinely invest in technology, and too often feel they get routine results."
So where's the disconnect? With all those CEO champions milling around, why don't the results live up to expectation? Here's why:
What most CEOs consider as adequate personal involvement and support doesn't tally with expectation at lower levels in their organizations. So much so, that only 38 percent of respondents believe that digital transformation is "a permanent fixture on their CEO's agenda," and only just over one-third reported that their CEOs have ever shared a vision for digital transformation. And it doesn't stop there ...
When asked about the pace of change in their organizations, the most common response was that there was "no sense of urgency" in their change programs. The differences between the perception in the C-suite and that at operational levels is staggering - it's literally a case of "the further down the organizational ladder you go, the less satisfied workers are with the pace of digital transformation."
While members of the C-suite believe that their programs are motoring ahead - more than a half of CEOs think the speed of change is either "just right, fast, or very fast - only one-quarter of managers think the pace is right, and a mere 22 percent of staff agree." As the report suggests, "CEOs might know something their colleagues don't, of course." Or maybe, they just aren't keeping their collective ears sufficiently close to the ground?
Why Does It Matter?
It matters because fully networked organizations, those that the MIT Sloan report calls the "digirati," outperform their "less digitally-mature competitors." And by some way, too.
McKinsey, in a survey published early in 2015, discovered a 20-point advantage in performance in key operational areas when comparing fully networked organizations with the average of all respondents. And while you might expect PR and Marketing to feature on the list, maybe the inclusion of New-Product Development and Demand Planning will raise a few eyebrows.
What's equally exciting is that many of the use-cases where advocacy scores highly, including recruitment and talent-management, building brand awareness and marketing campaigns, are also identified as high-impact areas for social technology. So don't think that you can afford to live with the disconnect between the C-suite and your operational teams - you're leaving a huge wad of cash on the table if you do.
The onus is on leadership teams to adjust their thinking and to make themselves aware of the real state of play in their digital transformations. Failing to do so is not an option, since, as Andrew McAfee, principal researcher at MIT's Center for Digital Business, says:
"A critical skill at the top of a company is to have someone who can keep scanning the technology landscape and explaining it to the rest of the management team to say, 'Gang, this is the cloud; it's actually a big deal.' Inertia and complacency are deadly in the world that we live in today."
Where to Next?
Does this sound familiar? Does your C-suite have a rosy-tinted view of the way your digital-transformation program is going? Or are you a CEO who finds the chair more uncomfortable than you like? Either way, share your experience with other readers by commenting.
Beyond Engagement is an exclusive Social Media Today column published every other Thursday.
Image Credits:
Column logo by Marie Otsuka
Getting the Most Out of Digital Investments by PwC
Off the Pace by MIT Sloan Management Review/Capgemini Consulting