2009+ CxO agenda radar

The impact levels of new and emerging trends are defined as:

Transformational: likely to require transformation changes within organisations.
Low: more likely to require minor improvements rather than radical changes.

The status of new and emerging technologies are defined as:
Emerging (Red): mainly expressed by academia and a very small number of specialized markets.
Adolescent (Amber): expressed more widely by analysts and thought-leaders.
Early adopter (Green): seen more widely by clients markets. Clients starting to look for solutions.
Mainstream (White): there is a clear need and many clients are implementing solutions.

The implications of time and impact of new and emerging technologies are defined as:

Now-1 year: Look today at how solutions address need.
2-3 years: Consider potential solutions with maybe some pilots.
4+ years: Understand now and consider the potential implications and how these could be addressed.

2009+ CxO agenda trends

• Globalization is introducing new opportunities and threats, accelerating the speed at which businesses are changing in order to gain, or maintain, market share. Agility is required in order to ensure flexibility to adapt to change and to enable organizations to build a relationship with many types of organization within the business eco-system.
• The current financial crisis can be seen as a failure of Corporate Governance. In particular, risk management failed at every level. The flood of governance scandals has weakened markets and eroded trust, threatening a backlash against the legitimacy of business. It has also served as a reminder that companies in any industry will have to develop or strengthen appropriate mechanisms and tools for identifying, modeling, and managing risk at all levels: strategic, operational, and financial.
• The cost of offshoring to countries such as India and China is increasing as the workforce increases its skills and broadens its portfolio to include delivery that requires a skilled workforce-in particular in the field of research. Many more worldwide locations are now being tapped into as potential new offshore sites. Offshoring is also happening with alternative, less expensive countries nearer home.
• Baby-boomers are starting to retire. They will either retire completely or, for those whose pensions do not bring in enough income and / or are fit and healthy enough to postpone retirement, they will continue working, looking for less stressful posts. The knowledge of the aging workforce may go with them when they retire or, if they stay, their needs must be accommodated.
• Generation Y, those born in the 1980s and 1990s and brought up in the digital world, will become both the new workforce and new clientele. To engage them requires the use of digital technologies that are encompassed by Web 2.0.
• New technology tends to be adopted by consumers before being adopted within business. It used to be that the technology in the workplace was more advanced than that in the home, but not so today—Consumer IT.
• As the Internet gives customers more access to information, more choice, and a louder voice, retaining customers becomes an increasingly complex task requiring customer intimacy.
• Reducing the overall carbon footprint not only improves operational efficiency but can also improve market perception by showing social responsibility. Organizations will be expected to include this in financial and management reports.
• With changing demographics, higher fuel prices, and the need to get closer to customers and partners, many more people will work away from the main office. Mobile workers require a new style of management and new communication practices to ensure that they do not become siloed.
• As workers become more mobile and customers want to ensure the safety and origin of products, traceability is key for products from constituents to consumer and for personnel movements and behaviors.
• In the future, many objects will generate data from the moment of their creation. Much of it will be forwarded for purposes like service monitoring, analytics, and secure audit trails. Organizations are at risk of drowning in information.
• In an ever-changing world, the risk of disruption is becoming ever greater as we see more threats from climate change and terrorism and even pandemics.