Get social media or get left behind
If you have been reading this blog, or my white papers, or heard me speak, you know I have been trying to explain to the world for the last two years that things have changed, dramatically, and that if individuals, departments and businesses do not change as well, they will be left behind. The dead beat "Change is not an option" saying is more valid then ever before.
IBM's 2012 Global CEO Study, surveying, face to face (!), 1,709 CEOs from 64 countries and 18 industries, pretty much shows the same thing, using a whole new set of numbers to back this up. Some of the highlights include:
- CEOs are trying to create open and collaborative cultures, and 75% of CEO's feel collaboration is critical for their employees. The better the company performs, the bigger the emphasis on collaboration. Three guesses how they see that collaboration taking place.
- Over half of the CEOs feel social channels will be a primary way of engaging customers over the next 5 years
- Overall, CEOs are investing more in customer insights then in any other area, and outperformers excel at translating customer data into insights.
- 54% of the outperforming organizations say they have access to and draw insights from data, with only 26% of the underperformers saying the same.
One of the things that really resonated is that this group of CEOs feel that technology enables them to connect with innovators, understand and engage customers, inspire employee creativity, and revolutionize team collaboration. When taking a step back and look at the social web, that is exactly what has happened, and I can absolutely see how the outperformers have managed to leverage technology overall and social media specifically to grow their business.
I think the really big lesson all of us can draw from this report is that we can no longer sit on the fence to see what happens. If you are only starting to incorporate social into your overall strategy now, you have some catching up to do.