Inside View from Ireland: Handling Change

FROM PODCASTS TO industry press releases with The Economist Intelligence Unit and Harvard Business Review thrown in between, it is very obvious that today’s globally integrated economy demands more from CEOs than they have been trained to handle. According to IBM’s 2008 Global CEO Study of 1,130 CEOs, one involving face-to-face interviews in 40 countries and available through Text100, CEOs are battling to keep up with the pace of change. The helpful study reveals that the number of organisations who have limited or no success at managing change is increasing faster than those organisations that are successful at it. This is surprising since more CEOs--83 percent of them--expect substantial change in the future, and are optimistic they can successfully manage change.

The study reveals that CEOs know where the most important change will occur--within their own customer base. This change happens as two classes of customers emerge: the information omnivore and the socially-minded customer. Of all the trends in the study, CEOs plan their most substantial increases in investments to reach these new customer sets.

As attendees to the annual PRII conference will hear, those CEOs who demonstrate the capacity to manage major change can beat the competition by reaching these new classes of customers, and making bold moves to shift business design around global integration.

I feel like an information omnivore. I crave all types of information and often share my inside view across the world, both on my blog and in microblogging channels. Like many using Twitter and Jaiku, I have become more deeply involved in what I buy and what I use. I watch what friends review on LouderVoice. I search the "interesting" things on Flickr and del.icio.us and won't book into a holiday without checking TripAdvisor first.

As IBM has said on several podcasts, the globally integrated economy requires fresh thinking and innovative approaches to managing change. I enjoy watching this unfold, reading the biannual Global CEO Study when it becomes available.

via Simon Fitzgerald and IBM's Enterprise of the Future.