CEOs See Technology As Game Changer In Business
- Technology biggest change in organisations
- Business will be left behind if they don’t embrace it
- 1000 people surveyed
A study from camera and printer specialist Canon entitled, ‘Change or Be Left Behind’ has highlighted the role that technology plays as Australian organisations go through changes in their business.
When asked what will be the single biggest change their organisation will go through in the next ten years, 43 per cent of business leaders said that technological advancements were top of the list. This was over and above other areas such as general company changes (19 per cent), people changes (18 per cent) and wider economic/legislative changes (18 per cent).
The study sought to understand attitudes and trends in how Australian businesses view change, pinpoint key barriers to change, the role that technology plays in the process and what the formula for good change is. Split via two audiences, the first survey spoke with 300 senior Australian executives responsible for change, while the second questioned 700 general business workers, not responsible for change in Australian organisations.
The over-riding theme from the study was that despite agreeing change was important (86 per cent) and that their business will be left behind if they don’t address it (73 per cent), just 39 per cent of Australian organisations embrace it and under half (49 per cent) take a pro-active stance on change. Some respondents didn’t believe their business had the right tools to deliver change (40 per cent), but agreed that technology played an important role within the change process (95 per cent)and increased their competitive nature.
Not only will technology be the biggest change organisations go through, it was also ranked highly among both sets of respondents as the main reason behind why change occurred in Australian businesses in the first place. Each survey group was asked to rank three of their top driving forces behind change. Fifty-nine per cent of business leaders ranked technological advancements as the biggest driving force behind change, with financial (54 per cent) and people considerations (44 per cent) placed second and third respectively. Employees allocated technology in fourth place (44 per cent), behind reasons such as increased competition (56 per cent), financial considerations (55 per cent) and the need to work smarter and increase productivity (51 per cent).
