Cisco CEO John Chambers recently identified collaboration as a business driver for the next 10 years, and participants in IBM’s 2006 CEO survey concur.
Cisco CEO John Chambers recently identified collaboration as a business driver for the next 10 years, and participants in IBM’s 2006 CEO survey concur (survey overview).
Of the 765 CEOs interviewed for the study, 65% say “they will have to make fundamental changes in their businesses over the next two years,” writes IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano. “New products and services remain a priority, but they’re placing increasing emphasis on differentiating themselves through innovation in the basics of their business models.”
Collaboration is cited as a key enabler of innovation. Surprising, however, is the list of people expected to collaborate. While the CEOs say employees are the most significant source of innovative ideas, the two other primary sources are business partners and customers.
There is a problem, however. Although roughly 75% of the CEOs rated collaboration of great importance to innovation, “only half the CEOs we spoke with believed their organizations were collaborating beyond a moderate level,” the report says. IBM calls this the collaboration gap, and attributes it to skills, expertise and interoperability issues.
The study also identifies a gap between the importance of business and technology integration and the reality of integration today. And although almost 80% of the CEOs would agree, only about 45% say they have achieved integration to a large extent.
Companies that have managed to integrate business and technology report a host of benefits, the top being reduced costs, according to the study. Interestingly, the bulk of the other benefits have to do with driving top-line revenue through such things as higher quality and customer satisfaction, overall speed and strategic flexibility, and faster time to market.
