Less than a third of business leaders consider technology foundation

Even though three quarters believe that advanced technologies are critical to driving business transformation, many businesses are still slow to ready their organisations for change. A new report from KPMG International released today reveals that less than a third of business leaders consider their technology foundation readiness to be very high.

Business leaders have long been accused of failing to walk the talk, when it comes to a range of issues. However great the hype grows for ESG, diversity, digital transformation, or artificial intelligence – among other trends – reports continue to suggest that the world’s collective executive suite may not really be all that invested in the things it verbally champions.

The latest such study comes from Big Four firm KPMG. The researchers found that as rapid advances in technology are continuing to drive business transformation agendas, excitement around the changes is continuing to mount. According to around 60% of senior leaders polled, adopting technology increases the likelihood of transformation success. That included 28% who said it would strongly increase those chances.

As a result, an 88% majority of large businesses also purported to be pursuing two or more organisational changes at once. A 54% majority also said they were running three or more concurrently.

But despite this, KPMG also found that very few firms had actually moved to get their houses in order, to support these supposedly crucial changes. Indeed, just 29% of senior business leaders told KPMG that they believe their tech foundation readiness is ‘very high’.

Looking into why this might be, the research uncovered five leading barriers limiting digital transformation. A lack of resources, skills or expertise; stakeholder resistance to change; stakeholder and employee resistance; competing business goals; and a lack of funds or an unclear business case.

To unlock capacity and value, KPMG’s report suggests firms emulate top performers, who have strengths across four key areas. These firms are digitally mature; they have resilient cultures, as the research also reveals that 73% of the most digitally mature enterprises have high levels of trust in their leaders; partner ecosystem alignment, as investing in partnerships rather than building in-house can be more time and resource-efficient; and they have “strong orchestration capabilities” to mobilise the whole firm as one.

Commenting on the research findings, Tash Moore, global transformation leader at KPMG International, said, "Transformation is now a continuous journey. We’re at a real inflection point in the digital revolution. Enterprises can capitalise on this to create and unlock greater value and achieve competitive advantage – including the deliberate choices on how digital and data is utilised, to risk management and driving product and service innovation.”