5 must reads for your weekend

We keep our ear to the ground for the interesting stats, insights and discussion points you need to feel in the know.

1. People power

The need to successfully transform - and to do so continuously in the face of disruption -?is now critical for organizations to survive. Our research suggests that 85% of senior leaders have been involved in two or more major transformations in the last five years alone. Two-thirds (67%) of those we surveyed said they have experienced at least one underperforming transformation during this time. It’s a staggering, if unsurprising, statistic. More staggering is that companies continue to accept this rate of failure as the price of change. In any other context, and by any other standard, this level of performance would be completely unacceptable. So what should CEOs do when a transformation goes off track? We hypothesized that the secret to a successful business transformation, was the human factor – and our research has brought this to life.?Transformation programs using the power of their people to solve emerging issues, are 12 times more successful at navigating turning points. We break it down...?

How can the moments that threaten your transformation define its success?

2. High on the agenda

Transformation clearly is front and center on the 2024 CEO agenda.?But there’s a bumpy road ahead. Whilst CEOs have deepened their understanding of geo-political issues, uncertainty remains. With geopolitics a major consideration today, some CEOs have developed new skill sets, with others yet to enhance their geopolitical risk assessment capability. As political and global tensions inch upwards through 2024, CEOs brace for challenges. Why??Over half of the world’s electorate is due to vote over the next year.?78% foresee the rise of global populist movements stirring geopolitical turmoil and creating business challenges like policy uncertainty. But that’s not all. 76% express deep concern over potential misuse of AI to manipulate upcoming elections. Notably, elections in the US and EU may be seen as the most consequential in many years, amid competing visions for international relationships and economic policy that will fundamentally impact the global business environment.?

Should CEOs double-down on business transformation in the face of uncertainty?

3. The language of global business ?

While modern workplaces are supporting all types of diversity - from gender and race to neurodiversity - there's one area that hasn't changed much. Language. Love it or hate it,?English continues to dominate as the universal business language, with no signs of change. But have you ever thought about how it might cause a lot of stress for non-native English speakers in the workplace? “The English monopoly can make non-native speakers complicit in endorsing the implicit superiority of the Anglosphere culture. This flies in the face of celebrating a diversity of cultural backgrounds” writes Nobuko Kobayashi , APAC Strategy Leader EY-Parthenon. “A Japanese friend once confessed to me that about a year into an executive role at her global employer, she was mortified when a senior colleague praised her rapidly improving English in front of a large, multinational group of peers.” Whilst it was said with the best intentions,?the woman found it highly patronizing. One thing is clear – it’s important to recognize that no matter what language we grew up speaking, we can all help make the workplace fairer. We must?think about the language we use and what it might imply for others. Nabuko explores this further in her latest article...?

Non-native English speakers need to be heard within multinationals

4. Sticking your New Year resolutions?

We all know the problem with New Year’s resolutions. We start January with the best of intentions, and then we lose momentum (or motivation) and return to what we were doing before. The same can apply when setting business goals. As a leader, you may be looking at our resolutions and thinking, “We can’t do all of that -?we just don’t have the resources.” According to Mike Lee, Global Leader, Wealth & Asset Management at EY, the key to making resolutions -?and business goals - stick is to turn them into habits. “It's about intentionality,” says Mike. “You have to constantly go back and reinforce and re-remind yourself that this is what needs to be done.” Another tactic is to break up a larger resolution into smaller chunks, that are each achievable in themselves, one at a time. Ask yourself: What are the micro-actions we can take that will form better habits that will help us progress toward our end goal?

Turn your business resolutions into habits that stick

5. Speeding up?drug discovery with GenAI?

“Once GenAI is optimized, it's going to reduce timelines by 50%," says the Former Clinical Development Director of Medical & Scientific Affairs at Biotech, on how GenAI could reform early stage drug development. “You can use GenAI to make predictions, from selecting targets for drug development, to putting together combinations of genes for prognosis”. The use of GenAI holds great potential for the drug discovery process, which typically takes up to a decade or longer, with an average cost of $1b to $2b per therapy that makes it to?market. In fact, every step of the drug discovery and early stage development process, where only 10% of candidate molecules typically advance to clinical trial, can be expedited. “GenAI could potentially bring costs down by $40m to $400m by helping work with data in a way that dashboards don't always allow," says the Head of Data Science, at a large pharmaceutical company. Here’s how EY has helped pharmaceutical companies to implement GenAI into the drug discovery process...?

How pharma can benefit from using GenAI in drug discovery

If you do one thing:?

As Mike Lee suggests, try breaking up a goal into smaller chunks.

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