CEOs Must Lead Corporate Learning

Identifying Developments to Seize Opportunities Is a Corporate-Wide Need...

“Once upon a time, digital technology was an add-on, a piece that simply serviced the business as a whole. Today, CEOs embrace it as part of their companies’ circulatory system.”

This week, I’ve been discussing insights from PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. Today, I want to talk about something many CEOs we spoke to described as essential to their companies’ successes and sustainability: dedication to learning and application of that new knowledge to their businesses.

Intuitively, this makes sense—we must continuously master what is happening within our fields and beyond. But it has never been as important as it is now, and our survey data regarding U.S. CEOs’ perspectives has never been so emphatic on this point. If you are a CEO who is not devoting significant time to learning what happened yesterday, what happened today, and what might happen tomorrow—to your customers, your business partners, your competitors, your industry, and related industries—you are behind. Indeed, you are jeopardizing your company’s future.

Of course, while a CEO must lead learning by word and deed, the rest of the company must also engage. Ultimately, companies succeed because of teamwork, because the sum is greater than its parts. That means every part must be as attuned as the CEO to learning what its members must know to compete—not just now, but three, five, and 10 years from now.

Our recent survey and my discussions with CEOs over the last year reveal that U.S. CEOs are doing and contemplating many new things to compete. From my perspective, however, U.S. CEOs’ approach to digital technologies best highlights the point. Once upon a time, digital technology was an add-on, a piece that simply serviced the business as a whole. Today, CEOs embrace it as part of their companies’ circulatory system.

Most tellingly, U.S. CEOs are embracing digital tech to operate more effectively and efficiently internally, acquire new customers and relate better to their existing customers. They are embracing the technologies that help them learn the key facets of their businesses. For example, within their own companies:

• 90% said that data and data analytics are creating high value for their organization;
• 79% said cloud computing is important for their organization; and
• 63% said that digital technology is important to strategic decisions.

On the external business side, U.S. CEOs told us the following:

• 85% said that digital technology is creating value for customer experience;
• 82% said that digital technology is creating value for their brands and reputations; and
• 79% said that mobile technology is strategically important to customer engagement.

Critically, learning applies to digital technology on several levels. First, CEOs are increasingly using this technology to educate themselves more comprehensively and more quickly. Second, all company leaders—and each and every employee in the organization—need to develop and continuously learn digital skills as they apply to our jobs; it can no longer be only the domain of IT specialists. Finally, to maximize technology, CEOs themselves must keep apprised of its development so that they can be on the forefront of their businesses’ and industries’ knowledge. I cannot overemphasize this last point.

So do not let Big Data, predictive analytics, and even more exotic technologies daunt you or your people; learn about and use them if it makes sense. PwC’s Global Data & Analytics Survey 2014, which reached 1,135 senior executives, found that 52% of CEOs had discounted data they did not understand. This should not happen. Your current and future competitors aren’t putting their heads in the sand, and you do so at your company’s peril. There is no mystery in this realm that time, attention, and the right team won’t clear up. And U.S. CEOs are increasingly recognizing this fact.

Indeed, U.S. CEOs are more convinced than their global counterparts about the extent to which digital technologies are creating value for their companies. For example, 55% of the U.S. CEOs we surveyed stated that digital technologies were creating high value for customer experience compared to 40% globally, 50% of U.S. CEOs picked data and data analytics compared with 45% globally, and 42% of U.S. CEOs identified digital trust (including cyber security) compared with 35% globally.

If there is one area where innovation and disruption occur rapidly, it is digital technology. And CEOs must constantly reassess how to maximize this innovation. For example, this year’s Top Health Industry Issues of 2015 report from PwC’s Health Research Institute highlighted two relevant items: the increase in do-it-yourself healthcare, such as wearables, and the leap that will occur from mobile apps to full-fledged, at-home medical devices. If you’re in any part of the healthcare industry, or are in significant parts of the software or hardware industries, you need to know and understand these trends and determine how they fit (or could fit) into your business strategy.

Another great example highlighted in our survey is the spice distributor McCormick & Company. CEO Alan Wilson is taking an ancient business and applying innovation to expand its customer experience and base. Customers can now virtually create their own recipes, with the company deploying robots to rapidly mix ingredients and create new flavors. No matter what your industry, it’s crucial for corporate employees at all levels to continually scan, learn and consider how emerging technologies of all kinds could create opportunities or bring new challenges.

In the end, CEOs must lead. In the survey, 91% of U.S. CEOs said that they themselves must champion the use of digital technology for their organizations to get the most from it. The same is true for creating a learning culture more generally. We all want our people to be learners, to be figuring out what is happening, what will happen, and how to seize developing opportunities. Understanding the potential impact of new technologies on your company is imperative in today’s fast-changing business environment. Creating that culture must start at the top.