Dive Brief:
- A study conducted by Oxford Economics and sponsored at meeting with SAP found that one in five business executives is a “Digital Leader.” The report is based on survey results from more than 4,000 executives and employees in 21 countries.
- A digital leader is defined by SAP as someone who embraces digital technologies, streamlines decision making, flattens the organization, builds a digital workforce and, as a result, creates a more robust business environment.
- The report showed Digital Leaders boasted stronger financial performance, more engaged employees and a more clear leadership pipeline than their non-leader peers; however, addressing just one of the four core issues could yield tremendous cultural and financial benefits.
Dive Insight:
Digital leadership represents a new power shift in the enterprise.
The SAP report found that digital leaders encourage their employees in meaningful and productive ways. It emphasized that strong leadership creates more positive relationships and encourages the growth of digital creativity.
Similarly, an earlier Gartner report found that it is critical that chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) embrace a “digital first” environment. As such, the study stressed that CSCOs need to find a place at the leadership table.
“Simply stated, every business unit is a technology startup," said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president and head of global research at Gartner. "There is a shift of demand and control toward digital business units closer to the customer, where business groups, such as the supply chain organization, are taking on more technology spending.”
Sondergaard reported that in leading organizations, one quarter of enterprise costs will be devoted to the digital transformation. Approximately 20% of that will go directly to supply chain transformation. Digital spending by business functions directly impacts the ability of the CSCO to achieve a higher level of demand-driven value network maturity.
