Asean CEOs see creativity as most important leadership quality

MANILA, Philippines - Chief executive officers in Southeast Asia anticipate greater complexity in the future and believe that creativity is the most important leadership quality they intend to focus on in the future, according to a just released major survey conducted by IBM.

“With ASEAN’s rapid growth in the past decade, the need to continually upgrade and develop skills required for the future is significantly high, since several key roles in ASEAN require high levels of expertise, knowledge and experience in sectors ranging from financial services, consumer products and healthcare, “ IBM Philippines global business services country leader Sandy Vann said.

Vann pointed out that this is especially pertinent for the Philippines. “The country needs to be more creative to continue its recovery and improve on its current 83rd ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report, which is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) developed for the World Economic Forum (WEF) and introduced in 2004,” Vann added.

Both global and ASEAN CEOs agreed on the need to foster creativity in their organization, especially using this creativity in their dealings with customers, partners and employees. This was named as the most important quality in this segment. ASEAN CEOs placed more emphasis on sustainability as compared to global CEOs, making it the second most important leadership quality for CEOs in this region. This is explained as a concern for the environment and social issues.

ASEAN CEOs are also keen to utilize resources optimally, thus promoting a more sustainable environment. Both global and ASEAN CEOs ranked integrity as a key leadership quality.

While the CEOs agreed on industry transformation and information explosion as being the top two factors impacting their organization over the next five years, they differed in their choice of the third contributing factor. ASEAN CEOs ranked talent shortage higher than their global counterparts. Talent shortage ranks higher in the growth markets of ASEAN, India and Brazil, as they continue to experience rapid development, thus resulting in competition for scarce and skilled resources.

Meanwhile, both global and ASEAN CEOs are looking to get closer to their customers as part of their focus to realize their strategy in the new economic environment. They intend to understand customer needs better by leveraging insight and intelligence. ASEAN CEOs placed a higher importance on understanding customer expectations in the area of new products, services and channels. ASEAN CEOs identified people skills as their top dimension to focus on over the next five years.

The survey, participated in by more than 1,500 chief executive officers from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, revealed that less than half of global CEOs believe their enterprises are adequately prepared to handle a highly volatile, increasingly complex business environment.

Chief executives stressed that more than rigour, management discipline, integrity or even vision, successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity.

Meanwhile, the global study revealed that CEOs are confronted with massive shifts – new government regulations, changes in global economic power centers, accelerated industry transformation, growing volumes of data, rapidly evolving customer preferences – that can be overcome by instilling “creativity” throughout an organization.

More than 60 percent of global CEOs believe industry transformation is the top factor contributing to uncertainty, and the finding indicates a need to discover innovative ways of managing an organization’s structure, finances, people and strategy.

“Coming out of the worst economic downturn in our professional lifetimes, and facing a new normal that is distinctly different, it is remarkable that CEOs identify creativity as the number one leadership competency of the successful enterprise of the future. But step back and think about it, that the biggest challenge facing enterprises from here on will be the accelerating complexity and the velocity of a world that is operating as a massively interconnected system,” according to Grace Chopard, vice president and partner for strategy and transformation of IBM’s Global Business Services.

The CEOs interviewed told IBM that today’s business environment is volatile, uncertain and increasingly complex. Eight in 10 CEOs expect their environment to grow significantly more complex but only 49 percent believe their organizations are equipped to deal with it successfully – the largest leadership challenge identified in eight years of research.

The CEOs said that the complexity of an interconnected world is aggravated by a number of factors. For example, CEOs expect revenue from new sources to double over the next five years and 76 percent of CEOs foresee the shift of economic power to rapidly developing markets.

Over the last four studies, the expected impact of technology on organizations has risen from sixth to second place in importance, revealing that CEOs understand that technology and the interconnection of the world’s infrastructures is contributing to the complexity they face, and also reveals that they need more technology-based answers to succeed in a world that is massively interconnected.

The study highlights the attributes of top-performing organizations based on revenue and profit performance during the past five years, including the economic downturn.

Top performing organizations are 54 percent more likely than others to make rapid decisions. CEOs indicated they are learning to respond swiftly with new ideas to address the deep changes affecting their organizations.

Also, 95 percent of top performing organizations identified getting closer to customers as their most important strategic initiative over the next five years – using Web, interactive, and social media channels to rethink how they engage with customers and citizens. They view the historic explosion of information and global information flows as opportunities, rather than threats.

Another attribute is that organizations that have built superior operating dexterity expect to capture 20 percent more of their future revenue from new sources than their more traditional peers.