Frost & Sullivan's Survey Highlights the Challenges of New Business and the Importance of Innovation for CEOs

FREMONT, CA: Frost & Sullivan's Annual Survey- CEOs' Perspectives on Growth, Innovation, and Leadership- portrays the changing stakeholder expectations which are compelling CEOs to become more innovative to maintain resilient growth. This survey revolves around top business players from various verticals of industries in the Americas, Asia Pacific, MENASA and EIA.

CEOs are seeking innovative tools and strategies in order to deliver dynamic stakeholder expectations arising due to digital transformations like intelligent data analytics, convergence, connectivity and digital consumers. Digitisation of products, services and solutions are leading to disruption, collapse, and transformation of several industries and business ecosystems. The survey claims Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla and GE to be the most disruptive companies. The rapidly changing technology is overtakingtraditional product-based business models and compelling a more agile, service-based approach. 

In order to align with customers’ needs, companies adopting new business models over innovating strategies are also facing challenges both internally and externally. 53 percent of CEOs consider this intensifying competitive environment as the biggest external threat to growth while 34 percent of CEOs state that the rapid technology change is the biggest challenge.  For 50 percent of the CEOs, executing either technology and IP strategies or strategic partnership becomes a difficult task. Some 48 percent of CEOs and business leaders believe that they will rely on strategic partnerships to drive organizational growth in the next three years as digital transformation of the business ecosystem expedites the need for new alliances. According to the survey, greater organizational clarity is required to effectively implement transformative growth strategies.

"As global economic ecosystems experience intense transformation driven by digitisation and resulting change of focus from products to services, new opportunities for growth and innovation are emerging. However, leveraging these opportunities requires visionary leadership that can realise growth strategies and vision congruence," says David Frigstad, Chairman, Frost & Sullivan.