WHAT'S KEEPING CEO'S AWAKE AT NIGHT
The challenges faced by CEO’s today are more complex than ever before. Regardless of the industry sector or size of an organisation, most business leaders would agree that these top 5 issues are among their list of critical concerns, keeping them up at night.
1. Managing Talent – Do You Have the Right People in the Right Roles
Business is evolving at a rapid rate and the question today isn’t about whether an organisation needs to change but how fast it can change, reinvent and adapt. And so too is the need for employees to embrace change and adapt a more innovative and nimble approach to complex business challenges. This drives demand for individuals who can take on newly created roles, broader responsibility with a focus on thought leadership and continuous process and performance improvement.
To identify your next high performer or promote people to new roles internally, we suggest spending more time defining what skills, experience and qualities the business is looking for to achieve performance expectations. Spending 80% of your time identifying the essential criteria and qualities required for each role can save time during the recruitment process and ultimately result in attracting a better selection of ‘best fit’ candidates.
2. Keeping up with Change and Technology Standards
New and rapidly changing communication channels are driving the need to adapt and manage risk and performance to a greater level. Technology, digital disruption, artificial intelligence and social media are just a few of the challenges being faced by every organisation. This represents a significant challenge for leaders as businesses adjust their approach to risk and performance to accommodate and find new ways to embrace variable and unpredictable threats to their business and internal and external stakeholders.
Consulting firm McKinsey & Company have explored this further highlighting companies of the future considering “digital hives” to manage the increasingly rapid technology growth and related threats and risk by capturing knowledge from multiple levels within an organisation and dispersing that to broader organisational goals.
3. Taking Advantage of Market Globalisation
The opportunity for Australian organisations has grown and will continue to grow as we see the world become a smaller place. Overseas markets are now much closer, with organisations offshore having greater access to Australian companies which drives the need to become more competitive on a global scale, not just locally.
Local business leaders are also determined to find new growth opportunities overseas and innovative strategies to develop expansion plans.
In a recent edition of the Australian International Business Survey, conducted by the University of Sydney and AusTrade, 74% of respondents reported plans to expand to multiple overseas markets over the next 24 months.
The competing challenges presented by globalisation will shape the performance of Australian business which will be driven to maintaining local market share, whilst pursuing international growth strategies.
4. Is Innovation Ingrained in the Business Culture
Today one of the key differences between a great business and an average business is innovation. No so long ago, it was all about quality of product and customer service but now companies must be highly capable of finding new solutions to complex issues to continue to be successful.
The need for innovation can no longer be ignored as every business requires fresh ideas and valuable insights to improve its efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. Aside from developing an innovative product or service, business leaders need to find and effectively communicate new direction in today’s continually changing business environment and be prepared to adjust and modify that direction to differentiate from competitors.
5. Are You Making the Most Informed Business Decisions?
Every CEO and business leader understands the importance of making the most informed business decisions and the consequences of poor advice, knowledge and insight. The day to day running of a business requires leaders to make or break decisions within short time frames and competing priorities, where even the smallest decisions can lead to profound implications.
Typically good decisions are made when CEO’s weigh up the pros and cons, rewards versus risks and probability of success versus failure. The effectiveness of a business leader, including how quickly decisions are made, the ability to predict what lies ahead, connecting with people and being well informed across multiple internal and external platforms and markets can greatly influence how well a leader performs.