AL CEO needs to change management style to succeed in 2020

Amdocs survey says ability to drive innovation key

 
Amdocs, a provider of customer experience solutions, announced the results of a major survey of CEOs, senior executives and other senior management executives of the largest service providers in Latin America and the Caribbean (CALA). Among respondents, 75% believe that CEOs will need to change their management style to continue to be successful five years from now. For them, this shift will be necessary as the rapid innovations brought by new and traditional players continue to revolutionize the way we communicate and consume information and entertainment, an era Amdocs calls “The New World of Customer Experience.” (The New World of Customer Experience™).
 
Other research highlights:
 
– The 2020 CEO is expected to push ideas and strategies forward, without taking attention away from the gains and losses. According to the executives who participated in the survey, the 2020 CEO will bring greater value to the organization through ideas and strategies (1st), financial governance (2nd), good communication (3rd) and passion (4th). Risk-taking received a very low rating (9th), indicating that CEOs are still expected to focus on keeping the “right” numbers. This is also reinforced by the expectation of the majority of respondents (75%), for whom the 2020 CEO is likely to have prior experience as a CFO.
 
– The biggest barriers to success are lack of strategy and inability to make changes: Lack of a clear strategy (1st), inability to support or carry out changes (2nd) and lack of qualified personnel (3rd) will be the top three barriers for CEO success in 2020, according to local executives. This is more important to them than the competition (7th), and the lack of ideas, which is a distant 10th. To address this issue, respondents said the CEO's management style will have to shift from today's favorite – where the executive sets the pace and leads – to a model where the CEO knows where the company is going, leads by example and be the mentor who values the contribution of others and links the goals of individuals to the goals of the organization. Reinforcing the need to overcome the challenge of executing on innovative ideas, executives believe that, by 2020, the most important innovation skill that the future CEO will have is the ability to create organizational structures to support innovation and change, item that tied for 1st with the ability to inspire and drive innovation internally.
 
– Senior executives are shifting to support innovation: The study found that service providers in Latin America and the Caribbean are adding new senior roles in response to shifting focus areas and new lines of business. The most commonly aggregated role is that of Chief Customer Experience Officer (CCO). Senior roles responsible for innovation, business, social, cloud, privacy, and people tie for 2nd. By 2020, executives predict that the most commonly aggregated roles will be for big data (1st) and digital (2nd).
 
– The 2020 CEO sees outsourcing as a legitimate investment strategy to support emerging areas: According to the study, CEOs in 2020 will be more likely to invest in cloud operations services (1st), customer experience and multichannel (tied for 2nd), and big data analytics (3rd). With concerns voiced by respondents regarding change management and skills shortages as barriers to future success, it is not surprising that the survey indicates that executives in Latin America and the Caribbean are anticipating a mixed approach of outsourcing and insourcing to drive these changes by 2020. For example, half (50%) anticipate outsourcing at least part of their support to cloud services. It is likely that multi-channel operations and customer experience support can also be accomplished through a hybrid outsourcing and insourcing model, with 25% planning to invest in outsourcing strategies.
 
 “According to executives from the largest operators in the region, a more collaborative approach to innovation and business is needed – whether from senior management, employees, or external partners – to meet the variety of skills needed and the pace of development. change,” said Teresa Cottam, chief strategist and founder of strategy consulting firm Telesperience, who led the research.
 
“The fact that executives from the largest operators tell us that 2020 CEOs will invest in outsourcing to support emerging areas such as big data analytics and multi-channel operations reveals that engagement with service providers will be critical to the introduction and monetization of innovation” , said Eric Updyke, president of the Systems Integration and Operations group at Amdocs.
 
The global study covered the world's top 100 service providers in terms of revenue, with in-depth interviews conducted with CEOs, senior executives and senior management executives from 30 of the top 50, including eight from Latin America and the Caribbean.