Leadership misalignment holds businesses back
When it comes to long-term strategies, Productivity Leaders and Late Adopters have one thing in common: disconnected leadership is putting future transformation progress at risk.
We surveyed IT executives and other business executives (CEOs, CFOs, COOs and CHROs) and found that their perspectives on the drivers behind and success metrics for digital workplace tools and services are dramatically different.
Take executive goals for digital workplace services. To measure ROI, business executives are primarily using human- and experience-centric KPIs, such as employee productivity and satisfaction and customer satisfaction.
But IT executives are preoccupied with quantitative measurements, such as operational efficiency, risk reduction and downtime mitigation.
Productivity Leaders show that using both approaches can have broader business benefits. A holistic approach that balances efficiency with people-centric outcomes is essential for sustainable, long-term transformation.
When it comes to AI in particular, this balance is a key part of preparation. From an operational and risk perspective, to maintain effective governance, company data needs to be classified and access rights defined ahead of AI implementation.
And from a human perspective, employees must be provided with adequate training to avoid bottlenecks after AI-enabled process changes.
Figure 1:Business and IT executives use different metrics to measure digital workplace success
Q4: Which of the following KPIs are most important to your organization when measuring ROI for your digital workplace solutions? (Rank 1–3 summary; base: all answering. Business leaders = 56; IT leaders = 944.)
Executives also disagree about the performance of their current digital workplace strategies. IT executives are about twice as likely as business executives to say their approach has improved ROI, cybersecurity and day-to-day productivity. A big gap exists between the executives' views of workforce tools in a hybrid environment. Two-thirds (67%) of IT executives say the digital tools they provide to employees are consistent across remote and office-based workers, compared with just 32% of business executives.
AI is another source of tension. Even though Productivity Leaders' results show AI's benefits to digital workplace services, business executives are not convinced. Less than a third say that generative AI plays a critical role in solving downtime, compared with 72% of IT executives. IT executives are much closer to downtime processes, so this gap might reflect that business executives have less understanding of how AI is used.This misconception could be putting further investment in AI at risk. Only one in three business executives is comfortable allowing generative AI to operate independently in IT support scenarios, compared with almost two-thirds (64%) of IT executives.
If executives do not agree on what has been a success or on the right path forward, future transformation is likely to stall. So, organizations must align their leadership around shared priorities, and both groups have a role to play in this.
IT leaders must educate their business peers about the impact AI can have on IT support and champion the business case for further investment. But they have to be careful how they communicate the benefits of AI, according to May Yap, senior vice president and chief information officer at manufacturing company Jabil.
“IT leaders should not think only like IT leaders — they need to think like business leaders," says Yap. “When you start to appreciate business problems and speak their language, you can demonstrate how technology enables solutions. That’s how you bring the C-suite with you on the transformation journey.”
Business executives, meanwhile, must make sure that IT executives do not forget the importance of prioritizing employee experience and input. At CJ Logistics America, Sean Moore says that having formal touchpoints between business and IT groups helps to keep the organization grounded: “We created a technology steering committee with members of the C-suite and IT. It helps us align on a pipeline of new tools and decide which are worth evaluating and prevents shadow IT from running off with shiny objects. It’s been critical to uniting technology and business priorities.”
Michael Schmelmer, vice chairman of the Board of Managing Directors at pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, believes that the gap between executives and IT leaders is narrowing. “Fifteen years ago, business executives talked about IT as a cost factor; now, they talk about IT investment with high returns," says Schmelmer. "CEOs and CFOs are realizing that investing in IT is investing in the business as a whole.”
Figure 2:Business and IT executives view the success of their digital workplace investments differently
Q5: To what extent has your organization seen improvements or regression in the following areas as a result of your current digital workplace solutions and services strategy? ("Improvements" summary; base: all answering. Business leaders = 56; IT leaders = 944.)
