TWO-THIRDS of CEOs globally believe that the availability of talented managers is a top priority, while one quarter rate it as their greatest concern, recent research has found
TWO-THIRDS of CEOs globally believe that the availability of talented managers is a top priority, while one quarter rate it as their greatest concern, recent research has found.
A Conference Board survey of 540 global business leaders also found that availability of skilled labour is also a top priority for leaders across the globe, with 66 per cent of Asian business leaders ranking it as a leading company priority, compared with 51 per cent of CEOs from Europe and 42 per cent from the US.
“The perceived challenge of finding skilled labor often is a result of not knowing where – in the world –to look,” said Kyung Yoon, vice chairman of Heidrick & Struggles, who co-sponsored the survey with PeopleSoft.
“Too often there is focus only on the internal labor pool and/or the local market. Not only may these not be sufficient but all too often they cannot provide the diversity of thought and experience that CEOs and their companies are going to need to help their leadership teams provide adaptability and innovation.”
The survey also found that 78 per cent of CEOs believe that stimulating innovation, creativity and enabling entrepreneurship are their companies’top priorities, while 31 per cent rank these issues as their greatest concern.
“Business leaders realise that their top executives need to be continually learning while at their jobs,” said Linda Barrington, research director of The Conference Board.
“The ability to innovate based on newly acquired knowledge is the key to keeping companies competitive.”
In an increasingly competitive environment, most CEOs believe flexibility and adaptability to change are the major keys to staying ahead of the game, according to the survey.
Eighty-eight per cent of CEOs designate speed, flexibility, and adaptability as a top priority for their companies, while 42 per cent consider this issue of greatest concern (the strongest challenge rating).
From two-thirds of the surveyed CEOs in the US to almost 90 per cent in Asia, business leaders said that transferring knowledge, ideas and practices within the company is a top priority.
Barrington said that CEOs were adamant in suggesting that adaptability and innovation are the keys to sustainable advantage. She said that “this will be all the more so as the world sees emerging markets climbing up the ladder of skill specialisation at an unprecedented speed.”
