Building Competitiveness and Business Performance with ICT

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DefinitionDefinition of two keybusiness enablers:Sufficient access totechnology-focusedtalent and managementfocusedtalentResearch shows that effective organizationsemploy leaders with T-shaped portfoliosof skills. In such leadership roles are CIOsand chief enterprise architects along withmanagers responsible for either buildinginternal relationships between IT departmentsand business units or building externalrelationships with service providers. Verysimply, leaders having a T-shaped portfolio ofskills are both business-savvy and technologysavvy.More precisely, leaders with a T-shapedportfolio of skills demonstrate either a verticalset of skills or a horizontal set of skills or both:• Vertical set of skills: Represents expertiseor “deep knowledge” in specific areassuch as science; engineering; technology,or social sciences;• Horizontal set of skills: Represents“transversal skills” related to negotiation,critical thinking, design and systemsthinking, business and entrepreneurship,all of which enable collaboration across avariety of boundaries.In the survey, firms were asked to what extentthey had access to sufficient people to meettheir demand to perform eight general sets ofactivities. Depending on which sets of activitiesthey are responsible for, managers will need tohave a strategic understanding of some areasof expertise and a practical understanding ofother areas of expertise. In particular, firmsneed to have sufficient access to two broadpools of talent: technology-focused talentand management-focused talent. Both areimportant types of business enablers.Below are definitions of each of the eightactivities, divided according to which pool oftalent they fall under:Technology-focused talent consists of peoplewho can perform well predominantly technicalactivities such as:• Solutions architecture: Services relatedto ensuring data, applications andsystems are sufficiently integratedand standardized to support businessoperations. These include: SystemsArchitecture; Data Analysis; HumanNeeds Analysis; Systems Analysis; DataDesign; Human Computer Interaction/Interface (HCI) Design; Systems Design;IT/Technology Infrastructure Design andPlanning.• Solution development andimplementation: Services relatedto creating, testing, integrating andimplementing software solutions.These include: Systems Development;Software Development; IT/TechnologySolution Testing; Systems Integration;IT/technology systems installation,implementation and handover.• Information management and security:Services related to informationmanagement and security activitieswithin an organization. These include:information management; IT securitymanagement; IT disaster recovery.• IT services management and delivery:Services related to management ofservice delivery and the delivery itselfof IT services, systems and assets toan organization to support businessfunctions. These include: IT serviceoperations and event management;Service Help Desk and IncidentManagement; Problem Management;Application Management/Support; ITManagement And Support; AvailabilityManagement; Capacity Management;Service Level Management; Measuringand reporting.Management-focused talent consists ofpeople who can perform well predominantlymanagerial activities such as:• Business development, sales andmarketing: Services related to consultingbusiness managers on developingbusiness markets, brands and values, andcommunicating these to the marketplace.These include: consultancy provision;strategic business development; brandand value proposition development;sector marketing and lead generation;market intelligence and research; marketcommunications; sales management andoperations; etc.• Business process management: Servicesrelated to conducting business processanalysis. These include: designing/redesigning business processes;managing the implementation ofbusiness change; designing/redesigningorganizations; and ensuring benefitsrealization.• Program and project management:Services related to ensuring projects andprograms are completed successfully.These include: project inception andscope management; project planning andscheduling; project execution, monitoringand control; and project completion,acceptance and review.• Global sourcing management: Servicesrelated to defining and operating asourcing strategy. These include:Management of suppliers and supplierperformance; Procurement of externalIT resources, such as people, software,hardware, and licenses.12 INSEAD eLab ICT Report
FindingHigh performersmatch investmentsin technology withstrong managerial andtechnical skillsResearch results show that on average, firmsthat have strong business enablers and are highinvestors in technology have a significantlygreater chance of being high performers thanfirms that are either low investors or, moreimportantly, have weak business enablers andare high investors.These findings are of particular relevancebecause all of the firms that were surveyed saidthey expect to invest more in all three types oftechnology over the next three years. Hence,the critical role played by key business enablerscould help firms increase their chances ofenhancing performance from their futureinvestments in technology and likewise reducetheir risks of wasting those investments.In Figure 4 below, “Increasing the valueof investments in technology with strongtechnology-focused talent,” research resultsfound ample evidence to show that firmswhich matched their investments in cloudbasedservices with sufficient technologyfocusedtalent almost doubled the probabilityof being competitively agile. In contrast, thosefirms which did not match their investments incloud-based services with technology-focusedtalent were statistically no better off than thosefirms that made little or no investments intechnology.The different groups consist of low investorsin cloud and high investors in cloud. Notshown were 24% of non-investors in cloudbasedservices. Within the high investor group,there are two important sub-groups: the highinvestors with sufficient technology-focusedtalent and high investors with insufficienttechnology-focused talent. The height of eachbar corresponds to the percentage of firmswithin a group that were high performers.The benefits of having sufficient technologyfocusedtalent: 17% of the total survey sampleconsisted of high investors in cloud-basedservices that also had high technical skills. Ofthe firms in this group, 72% were highly agile. Inother words, firms in this group were 70% morelikely to be competitively agile than those highinvestors in cloud-based services that struggledto access technology-focused talent.The risks of having insufficient technologyfocusedtalent: High investors in cloud-basedservices with insufficient technology-focusedtalent represent 13% of the total survey sampleand 44% of high investors in cloud-basedservices. Survey findings reveal that these highinvestors were statistically no more likely to behighly agile than low investors in cloud-basedservices. In essence, firms that were investingmore in cloud-based services to enhanceagility yet had insufficient access to technologyskills were at risk of wasting their investmentson cloud-based services.Figure 4: Increasing the value of investments in technology with sufficient technology-focused talent.Key: 46% of those surveyed were low investorsin cloud-based services, while 30% were highinvestors in cloud-based services and theremaining 24%, not shown, did not invest incloud-based services. 36% of the low investorsin cloud-based services were highly agile,regardless of whether they had weak or strongtechnical talent. However, 13% and 17% makingup the 30% that were high investors in cloudbasedservices had weak technical talent andstrong technical talent, respectively. Of the 13%with weak technical talent, 42% were highlyagile whereas of the 17% with strong technicaltalent 72% were highly agile. Hence, it reallypays for high investors in cloud to employstrong technical talent.72%Within investorgroup, % of firmsthat werehighly agile36%42%weaktechnicaltalentstrongtechnicaltalent13%17%46% of the sample wereLow Investors in Cloud30% of the sample wereHigh Investors in CloudSize of each investor group (% of total sample);Non Investors in Cloud (24%) are not shownBuilding Business Performance and Competitiveness with ICT 13
Page 1 and 2: Building Competitiveness and Busine
Page 3 and 4: Foreword“ Information andCommunic
Page 5 and 6: ExecutiveSummaryFor the first time
Page 7 and 8: FindingUses of technologycan become
Page 9 and 10: Real SuccessEuropean policiesdesign
Page 11: FindingSimply focusing onICT invest
Page 15 and 16: Real SuccessFerrovial: Selective us
Page 17 and 18: FindingHigh performingfirms involve
Page 19 and 20: FindingDigitized platformsare assoc
Page 21 and 22: These results provide additionalsup
Page 23 and 24: Overall, complementarities holdacro
Page 25 and 26: Real SuccessFerrovial: Howinvestmen
Page 27 and 28: Key Implicationsfor BusinessLeaders
Page 29 and 30: Key Implicationsfor PolicyMakersThe
Page 31 and 32: Next StepsTo remain relevant and co

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