More than a third of UK companies have no strategic plan to take advantage of changing digital technologies.
More than a third of UK companies have no strategic plan to take advantage of changing digital technologies.
Obstacles to change include company culture and pressure to hit short term revenue and profit targets, according to a survey of over 100 businesses and interviews with senior executives at 15 companies carried out by digital marketing firms Blue Latitude and Econsultancy.
Linus Gregoriadis, research director at Econsultancy, says: ‘In a challenging economic environment, it is especially difficult for companies to strike the right balance between survival in the short-term and the organisational change which is needed for prosperity in the medium to long term. Some companies need to change or evolve their entire business model because of the way their products are being promoted, purchased and consumed in a different way.’
Major digitally driven change was anticipated in the next 12 months by 32 per cent of those surveyed, but 24 per cent said their company had no formal process in place to adapt to that change.
Over two thirds of respondents said they have difficulty recruiting staff with relevant skills and knowledge about digital technology and communications and this skills gap was most apparent in marketing related roles.
Martin Brass, managing director at Blue Latitude, says: ‘The report looks beyond digital as a channel, or capability that sits only within discrete IT or Sales and Marketing functions and examines how organisations are using digital in other areas of the business to get closer to and engage more effectively with their customers, employees and other stakeholders alike.’
The area most affected by digital change is marketing with 86 per cent of companies saying that there had been a ‘huge impact’ in recent years, followed by PR and communications.
CEOs and managing directors interviewed in the survey were from a broad spectrum of companies including Virgin Atlantic and Dorling Kindersley.
