From time-to-time, we have covered the importance of creativity in the corporate arena. Recently, we discovered the fascinating results of IBM’s last Global CEO Study.
According to the 1,541 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders around the world who were polled, creativity will be the No. 1 leadership competency going forward. Top talent practices and encourages experimentation and innovation throughout their organizations.
Interestingly, the reason for this finding is the increasing uncertainty and complexity in the “New Normal.” The future has become a lot less predictable and CEOs believe that creative geniuses will have the greatest levels of success.
This new kind of creative leader will be capable of tweaking systems to come up with new answers on how you run, organize and develop a business. In fact, creative leaders will have to make deeper business model changes to realize their strategies. To succeed, they will have to take more calculated risks, find new ideas and keep innovating in how they lead and communicate.
Seventy-nine percent of CEOs anticipate even greater complexity ahead, and more than half doubt their ability to manage it. However, with outstanding leadership, some organizations have turned this increasing complexity into financial advantage over the past five years.
The most successful organizations will collaborate with customers and other stakeholders to co-create products and services, and integrate customers into core processes. They are establishing new channels to engage and stay in tune with customers. By drawing more insight from the available data, successful CEOs will make customer intimacy their No. 1 priority. Moreover, they expect talented leaders to enjoy 20 percent more future revenue from new sources.
Continuous strategic planning will be an ongoing process, rather than an annual one, so that the organization may respond to fast-changing market conditions, the poll found.
Finally, the top "people strategy" is figuring out how to incorporate non-financial rewards into the mix to motivate staff – a concept we, as consultants, have long advocated. Other people strategies survey respondents deemed important are deploying more staff internationally and working with government/educational systems to improve the talent pool.
