Seeking Success with the 2012 Agenda: What’s Needed
Stan Lepeak, Global Research Director, KPMG LLP Advisory
KPMG recently conducted a global poll of its firms’ professionals to assess what they view as the top market trends that will impact their clients in 2012. This poll canvassed professionals from the firms’ Management Consulting, Risk Consulting, Audit, and Tax service groups. KPMG discussed some of these results in a webcast and whitepaper released January 26, and in three previous blogs that examined the top trends, top initiatives and top challenges to these initiatives identified for 2012.
The top three challenges identified to successfully undertaking key 2012 initiatives were:
1) Dysfunctional and/or fragmented organizational operating models, designs, and processes
2) Inadequate and/or antiquated information technology (IT) infrastructure and systems
3) Lack of adequate and skilled talent, and the inability to attract and retain talent
The figure below identifies the perceived top capabilities organizations will need to successfully undertake top 2012 initiatives and overcome the above-cited challenges. It illustrates the total responses from the poll, and provides a break out of responses from KPMG professionals addressing client activities in each of the three major global geographic regions, as well as those supporting clients globally.
The top capability required to support 2012 initiatives, cited by 50 percent of KPMG professionals globally, was smart and innovative management and management practices. The need for smart and innovative management is not surprising given the top challenge cited was dysfunctional and/or fragmented organizational operating models – thus by association, dysfunctional management. This was the top capability cited across all geographies, though there was much clustering of top selections. Smart and innovative management has always been in short supply, and the smartness bar is continually being raised and competition for smart management increasingly competitive globally, as illustrated by another top capability cited in the ability to find, attract and retain talent globally.
The second most frequently cited capability overall was reporting and analytics to make better business decisions. This is one key enabler to making management smarter and more innovative. Investing more in the core technologies and capabilities for reporting and analytics, however, is the easy part. Much more challenging is figuring out how and with what data to make better decisions and actually become smarter and more innovative. This capability was ranked highest in the Americas and lowest in EMEA, with the latter region more focused, not surprisingly given current market conditions, on factors such as adequate access to capital and funding.
Many other key capabilities were identified, highlighting the multi-faceted challenges organizations face in achieving their key 2012 business goals. They include, from an operating model standpoint, alternative service delivery models-shared services and outsourcing or global business services, and foundationally things such as IT systems and capabilities beyond just cloud.
Overall, organizations have a broad range of initiatives on their collective agendas for 2012. They are focused both on their top and bottom lines, as well as on overhauling core business processes, operating models and supporting infrastructures. Buyers face many diverse impediments to successfully undertaking these initiatives, some of which, such as organizational dysfunctionality, lack of talent and an inability to innovate, will prove challenging to overcome without some radical restructuring. Some of these impediments have been exacerbated by ongoing difficult global economic conditions, but in other cases market conditions and the rise of new, often more nimble and innovative global competition, have laid them bare.
To access findings from other recent KPMG market trend surveys, please view our whitepapers on the KPMG Shared Services and Outsourcing Institute.
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