It is not just law firms that have been slow to embrace e-commerce. According to a recent survey, most people in industry appreciate
the importance of e-driven change, but the majority feel that their employers are not ready for it. Helen Wildsmith reports
After the tech-stock bubble burst, several commentators decided that the internet was merely a fad that had had its day.
In order to gain a clearer picture of what was happening, Ashridge decided to conduct a survey of managerial opinion and experience. Last autumn more than 500 Ashridge alumni returned our questionnaire (a response rate of 10%). Seventy-six per cent of the respondents were senior managers, partners, directors, chief executives or chairs of their organisations, and nearly 60% of them were involved in their organisations’ B2C (business-to-consumer) or B2B (business-to-business) e-initiatives.
Respondents to the survey ranged from people who think that the internet will have a dramatic impact on organisations to people who challenge the term ‘e-revolution’. However, only 1% of the managers believe that the internet and related technology are not important to the organisation they work for. Despite the importance of e-driven change, nearly 60% of respondents believe their employers are not ready for it. Just over 30% of them even describe the organisation they work for as “laggards”, while only 17% of organisations are described as “leaders”.
However, despite this lack of leadership and readiness, 74% of respondents are confident that their organisations will eventually be an
e-winner, with the majority believing that new competitors are not the greatest threat to their future success:
lTwo-thirds of managers disagree with the statement “the e-initiatives of large non-traditional competitors are our biggest threat”;
lMore than 75% of managers disagree with the statement “e-start-ups are more threatening to my organisation than its traditional comp-etitors”.
The fact that one respondent’s organisation “is large enough to be dominant regardless of the prevailing technology”, provides a clue as to what might lie behind this level of confidence. However, before looking at barriers to greater
e-driven change and assessing whether our respondents’ confidence in their organisations is realistic, it is worth looking at the impact the e-revolution has had on organisations so far.
The survey indicates that to date, e-driven change has had most impact in the areas of information-gathering and communication. Provision of the basic tools is high with 86% of respondents having access to the internet from their work computers, and a similar proportion working for organisations that have an intranet.
Access to the internet at work has had a significant impact on the amount of information respondents are expected to use. More than 80% of those with access believe that they are “expected to use more information these days”. Fortunately 83% of them think that the use of the internet at work has improved their effectiveness. This is reflected in the fact that use of the internet for work-related reasons is high. Nearly 60% of those with access use it daily, and nearly 90% use it at least once a week.
Internal communication is another area in which our respondents have noticed considerable change:
l82% of respondents who work for organisations with an intranet believe it has improved communication within their organisation;
l69% of respondents agreed with the statement “senior management in my organisation frequently communicate through the intranet”.
During the next year respondents expect
e-driven change to focus on customer relationship management and back-office processing. In addition, the way in which organisations sell to businesses, and their ability to tailor products and services to clients, will experience a higher proportion of the overall change.
When asked to select the main barriers to greater e-driven change in their organisations, respondents chose slow decision making, a shortage of resources (both financial and human) and poor implementation. Interestingly, both “consumer concerns” (e.g. about security) and “lack of support at the top” are seen as a main barrier to change by fewer than one in five managers.
The survey also indicates that the culture of many of today’s organisations is likely to be a barrier to e-driven change. There is a significant gap between the culture of today’s organisations and the culture respondents would expect to see in successful e-organisations:
lapproximately 90% of respondents expect successful e-organisations to be innovative and adaptable, whereas less than half of today’s organisations are described in such terms;
ltoday’s organisations are most likely to have bureaucratic features (defined roles and a strong hierarchy), whereas fewer than one in four respondents believe that these are relevant to the e-world.
The survey also explored the attributes that our respondents think will contribute to the success of leaders in e-organisations. Two widely cited leadership skills were ranked highest: the ability to attract, motivate and retain talented staff and the ability to create and communicate a vision.
There appears to be strong demand for motivating and visionary leaders to help organisations succeed in the e-world. However, if it is impossible to lead by painting a lasting vision during the e-revolution, learning how to lead in a different way will probably slow e-driven change. If it is possible, then the shortage of inspirational leaders reported by our respondents will also be a barrier to change.
So is the confidence of the managers who believe that their organisations are going to be e-winners misplaced? Possibly.
First, business history is littered with large companies who dominated their market, but failed to notice a new competitor or new way of delivering value before it was too late.
Second, most of today’s organisations are bureaucratic – designed for a stable environment, not a technological revolution.
Third, the rules of leading might also be shifting, and even if they are not, managers are reporting a shortage of inspirational leaders.
