CEO Survey Shows 2012 is the Year of Living Hesitantly

2012 is the year of living hesitantly, as 85 percent of CEOs surveyed said they believe their enterprises will be impacted by an economic downturn in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc.

The Gartner CEO and senior business executive survey of more than 220 CEOs in user organizations from more than 25 countries was conducted in November and December of 2011. Qualified organizations were those with annual revenue of $500 million or more. The survey results show that many CEOs believe that an economic downturn will impact their companies in 2012. Although concerns are less severe in Asia/Pacific and North America than in Europe and Africa, it is the dominant point of view within each of the three geographies.

While the economy is certainly a concern for chief executives, the survey results showed by a ratio of more than two to one that CEOs said they will increase IT investment in 2012, rather than cut it.

Gartner analysts said the difficulty with investing in newer technologies for strategic outcomes is that organizations need the right kinds of leadership and change management. Many business leaders learned the hard way in the 1990s and 2000s that simply buying and installing technology doesn’t deliver results if it’s not carefully directed and delivered in conjunction with coordinated changes to policies, processes, organization, roles and culture.

Ninety percent of CEOs can name a company they admire for its use of IT in gaining a competitive advantage, but when restricted to their own industry, a quarter cannot. Apple easily eclipsed everyone as the most admired company for its use of IT, as it accounted for 39 percent of the responses. Google was second with 11 percent share, followed by Amazon at 5.8 percent.  

More information on service, support and IT can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com