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Study highlights

How are CEOs and senior public sector leaders responding to today's connected era?

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Executive report: Connected generation

Perspectives from tomorrow’s leaders in a digital world: Insights from the 2012 IBM Global Student Study

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2012 IBM CEO Study major themes

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• Employees. Empowering employees through values
• Customers. Engaging customers as individuals
• Partnering. Amplifying innovation with partnerships

Overview

For some time, businesses have been refining and optimizing their networks of suppliers and partners. But something just as meaningful has been happening – the sudden convergence of the digital, social and mobile spheres – connecting customers, employees and partners in new ways to organizations and to each other.

In speaking face-to-face with 1,709 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders around the globe, leaders confirmed that our new connected era is changing how people engage. How are CEOs responding to the complexity of increasingly interconnected organizations, markets, societies and governments? Our key findings center on:

• Employees. Empowering employees through values
• Customers. Engaging customers as individuals
• Partnering. Amplifying innovation with partnerships

Empowering employees through values

CEOs see greater organizational openness ahead. But as rules are refined and collaboration explodes, how will they avoid chaos, protect the business and deliver results?

Engaging customers as individuals

CEOs are searching for customer insight. But even if they discover it, are their organizations equipped to respond with relevance and speed?

Amplifying innovation with partnerships

With nearly 70 percent of CEOs aiming to partner extensively, what will make this a differentiating strategy?

CEO Study Case study compendium

Read the stories of 7 innovative organizations

• In today's connected era, innovative organizations are changing how they engage with employees, customers and partners (1.2MB)

Industry and market segment perspectives

• Consumer Products: Transform collaboration and understand individual customer needs (480KB)
• Electronics: Implement extensive organizational changes to deepen understanding of customer needs (474KB)
• Energy and Utilities: Investments in customer insights are critical (470KB)
• Financial Services (Banking and Financial Markets): Better insights and better customer experiences (472KB)
• Government: Change the face of citizen and customer communication (502KB)
• Healthcare: Identify and build critical employee competencies (503KB)
• Industrial Products: Give employees a strong global orientation for greater competitiveness (920KB)
• Insurance: Extending traditional ways of interacting with consumers (471KB)
• Life Sciences: Turn better data access and insights into greater customer understanding (506KB)
• Media and Entertainment: Use cross-channel digital revenue models based on knowing customers better (509KB)
• Retail: Engaging customers as individuals by understanding them more deeply (474KB)
• Telecommunications: Use insight to build customer advocacy (502KB)
• Travel and Transportation: Seek more strategic and tailored customer relationships (496KB)
• Midmarket Insights: Embrace collaboration and transparency to foster innovation

Infographics: See it in pictures

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  How will CEOs change their use of social media?

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  Outperforming CEOs and how they empower employees

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  Outperforming CEOs and their views on engaging customers

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  Outperforming CEOs and their views on external partnership

Meet CEO Study experts

• Peter Korsten - VP and Global Leader, IBM Institute for Business Value
• Anthony Marshall - Global CEO Study Director, IBM Institute for Business Value
• Saul Berman - VP and Global Strategy Partner, IBM Global Services
• Linda Ban - Global CIO Study Director, IBM Institute for Business Value
• Grace Chopard - VP, Global Strategy and Transformation, IBM Global Business Services
• Steven Davidson - Partner, Global Strategy and Transformation, IBM Global Business Services

People are saying…

CEO Study events

• CEO Panel Discussion, "Tomorrow's CEO: Thriving in the Connected Economy." Panelists: Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, Global Business Services, IBM; Stephen Leonard, Chief Executive UK and Ireland, IBM; Steve Pateman, Head of UK Banking, Santander; Richard Harvey, Chairman, PZ Cussons; Henri Winand, Chief Executive, Intelligent Energy; and Chair/moderator: Matthew Blagg, CEO, Criticaleye.
• Event replay: HBR Webinar: "What's on the Minds of Today's Top CEOs?" Saul Berman, Partner & Vice President, Global Strategy & Transformation Service Area Leader, IBM Global Business Services; Stephen Hasselmann, Managing Partner, North America Strategy and Transformation Service Area, IBM Global Business Services; and Moderator Tim Sullivan, Editorial Director, Harvard Business Publishing, highlight key findings of the 2012 IBM Global CEO Study.
• Event replay: "Global CEO Study: Engaging customers as individuals." Watch this June 27, 2012 event Speaker: Christer Johnson, Partner, IBM Global Business Services highlights client case studies using the IBM Smarter Analytics Signature Solution - Next Best Action.
• Event replay: The World Wide Open: Embracing the connected economy. Watch this May 24, 2012 CEO Study v-panel led by IBM VP Business Transformation Leader Kristen Pederson and featuring Bryan Kramer, CEO + President of PureMatter, Melissa Schilling, professor of strategic management, NYU Stern School of Business, and Dorie Clark, author, strategy consultant, and brand/marketing expert.
• Event replay: Dynamics of disruptive innovation. Watch this May 23, 2012 CEO Study v-panel led by IBM CEO Study Program Director Anthony Marshall and featuring Rita J. King, EVP of Business Development, Science House, Navi Radjou, Co-author of "Jugaad Innovation" and Fellow at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and Joshua Gans, Professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
• Event replay: C2-MTL keynote presentation  Watch this May 22, 2012 Global CEO Study presentation by Marc Chapman, Managing Partner, IBM Global Business Services. Learn about insightful CEO Study implications for organizations across industries worldwide, featuring a number of client examples.
• New intelligence video channel: View videos and participate in v-panels about the IBM CEO Study

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Download the 2010 IBM Chief Executive Officer Study report

Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights from the Global CEO Study (2.8MB)

IBM CEO Study: Command & Control Meets Collaboration

• Read the press release - CEOs are embarking on a new era of leadership as they embrace a more connected culture