Canadian Businesses Show Strong Commitment to Digital Technologies, Report Affirms
Canadian business leaders understand the connection between digital business models and growth better than many of their global counterparts, but have yet to fully anchor their global digital strategy.
A research report entitled “CEO Briefing 2014: Canada’s Digital Innovation Imperative,” reveals that 51% of Canadian executives say their digital investments are focused primarily on driving growth opportunities rather than on achieving efficiencies, versus only 31% of the executives surveyed outside Canada. This suggests that Canadian businesses are more growth oriented with their digital investments than those in any other mature economy.
“Our research suggests that Canadian business leaders appear more committed to implementing digital technologies than their counterparts elsewhere and they are more likely to see digital business models not merely enabling greater efficiencies, but driving growth opportunities,” said Stephen Gardiner, Canada Managing Director, Strategy and Digital at Accenture.
Canadian business leaders are showing strong enthusiasm about the role that digital transformation will play in improving business performance, according to the study. They are more likely than their counterparts in the U.S. and other major markets to consider all of the major digital technologies important to their company in 2014, including data analytics (cited by 73 percent), mobile (77 percent), social media (64 percent), machine-to-machine communication (65 percent), e-commerce (82 percent) and cloud computing (65 percent).
The report reveals that Canadian executives are optimistic about the economic and business outlook in 2014 compared to respondents elsewhere. Eighty nine percent are positive about the prospects for their company in 2014 compared to 78 percent of U.S. respondents and 76 percent of the global sample.
“Optimism about business prospects in the short term will not make Canadian business immune from the potential disruption to traditional industry sectors caused by new technologies and start-ups,” said Gardiner. “To avoid the gap between optimism and challenges posed by new competitors, established local companies in a range of traditional sectors should proactively explore new business models to disrupt their markets, before they are disrupted themselves.”
