Misunderstood and underestimated. The study on digital transformation as seen by business leaders carried out by the Ipsos institute shows a lack of understanding of the changes underway.
Unveiled in May, the survey conducted jointly by CESI and IPSOS on the digital transition reveals mixed results. Only 29% of managers consider the subject to be essential, and 31% think that digital technology is an opportunity. These figures apply to all companies. For managers of companies with more than 250 employees, 69% of business leaders consider the digital transition to be essential and strategic. There is a clear divide between the two worlds.
60 billion generated by jobs linked to digital transformation
For Brice Teinturier, Managing Director of Ipsos, these results show that the notion of digital transition is no longer an issue. This optimistic interpretation is not shared by CESI, which believes that these figures indicate a poor understanding of the subject among VSEs and SMEs, and an underestimated impact on employment.
At a round table held on 9 May at CESI, Philippe Lemoine, President of the FING, pointed out that "Half of today's jobs are expected to disappear over the next 15 years. And assuming that the financial markets are right when they expect digital players to divert traditional markets towards them, we have estimated this transfer at 60 billion euros... These are by no means marginal changes."
Digital transformation: confusion between IT and the new cycle
For the Chairman of the Fing, this underestimation stems from a confusion between IT and digital. He adds that digital transformation stems from a completely different cycle to corporate IT, more focused on redefining customer relations and introducing a more flexible hierarchy within companies. This is not disputed by business leaders, 54% of whom admit that the level of customer demands has increased, leading half of them to change their customer relationships.
On the other hand, less than half of them believe that these changes have no impact on the nature of employee training or on research and innovation.
Ultimately, these results show that business leaders are ambivalent about the digital transition and, despite everything, do not understand the impact of this transformation on the changes they need to make to stay in the race.