Volatility, uncertainty and instability. These are the foundations on which CEOs have to build resilient and sustainable organisations as they move forward into 2023.
Alan Turnley-Jones, CEO of Dimension Data, reflects on the key trends, challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the CEO and enterprise in 2023.
The conflict in the Ukraine, the lagging impact of the pandemic, and ongoing economic volatility remain challenges into 2023, and these are further complicated by the pervasive threats of cybersecurity and inflation.
CEOs should be optimistic – there are opportunities within these complexities – but cautious. As the enterprise changes gears into a new year, it is important for leaders to look forward and focus on strategies and investments that deliver sustained outcomes and consistent value and to find smart solutions to legacy problems.
Perhaps one of the most pressing issues for organisations in 2022 has been power stability – and this is an issue that’s expected to continue for another 18 months, well into 2024. This has had a significant impact on the business as companies have had to invest into infrastructure that keeps the lights one, and in most cases have been unable to pass the costs on to their customers. From ensuring that data centres deliver 99,999% uptime to maintaining customer service to ensuring that systems and data are online all the time, companies have had to find power resilience and reliability on their own.
The next big threat, and one that’s set to remain entrenched well into the future, is cybersecurity. Over the past year some significant brands, both in South Africa and globally, have had very visible cybersecurity issues that have affected their operations and reputations. In addition, Africa has become more of a target and is, in fact, now perceived as the most cyber-attacked continent.
According to the ITU, this is largely to do with limited legislation – only 29 countries out of 54 have passed cybersecurity legislation. It is compounded by lack of user awareness, limited resources and skills, and a surge in digital transformation that has significantly increased vulnerabilities due to a wider attack surface.
The third challenge is one that every CEO can instantly relate to – the lack of available skills. From the great resignation to quiet quitting, skills have become a commodity that’s in desperately short supply. Organisations are struggling to find talent so they can consistently deliver their services to clients, and this is leading to complexities all the way through the value chain. The gaps that exist in skills right now have to be urgently filled, or alternative solutions found, to ensure organisations can continue to meet their mandates and strategic objectives for growth.
The question is – how can leaders turn these problems into opportunities? What steps can they take to transform their foundations and become resilient in the face of ongoing uncertainty and complexity? When it comes to power, this question is being answered cleverly across the country – organisations have turned to alternative power sources and renewable energy solutions to create truly robust power platforms that keep their lights on and their customers connected.
Southern Africa is well placed to produce renewables, not only for the continent, but for the rest of the world. However, as a developing industry in an underdeveloped region, several obstacles will need to be overcome to capture the full benefits.
When it comes to security and talent, however, these two are often closely intertwined. The dearth of talented cybersecurity professionals means that few organisations have the scope to hire, train and retain talent. This has seen a sharp trend towards third-party service providers. Companies that manage resources and services for the business, effectively taking the problem away and making it their own.
These organisations are the most likely to have access to high-level talent across multiple disciplines and can consistently train and retain this talent by providing them with an environment that plays to their strengths.
Companies that want to bypass the two wars – security and talent – can simply work with managed services. As a result, companies that provide managed services are also evolving. They’re moving away from a basic offering that sits on top of the customer’s infrastructure and towards a more integrated and holistic engagement that delivers measurable business value on both sides. This is resulting in increasingly intelligent solutions and capabilities that leverage artificial intelligence, data, analytics, automation and IoT to provide holistic solutions to organisations.
Moving ahead, smart moves for organisations rest on shared services and collaborative approaches that allow for them to leapfrog complexity into opportunity. This asks that managed service providers create customised answers to corporate questions – building connectivity, data, support, security and tech ubiquity into the fabric of the organisation so that business can do business.