Ricoh Europe, London, 5 March 2013 – When questioned about the impacts of technology-led change global business leaders are positive about its impacts on creativity and innovation and concerned about keeping up with the pace of change. Their challenges are focused on system and process issues rather than stifled intuition or a possible takeover by computers or robots. The European business leaders are more worried about keeping up with the pace of change, than those in Asia and North America. 45 per cent of Europeans said they were worried about not being able to keep up with technology and losing competitive edge, compared with 35 per cent in Asia and 37 per cent in North America. The insights are from a new study called Humans and Machines, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Ricoh. The research investigates the impacts of technology upon human creativity and intuition.
When asked to rank their top technology challenges, business leaders placed ‘systems not connected to each other’ in the top spot, followed closely by the fact that ‘technology is evolving more quickly than the internal processes that support it’. European business leaders are most impacted by disconnected systems (46 per cent) compared to 39 per cent in Asia and 34 per cent in North America.
“European businesses leaders face a challenging time – in addition to technology led change they must manage complex regulations and grow their businesses in a competitive and mature landscape. In addition, they are focused upon recovering from the global economic crisis, where the viability of the euro is being questioned. While this may attribute to their increased concern about remaining competitive, what is important is to determine what can be done to help drive growth and business agility into the future.” says Carsten Bruhn, Executive Vice President, Ricoh Europe.
“The study exposes the need for European organisations to review the way they work and prepare to transform their traditional way of doing things. Through better integration of their systems and more streamlined business processes that connect their people and their technology they can improve employee knowledge sharing, be more responsive to client needs and ensure an agile business infrastructure that is ready to meet the needs of the future.”
Interestingly, business leaders do believe they are more creative today than they were ten years ago, although once again the optimism is lower in Europe (52 per cent) compared to Asia (64 per cent) and North America (63 per cent). Europeans are also less positive about whether technology helps them make good decisions, with 40 per cent believing it to be the case, compared to Asia (59 per cent) and North America (52 per cent).
However, there are some areas where Europeans are more confident. 65 per cent believe that technology has helped drive open debate and discussion within their organisations, compared to 57 per cent in Asia. Europeans are also more confident about the role of technology in terms of improving productivity. 72 per cent said that they believed this was the case, compared to 59 per cent in North America and 68 per cent in Asia.
Bruhn adds, “It is clear that the impacts of technology are varied, a one-size approach to transformation is not possible. What is certain is – change is unavoidable. The ways of working that we have taken for granted are unlikely to survive much longer. However a workplace where decisions are made entirely by computers or robots isn’t forecast by global readers just yet. The future shows great potential for humans to benefit from more creative and informed decision making, supported by technology, effective business processes and new ways to share and access information. If European business leaders master a truly connected and efficient workplace, just imagine what can be achieved on top of what has already been experienced today.”
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| About the Research |
The analysis in this article, and the larger white paper of which it is part, is based on a two-pronged research effort conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The first is a survey of 432 senior executives (including 63 from the financial sector), conducted in November and December 2012, exploring their views on the interplay between technology and human imagination in their organisations. The sample is global, with roughly equal numbers emanating from Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. All respondents are at a senior level: 50% hold C-suite or board positions. They hail from over 20 different industries; aside from financial services, other industries strongly represented include education, government/public sector (including healthcare), manufacturing and technology. Just over half of the firms in the survey (53%) have annual revenue in excess of US$500m, with nearly one in five having US$10bn or more. Complementing the survey was a series of 20 in-depth interviews conducted with prominent business and technology thinkers as well senior corporate executives across different sectors.
| About Ricoh |
Ricoh is a global technology company specialising in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group, operates in more than 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ending March 2012, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 1,903 billion yen (approx. 23 billion USD).
The majority of the company’s revenue comes from products, solutions and services that improve the interaction between people and information. Ricoh also produces award-winning digital cameras and specialised industrial products. It is known for the quality of its technology, the exceptional standard of its customer service and sustainability initiatives.
Under its corporate tagline, imagine. change. Ricoh helps companies transform the way they work and harness the collective imagination of their employees.For further information, please visit
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