80 per cent of global top performing companies more willing to collaborate with competitors: TCS study

There is a sharp divide between top performing companies across the globe and the laggards, with the former more willing to collaborate with competitors, according to TCS 2021 Global Leadership Study.'

According to the report by IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) 80 per cent of better performing companies (Leaders) are more willing to collaborate with competitors compared to the laggards (Followers) at 23 per cent.

The global study titled ‘Where, How and What Leaders Will Compete With in the New Decade: Findings' is based on a survey of 1,200 CEOs and senior executives. Brought out by the TCS Thought Leadership Institute, the study examined how large global enterprises have recalibrated their competitive strategies through 2025, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

It further explored how management teams across the world are striking a balance between innovation and optimisation in four areas, namely, digital strategies, digital offerings, digital ways of conducting business, and leadership approaches.

“Senior executives are always challenged to lead their organisations forward to be more competitive, and increasing digitization only accelerates that momentum,” said Krishnan Ramanujam, Business Group Head, Business & Technology Services, TCS.

“This study captures the pulse of global business leaders and their nearly ubiquitous belief that massive digital opportunities abound in the next five years—and their company culture must embrace an innovation mindset. At TCS we use our 3-Horizon Purpose-Led Transformation framework to help organisations embrace innovation in a way that helps them compete more effectively.”

Organisation culture

The report shared insights on the important aspects of the organisation culture as per the respondents.

As per the report, executives ranked innovation as the most important aspect of organisation culture, followed by diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity at the second spot. Quality orientation comes in third, followed by customer-centricity.

Leaders, however ranked customer-centricity as the top cultural priority, above Shareholder Value, while Followers ranked it number 6, indicating that higher-performing companies embed a ‘customer first’ mindset across the organisation.

Executives are focusing on innovating. By 2025, respondents believed that 41 per cent of their revenue will come from new offerings. Within that, Leaders expect 44 per cent revenue from new offerings, while Followers expect 40 per cent.

They further expect that by 2025, 46 per cent of their revenue will come from purely digital products or services. Leaders expect it to be even higher at 56 per cent.

In terms of areas that require effective use of data, Leaders ranked Digital Marketing Campaigns first, followed by Sales Initiatives and Customer Service. This suggests that the companies need to improve the way customer data is used to create demand and improve customer experience.

TCS’ 2021 Global Leadership Study surveyed more than 1,200 CEOs and senior executives from a range of industries including retail, manufacturing, insurance, banking and financial, healthcare and more, from four regions across the globe—North America (US, Canada); UK, Europe (Germany, Netherlands, France); APAC (India, Singapore, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan); and LATAM (Colombia, Brazil, Mexico). Respondents’ companies had annual revenues over $1 billion, with an average revenue of $14 billion.

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