Main challenges CHANGE IS THE NAME OF THE GAME Nordic business leaders should be thriving these years. They rate professional challenges as their key motivator and due to the accelerating speed of change in the business environment; challenges are piling up in every corner both internally and externally. The Nordic executives’ perception of their main challenges today is almost an exact reflection of the global megatrends according to futurologist Carsten Beck. A nyone in the business world knows that it is currently experiencing a rapid rate of change. New companies spring up overnight. Products and services that were revolutionary two years ago are already taken over by new revolutions. It does not come as a surprise that 48% of the Nordic executives in the survey rate the speed of change as their no. 1 challenge. Rapid change in all areas “The speed of change is a dominating factor in almost all of what we see as megatrends these years. They include areas such as digitalisation, aftermath of the financial crisis, shift in global economic power, change in political agendas, international competition, aging population, increase in customer demands, global warming – and so on. All factors are challenging the business environment today and are – or at least should be - on the radar for any business leader,” says Carsten Beck, futurologist at Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. The respondents in the survey were asked to prioritise a list of 20 challenges, and the selection of top priorities are equally split on chal- lenges regarding the internal organisation and the external market conditions. Employee engagement and development and lean production come in as no. 2 and 3, closely followed by ability to achieve customer satisfaction and limited time to focus on the longer-term perspective. Consumer power Each of these factors is closely intertwined. Change in market conditions drives the constant need for change internally in the organisation, and it does not seem possible to focus on just one or two. “It is easy to see the correlation between the challenging factors. We could i.e. start with the challenge of getting satisfied and loyal customers: Customers are getting more and more demanding. Looking back, we did not have services in such huge The speed of change is a dominating factor in almost all of what we see as megatrends these years Carsten Beck, Futurologist, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies
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