Amid a rapid pace of change in the business environment that will drive transformation “at every level”, most organisations are poorly equipped to anticipate major market shifts and adapt accordingly, speaking to a lack of visionary leadership and the ability of company heads to manage change while leveraging key emerging opportunities, Barloworld’s twelfth supplychainforesight survey revealed on Thursday.

One of the primary findings of the report, titled ‘Embracing Change for a Sustainable Future’, was an impending shortage of leadership, vision and change-management skills in organisations, Barloworld Logistics marketing and communications executive Kate Stubbs explained.

“While in all the previous surveys the lack or shortage of skills has been viewed as a major business constraint, it is the first time that a lack of necessary leadership and visionary skills has been identified as a skills gap at managerial level,” she told attendees at the release of the report, in Johannesburg.

Based on independent research by consulting firm Frost & Sullivan on behalf of Barloworld Logistics, the report garnered the views of over 370 professionals representing companies across South Africa, providing a statistically accurate representation of the opinions of South Africa’s business and industry leaders.

More than 66% of the respondents held a director-level position, representing a broad variety of companies by size, ranging from those with a turnover of R1-billion or more a year to smaller entrepreneurial businesses with a yearly turnover of less than R50-million.

CHANGE RECOGNITION
The top ranking strategic business objective among respondents for the next five to ten years was identifying and managing change, thus emphasising that transformation and the strategies with which this transformation would be driven, remained firmly on the boardroom agenda.

Growth and expansion into new markets was ranked the second most important objective, reiterating that opportunities in Africa and abroad were becoming potentially more lucrative and were driving business diversification.

Companies also planned to narrow focus to increasing their level of flexibility, agility and responsiveness, sustaining existing areas of financial return and introducing new products and services.

Respondents, meanwhile, identified the cost of doing business as the key business constraint over the next five to ten years – up from second place in last year’s survey.

“With most input costs increasing, high levels of uncertainty, competition from low-cost producing nations and a relatively stagnant economy, companies are focusing on cost effectiveness to remain competitive. The cost of doing business is typically only a factor where a company has a competitive disadvantage in relation to its competitors,” Stubbs noted.

An inability to anticipate change and adapt quickly, a lack of relevant skills and talent, existing currency volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty were also expected to constrain the business environment over the next decade or so.

With regards to supply-chain objectives over the next five to ten years, an improvement in service levels to customers remained a leading objective for companies, while the integration of technology, improving the flow of business intelligence, lowering procurement costs, and reducing order lead times were also key focus areas.

When questioned about supply chain challenges, respondents ranked the top supply-chain challenge as the willingness to change and break old habits or relationships, which Stubbs described as “undoubtedly” a leadership, management or communication issue.

She added that it was important to note that seven of the top ten supply-chain challenges related to people.

“These views support the fact that change is difficult and the greatest obstacle is to change people. Leaders are required to create the context and environment for change to effect change seamlessly and successfully,” she advised.

CHANGE-REACTIVE
Around 36% of respondents said there was a controlled and deliberate process of managing change in their supply chains, while the remaining 64% said their companies only changed when required to do so to respond to market needs.

Similarly, only 42% of respondents said their organisation was constantly in touch with anticipated shifts in the market and made efforts to predict game-changing business trends.

Interestingly, however, 68% of respondents believed that the health of their company was at risk in the face of current and potential changes in global market structures and emerging technologies.

“This year’s survey also sought to understand respondents’ views on the emerging megatrends and their potential impact on supply chains, businesses and industries.

“The key observation [in this regard] is that all the megatrends are viewed as opportunities and less so as threats. The greatest perceived opportunity is from technology innovation and the greatest threat is seen as the rise of Asian economies,” said Stubbs.

ASIAN THREAT
From an industry perspective, construction and engineering companies rated the Asian economies megatrend as a “major” perceived threat, perhaps indicating the influence Asian countries were having on infrastructure development projects, especially in East Africa.

Respondents ranked the level of opportunity and threats at a similar level in almost all of the stated trends, which suggested that a more comprehensive understanding of these and related trends was needed.

“Industries, companies and individuals need to fully understand and carefully assess which future trends are most applicable to them and then develop strategies to prepare for and leverage the opportunities they represent.

“Visionary leadership and change management skills will be key to navigating and succeeding in a dynamic business environment in the coming years,” she concluded.