TRENDING
Ben Elms , Chief Revenue Officer at Expereo
More markets , more problems . . .
Almost half ( 45 %) of CIOs claimed that establishing and managing connectivity in new markets is the single most critical factor in ensuring successful global expansion and a third ( 34 %) said that their board views global connectivity as a business asset critical to growth , but there are challenges that need to be overcome .
In fact , when asked specifically about the biggest challenge to delivering global growth in new regions , 38 % said that effectively establishing connectivity in new regions is one of the major challenges in their role , 34 % said it is a major challenge for their organisation and 38 % revealed that their organisations ’ business ambitions are constrained by legacy connectivity . Additional challenges identified were skills and resource retention ( 39 %), security environments ( 31 %), complicated physical and geopolitical infrastructure ( 31 %), legacy systems ( 29 %) and local knowledge ( 28 %).
Perceived complexity an obstacle to global growth
Responses indicated that UK enterprises may be failing to prioritise the fastest growing economies due to perceived complexities .
When asked about where their organisation saw the biggest opportunity for growth , North
America and Europe dominated the top five . Western Europe ( 33 %) took the throne , followed by North America ( 30 %), the Middle East ( 30 %), Northern Europe ( 30 %) and Eastern Europe ( 25 %).
Asian markets are perceived by UK CIOs as the most technologically challenging region to do business in regarding the local knowledge of providers ( 53 %), agility ( 58 %) and security ( 53 %).
Given that the IMF ’ s most recent World Economic Outlook Report showed that growth projections in advanced economies was 1.4 % for 2024 , while emerging and developing markets was 4.2 %, it is surprising that neither the Greater China Area or Central and South Asia appear in the top five priority regions for growth . Each includes two of the fastest growing economies in the world – China and India . Perhaps this is due to both appearing consistently in the top five most challenging regions .
Elms continued : “ Realising the growth opportunities that global expansion can deliver will be critical to the world economy in these challenging times . CIOs need to completely focus on supercharging this strategic growth wherever they are doing business in the world ; not grappling with unnecessary logistical and connectivity challenges . That ’ s what Expereo is here for . We simplify and automate this , allowing our customers to get on with business .” p
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