18/12/2019

The next 12 months promise to be testing times for organisations, their management and their leaders. While the impact of Brexit will continue to be a main concern for organisations and their leadership, what else can they expect in 2020?

Organisations that are able to respond quickly to social, economic and market changes are the ones that will be least impacted and best placed to make the most of opportunities, so we spoke to Cranfield School of Management faculty about the challenges and trends they expect to see in 2020, and what organisations can do to mitigate the risks and take advantage of opportunities.

The Impact of marketing automation

A challenge faced by many organisations is to ensure that its investments in modern, data-fuelled brand and customer management systems align to customers’ needs and wants. Marketing and sales stewardship of brands and customers must evolve rapidly to ensure that its core role in guiding the organisations constant adaption to ever-changing customer needs / wants and competitive threats.

AI decision engines blur the line between understanding customers and responding to them; at some level this process is now instantaneous and automated. Marketing and sales must guide the development of these automated systems based on market positioning, long term brand values, customer relationship strategies and not merely accept “out of the box” algorithms developed by third parties.

Building a modern “front end” for the organisation, extracting value from modern technology and managing the considerable brand, ethical and customer risks of automation are major organisational issues for which Marketing and sales must provide a leadership role.

Professor Stan Maklan, Professor of Marketing & Technology
Co-Director, Cranfield Centre for Strategic Marketing and Sales

Combining digital with human transformation
Over the past few years, we have seen an increasing focus on digital and technological transformation within organisations as they seek to augment, and in some cases replace, people, with the latest emerging technologies. As the result of this we have seen an increase in remote working, 24/7 connectivity, a drop in face-to-face interaction and rising levels of automation.  Alongside the opportunities offered by these trends come risks related to the erosion of relationships and trust within organisations, work intensification, skills obsolescence and decreasing employee wellbeing.  

2020 is the year that organisations will really need to address this and to consider the human alongside the technology. Employers will need to take steps to maintain relationships with their employees, to potentially create space for offline interaction and collaboration, to develop new skills and abilities in employees and to monitor and manage the impact of connectivity on mental health.

Professor Emma Parry, Professor of Human Resource Management
Head, Changing World of Work Group

Cyber related losses and financial cybersecurity risk management

Cyber related losses can impact the integrity of a firm’s digitalized assets, reputation with its client franchise, and shareholder value, as demonstrated recently with CapitalOne, Dunkin’ Donuts, Toyota, Walmart, and others. Assets under siege often include business plans, client lists, R&D information and employee data. In 2019, total industry losses related to cyber risk range from $110 billion to $575 billion per annum (Risk.net, 2019).

Treating cyber risk within a firm’s overall enterprise risk management framework is key. Firstly, creating a cyber risk appetite statement, developing a board level response plan, preparing for the legal consequences of a breach and ensuring timely reporting compliance to stakeholders are all key planks of a cyber response framework.  This framework is part of the corporate budget process to ensure adequate training, technology and staffing to mitigate these risks. Lastly, cyber risk can be hedged, and the typical cost/benefit analysis can play a role to help drive risk management decisions.    

Yacine Belghitar, Professor of Finance

Dr. Walter Gontarek, Visiting Scholar

Time is the new competitive advantage

With markets and technologies becoming increasingly volatile, complex and uncertain, the one certain source of advantage is for organisations to be able to do things faster than their competitors. In order to do this they have to build the processes and culture that supports rapid learning whether this be from customers, competitors, disruptors or from other industries and regions.

If organisations are faster to react then they can deliver value to their customers before the competition, they need not waste resources in developing solutions that the market will not accept and they are able to build an energising and stimulating environment in which employees are engaged and motivated to constantly improve.

Professor Mark Jenkins, Professor of Business Strategy

The impact of AI on programme and project management

Over many years the disciplines of programme and project management (P2M) have seen an increasing number of people who are ill-equipped to do their jobs through no fault of their own - largely caused by the phenomenon of people "accidentally" finding themselves in the role, and organisations not investing in developing their people so they have the skills to do their job. It is a situation that is worsening, rather than improving.

Software is being created to assist many activities and we are likely to see the increasing impact of AI on P2M. AI has the opportunity significantly change P2M as it can leverage large volumes of data, reduce administrative tasks, and minimise risk. However, project team may feel their activities are being robotised which can lead to demoralisation, and projects could make losses or fail due to the team having no "feel" for the project.

Project and programme managers are likely to be spending more of their time interacting with intelligent machines so their skill set will need to adapt and change, and as a result there will be a greater demand for those who can use critical thinking and cognitive flexibility and apply it to systems and projects. In order to succeed, organisations need to invest in developing their P2M people, making sure they have the necessary skills to do their job both now and in the future.

John Algar
Director of Portfolio, Programme & Project Management – DP3M

Rethinking leadership capability for disruptive times 

Right now, organisations face the task of delivering value and performance while coping with an environment characterised by rapid and continual disruption.  Leadership is a crucial element of an organisation’s capability for building resilience, quickly adapting to change, and surviving and thriving in complex and uncertain times.

The work of leadership in this new era is marked by the need to reaffirm purpose, question taken for granted practices and foster an organisational culture that embraces resilience and delivers to changing demands.  Leadership is also required to enhance cross-functional collaboration and to create highly participative environments in which people at all levels take, and feel, personal responsibility for collective output, in which they are deeply committed. 

Professor David Denyer, Professor of Leadership and Organisational Change
Commercial and Development Director

The challenges of financing climate change

There is little doubt that businesses need to play their part in reducing global warming causing significant climate change and threatening to disrupt and cause significant loss of financial and human resources around the world.

Investing in cleaner and greener technology solutions will help reduce the global warming. Businesses must measure their carbon footprint, develop an action plan, think how they could engineer solutions for financing investing in greener technology, and how environmental risk could be mitigated while remaining profitable. Cranfield’s expertise could help find the best ways of financing climate change and how ‘going green’ may help improve the market image, financial performance, and future access to finance.

Professor Sunil Poshakwale, Professor of International Finance

Urbanisation on the rise: How can future supply chains cope?

Urbanisation is a major, global trend with at least 70% of the earth’s population anticipated to be living in urban areas by 2050. This trend will create a plethora of challenges as the current logistics and transport infrastructure may not be able to cope with increased future product and service demand.  Likewise, the significant increase of online shopping is creating extra pressure and complexity in urban supply chains.

To address these challenges, businesses will need to redesign and re-evaluate their supply chains and business models by investing into relevant infrastructure, assets and intelligent technologies as well as to consider collaboration in the last mile (home delivery to consumers). Automated warehouses and micro hubs  located closer to the last mile  can be developed whilst the use of, inter alia, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, big data and analytics, and robotics will ensure that future, urban consumer needs are met.

Professor Michael Bourlakis, Director of Research, Head of Logistics, Procurement & Supply Chain Management Group
Director, Centre for Logistics, Procurement & Supply Chain Management

Professor Emel Aktas, Professor of Supply Chain Analytics

Conclusion

The world of work is changing and the boundaries within which organisations exist are shifting.  As you can see, right across our disciplines at Cranfield School of Management, our thought leadership groups are pushing at the cutting edge of these challenges.  The influence of artificial intelligence and how we harness this within traditionally people-centred environments are critical issues for leaders to think about and understand, as is their ability to gain competitive advantage through the pace of response, not just the response itself. 

Combining this with the inherent risks brought by cyber security issues, an ever-increasing disruptive environment and the pressure to adopt new and emergent technology, the research we do has never been so crucial and relevant to business.  What all the above shows is that Cranfield School of Management continues to fulfil its mission and influence the practice of management and leadership.  We are moving with the times and we invite you to join us. 

P.S. Did you know?

You can also keep up-to-date in your industry or field with your free Alumni Library Online. Cranfield alumni can benefit from a range of discounts on selected short courses, executive development, MBAs, DBAs, and PhDs. Find out more by logging into the alumni portal.

Share this post