Other goals marked in red on the CEOs’ agenda are therefore the need to quickly scale new digital solutions and the recruiting of the talents needed to support the process, considering the fact that among the most lacking profiles on the market (and therefore more difficult to find) are software engineers and data scientist.
Two further challenges therefore concern the ability to prioritize investments in digital solutions and to be able to manage the cost and uncertainty of the return on investment. Finally, there is one last task that companies are called upon to do, and that is to resolve the critical issues related to the ecosystem of their partners and technological suppliers with respect to the cumbersome coordination of the latter, the lack of adequate training and the inability to focus the strategic weight of the different phases of the transformation process.
What happens in Italy
Italian companies, reads the note accompanying the study, are also lagging behind and the percentage of those that can be defined as “digitally mature” stops at 65%. The difficulty in giving priority to targeted investments for the development of new technologies influences the judgment of our companies, but on the other hand there is no lack of efforts to find the right talents and to manage and replace obsolete IT tools.
A scenario in lights and shadows also confirmed by Francesco Palmieri Lupia, managing director & senior partner of BCG and head of BCG for Italy, who reiterates how «the most complexities encountered are the adoption of a scalable approach, the correct prioritization of investments , also given by the proliferation of available technologies, and the availability of highly specialized professionals in the digital field. At the same time, we observe a considerable interest on the part of the main companies in the country in investing in data, analytics and technology to support sustainability”.
The new division
BCG X, which will also operate in Italy, will operate as a hybrid entity between strategic business consultancy and technological expertise and, according to the indications provided by the American multinational, should double the number of professionals within the next three years.