When asked what drives this short-term thinking, nearly half (44.8%) said the main culprit was delayed investment in technology initiatives, while 40.6% blamed the pressure to demonstrate ROI.
The study, carried out by technology consultancy Crosstide, canvassed 500 CIOs and CTOs across the retail, asset & wealth management, insurance, life sciences, and payments industries, at UK-based companies with £750m+ annual revenue.
It revealed that to improve their organisation’s ongoing digital transformation journey (aside from asking for more budget), CIOs and CTOs at enterprise companies also need:
More empowerment to affect real change (according to 23.4% of CIOs/CTOs)
More investment in AI (22.8%)
Stronger cyber-security (21.2%)
Clearer direction from the CEO/board (20.8% - rising to 24.0% and ranked top among CIOs/CTOs at organisations that are more advanced in their digital transformation journey).
The study also asked CIOs/CTOs what is currently making it challenging to fulfil their role as a leader internally in their organisation's digital transformation journey.
The top challenge identified was legacy IT systems slowing progress (26.8%), followed by the poor perception of previous transformation projects and their impact on the business, and an inability to properly prioritise what should be tackled first (both 25.6%).
The latter two challenges were even more pronounced in organisations that were more advanced in their digital transformation journey.
Richard Neish, CEO of Crosstide, said: “It has never been harder to be an enterprise CTO or CIO.
“Challenging economic and sociopolitical pressures are slowing the pace of technology transformation. Investments in critical technology initiatives are being delayed, long-term roadmaps are giving way to short-term priorities, and technology leaders lack the direction, funding and empowerment to drive the change agendas demanded of them.
“Enterprise technology leaders find themselves squarely in the middle of competing priorities, unproven technologies, financial sensitivity and the pressure to deliver on rising expectations with falling budgets.
“Good leaders are adopting new strategies to effect change, such as a test and learn mindset, building scalable foundations, measuring what matters and innovating how you work, not just what you build.”
