In today’s competitive market, gaining an edge over competitors and gaining deeper insights about customers is very important. The company executives surveyed by IBM (News - Alert) made it clear that 70 percent of CEOs are making significant investments in their organizations’ ability to draw meaningful customer insights from available data.

CEOs also think spending on sophisticated business analytics to mine the data being tracked online, on mobile phones and social media is equally important.  

A study by IBM finds that business executives are willing in leading by example. The study, titled IBM 2012 Global CEO Study, was conducted on more than 1,700 Chief Executive Officers from 64 countries and 18 industries globally. Of the total CEOs surveyed, 75 percent regard interpersonal skills of collaboration, 67 percent regard communication and 61 percent voted for creativity and flexibility each.

The CEOs considered these factors as key drivers of employee success to operate in a more complex, interconnected environment. IBM 2012 Global CEO Study is the fifth edition of IBM’s biennial Global CEO Study series.

“One of the most compelling findings is how in tune CEOs are about the implications and impact of social media,” said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president at IBM Global Business Services. “Rather than repeating the familiar lament about de-personalizing human relationships, this view leans heavily in favor of deepening them, and using dynamic social networks to harness collective intelligence to unlock new models of collaboration.” 

Along with these factors, the study also highlighted that 71 percent of global CEOs see technology as the top most factor to impact an organization’s future over the next three years. Technology is considered a superior change agent, compared to shifting economic and market conditions.

IBM was recently in the news when it completed the acquisition of Vivisimo, a provider of federated discovery and navigation software that helps organizations access and analyze big data.