Turbulent economy is making it difficult for CEOs to plan for the year ahead: Forrester

Due to an unpredictable and turbulent economy, leaders will need to tackle planning with discipline and precision in order to trim waste, experiment, and make bold, smart investments in months to come, a report showed on Tuesday.

The CEOs who plan for "business as usual" modest spending increases in the year ahead will fall short, according to Forrester.

"Leaders are faced with navigating a tumultuous business landscape defined by global unrest, supply chain instability and soaring inflation, as well as the ongoing aftermath of the pandemic," said Sharyn Leaver, chief research officer at Forrester.

With 2023 unlikely to look like any past recession, many assumptions about customers and their behaviour will be rendered useless.

"Leaders should invest in new customer data and analytics tools, such as experience research platforms (XPRs), to sharpen audience targeting strategies," the findings showed.

Current economic headwinds will require focusing on technology tuned for optimisation and resilience.

"Leaders should invest in tools that drive loyalty and reduce operational costs, such as robotic process automation (RPA) and agent-assist apps," the report noted.

Many thought the cloud would be the antidote to technical debt, but yesterday's lifted-and-shifted workloads are now debt themselves, given how inefficient to operate and difficult to upgrade they are.

In 2023, leaders should consider early cloud deployments as candidates for technical debt reductions.

"Firms that relied too heavily on partners for digital innovation during the pandemic-induced digital sprint should bring more innovation in house," the report said.

The overhyped metaverse and Web3 technologies hold the promise of immersive experiences linked to token-based ecosystems that use cryptocurrencies and public blockchains.

"Leaders in consumer industries should experiment with metaverse precursor platforms such as Roblox and Decentral to open doors to new audiences," it added.


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