The report offers a global survey of c-suite leaders with insights to guide business leaders in managing Industry 4.0 change and transformation. Law firms may not be surprised that societal impact and talent development top the list for leader priorities, but may be concerned about a reported 'mismatch' in deploying technology.

Leadership traits

Addressing the fourth industrial revolution, or industry 4.0 as it is known, is re-shaping how global leaders need to prepare their businesses and workforces for the future. The Deloitte report suggests there are defined leadership traits required to deal with industry 4.0  transformation. Deloitte's second annual readiness report entitled ‘Success Personified in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ surveyed over 2,000 c-suite executives across 19 countries. The report found that executives genuinely want to improve the world and have a clearer grasp of the skills challenge ahead. The survey revealed that societal impact (34 percent) is the most important factor business leaders use to gauge success, totaling that of financial performance (17 percent) and employee satisfaction (17 percent) combined. More than half of global executives surveyed (53 percent) noted their societal impact efforts resulted in new revenue streams, proving purpose and profit can coexist in industry 4.0.

Tech ‘mismatch’

Despite this, organizational barriers limit the development of effective Industry 4.0 strategies, and the report states leaders still shy away from bold technology investments that will drive innovation and disruption. Attitudes have changed dramatically from 2017 and what it takes to succeed in industry 4.0. Punit Renjen, Deloitte global ceo, said leaders’ actions ‘demonstrated a significant mismatch between their confidence to address these changes and their actual readiness to address them. Today, leaders are more realistic about what it will take to succeed, and they appear particularly focused on societal impact and workforce development as two critical components of their future success.’ Successful industry 4.0 organizations have leaders who embody the characteristics of specific personas the report states, which are: commitment to do good; defined, data-driven decision-making; bold, longer-term vision of technology; and, aggressive about workforce development. The full research results and the report can be found here.