Agility, skills and cybersecurity : critical drivers of competitiveness in times of economic uncertainty

Purpose: To better understand the current state of world economic competitiveness as well as the challenges and opportunities both present and emerging for national economies, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) 10;surveyed top executives on a range of topics related to their organizations’ and their nations’ successes. Design/methodology/approach: More than 2,700 C-level executives across the 12 largest national economies were surveyed in collaboration with Oxford Economics. Findings: •9;90 percent of executives cite skilled labor availability and quality as a critical factor for their organization when considering expansion into new markets. 10;•9;54 percent of executives say cyber threats are among the biggest strategic risks for their nation’s economy in the next five years. 10;•9;120 million workers in the world’s 12 largest economies may need to be retrained/reskilled in the next three years as a result of intelligent/AI-enabled automation. 10; Practical implications: By a wide margin, regulatory risk and cyber threats dominate the attention of business and other leaders as primary risks to their respective economies. Social implications: The future success of national economies is heavily dependent upon ecosystem partners working together to develop and maintain a skilled workforce across regional labor markets. Originality/value: Based on the responses, the researches recommend a focus on developing and maintaining the workforce skills required to realize value from intelligent automation and other emerging technologies.As intelligent automation and other disruptions continue to redefine industries, the types of skills these industries require are also evolving. 10;