Businesses unable to keep up may disappear by 2020. 
The Economist Intelligence Unit have conducted a Ricoh-sponsored analysis that reveals 37 percent of surveyed leaders believe their organisation is not able to keep up with technology, losing their competitive edge and may disappear altogether. 60 percent of survey respondents believed their respective markets will differ significantly between now and 2020.
In addition, 59 percent of those surveyed agreed that the concept of non-digital information will be “utterly foreign” to most employees by 2020.
David Mills, Executive Vice President, Operations Ricoh Europe, commented: “Over the last two decades we’ve experienced more technology driven change in business than any other. It is also clear that more change will happen and it is employees and customers that will play a key role in driving the changes by the way they are using it.
“While the acceleration of both digital information is certain to increase inside organisation, the challenge is to ensure critical business processes, both digital and non-digital are integrated and easily assessed by employees across the organisation […] Business leaders need to ask the question – are the information infrastructures inside our organisations
future proof?”
Economist Intelligent Unit’s Denis McCauley added: “Despite the uncertainty for some when anticipating the future, the majority of business executives (70 percent) agreed there were significant opportunities for technology to improve the way they conduct business and there are plenty of gains to be made in improving operating efficiency.
“What is certain is that technology will continue to be a source of continued change to markets and industries between now and 2020.”
The survey was developed through interviews with 567 senior business leaders within 20 sectors. 46 percent of respondents hold C-suite positions, with 43 percent earning annual revenues of $500 million (€371 million) or more. The survey is due for release on March 2012.