As part of Vodafone’s Business and Trends report, the company polled enterprises across several sectors on their priorities going forward.
The report noted that the success of enterprises is becoming increasingly tied to their “purpose, ethics and trust”, highlighting the importance of taking an ethical approach to business. 83% of those polled said that an ethical business outlook can help generate more revenue
“Trust is king” in a digital world, the report claims, with end users and businesses willing to pay more for peace of mind when it comes to threats. 55% of those Vodafone spoke with said retaining customer trust was a key concern for the business.
One key takeaways is the impact of digital transformation. Over four in five of those polled see the needs of their customers changing (85%), and a similar proportion recognise that the country around them is changing faster than ever before (80%). Uncertainty of the future is high and organisations are seeing that old business models are being radically disrupted (78%).
Vodafone also looked at the impact of AI on business. Two thirds said they are already using AI in what they do or are planning to introduce it in the near future. However, over half consider that AI will lead to discrimination against groups of people.
The Global Trends Barometer was tied to a soft rebrand of Vodafone’s enterprise division, though no further details about the new structure of the unit was shared. The refresh, which was first mentioned by Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read after he took the reins earlier this year, is to demonstrate how Vodafone if focussed on working with organisations of any size.
Brian Humphries, CEO at Vodafone Business, said: “Our research has identified the key concerns, challenges and opportunities that businesses will face over the next year. In an era of unprecedented change, the most important factor for businesses – customer centricity. Placing people at the heart of business is the trend we truly identify with and is core to Vodafone Business, running through all of our products and services, from technologies such as IoT and SD-WAN through to our approach to relationships with customers.”
