Workday Podcast: Are Businesses Facing a Digital Reckoning?

Audio also available on Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

The pandemic has intensified a challenge that many companies were already grappling with: Business needs are changing faster than the must-have technology, processes, and culture they need to stay ahead in today’s marketplace. This gap widens when there is a disconnect between what leaders want and what is achievable, says Pete Schlampp, chief strategy officer at Workday.

In this episode of the Workday Podcast, Schlampp joins guest host Meg Wright, senior editor at Longitude, a Financial Times company, to talk about how business leaders can tackle this acceleration gap head on, and preview some of the most interesting findings from our upcoming global study, “Closing the Acceleration Gap: Toward Sustainable Digital Transformation.” They also discuss why digital is no longer about gaining a competitive edge—today, it’s imperative for survival. 

Below are a few highlights from the conversation, edited for clarity. You can find our other podcast episodes here. Be sure to follow us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts so you don’t miss an episode.

• “For the third year running, Workday and Longitude partnered to conduct a global study of 1,150 senior business leaders. We found that 55% of leaders say their digital strategy is always or often outpaced by the demands of the business.” —Meg Wright

• “There are a couple areas I'm looking forward to over the next couple years. One is the office of the CFO. We know, and some of the research here proves out, that the office of the CFO has not transformed as much as other leaders within the organization. But we know those same leaders were faced with really hard situations when the pandemic started. All of a sudden, everybody's at home. They've got to close the books for the first time with everybody remote, with people not looking each other in the eyes, for instance. They've got to make payroll all of a sudden without being in the office. So they were faced with all these challenges. They're coming out of the pandemic and saying, ‘We can't go forward like this anymore. We know we need to transform.’” —Pete Schlampp

• “I think every sector is taking advantage of data and moving to digital—whether it’s financial services, retail, or hospitality. One of the interesting bright spots is that state and local governments, which sometimes have a reputation of being slow movers, have been adopting new digital technologies much faster than they have in the past. That's a really encouraging sign.” —Pete Schlampp 

Stay tuned here for more findings and the full report; we’ll also share persona-specific findings for the office of the CFO, CIO, and CHRO.