As the world continues to become increasingly connected, the modern organization finds itself in the center of a cultural revolution. Historically, the most advanced technologies like high-speed internet access and the mobile phone were leveraged almost exclusively for the workplace to increase and enhance employee productivity. Once these technologies reached critical mass in the office, they began to spill over into the personal lives of consumers who immediately integrated these technologies into every facet of their lives. The office is no longer the place to access the latest technological innovations. These innovations are now found in the home and these same consumers are bringing their personal devices and services with them into work at a staggering pace. The model has shifted and employee expectations along with it. The challenges associated with this consumerization of IT are only compounded by the emergence and ongoing evolution of new technologies and trends such as cloud, mobility, collaboration and big data. As companies around the world work to understand the benefits these trends will lend to their bottom line, the way that business is done is changing at a fundamental level. Todays C-Suite sees the challenges ahead for their businesses and are just beginning to understand that these technologies are changing more than the way business is done - they are shifting corporate cultures and the very definition of their own roles within the enterprise. To better understand how the role of technology is fundamentally shifting in the networked workplace, Alcatel-Lucent, a global telecommunications leader, surveyed more than 5,500 enterprise employees and functional decision makers across the United States and China to isolate the key drivers of workforce change. Additionally, the company surveyed elite college talent from the top universities in each country to identify their expectations of their future workplace and how this next-generation of employees will further alter the business landscape. Transforming Business: Big Data, Mobility and Globalization reveals the findings from this research and offers guidance to leaders seeking to learn: How new technology trends - including mobility, cloud, big data and collaboration - are fundamentally changing the way work is conducted and how company leadership can tap into these trends to affect positive cultural reform How the introduction of new technologies and the emergence of new business models are shifting traditional organizational roles - including HR, Marketing, Finance and IT How the next-generation of top talent, represented by college students at the top universities, view their future workplace environment and how technology can become a meaningful magnet for recruitment and retention, thereby becoming an essential ingredient to a firms sustainable competitive advantage How the integration of technology into the workplace differs between the United States and China and the implications to the global marketplace The result is an evolved role for company leadership, one of significant strategic value as cultural stewards capable of generating sustainable advantage for their companies in the most competitive market witnessed in decades.
