Article: Top five factors that can enhance a firm's competitive advantage

Business

Top five factors that can enhance a firm's competitive advantage

Employer of the Future 2023 is Leadup Universe's exclusive study to assesses the readiness of India's corporate sector to provide a conducive work environment to new-age employees.
Top five factors that can enhance a firm's competitive advantage

“People First” approach continues to remain at the heart of successful business organisations, reveals a study by career acceleration platform Leadup Universe, in association with Work Universe.

Anchored on the three key aspects of people, systems and innovation, "Employer of the Future 2023" assesses the readiness of India's corporate sector to provide a conducive work environment to new-age employees.

Mayank Verma, CEO & Co-Founder, Leadup Universe said: "'Employer of the Future 2023' takes into context different expectations for the organisations – from the view of employees, consumers, and community at large and serves as a guiding tool of policies, strategies, and best practices for the organisations who yearn to become pioneers of the future."

The study identified the following five factors for enhancing the competitive advantage of firms: 

Knowledge economy

The study shows that there has been a considerable shift with more focus now being attributed to tenets of the knowledge economy such as learning, creativity, and openness to attract employees.

Leaders as catalysts

Respondents for the employee survey, which was additionally undertaken, rated inspirational characters, walking-the-talk, inclusive decision-making, fostering democratic systems, achieving top financial results, and use of technology to drive performance as the top attributes that they aspire to have in their C-suite leaders.

Non-standard forms of employment

In the non-standard forms of employment, the gig economy brings a host of benefits to the table including cost-effective models, minimum hiccups, and quick response to changing customer and market demands. The study revealed that a significantly high (85 per cent) number of the companies are willing to engage with gig workers for their specialist positions while 35 per cent expressed their agreement to have these people even in their board rooms.

A hybrid workplace promoting inclusivity has also emerged as one of the prominent themes in the non-standard formats of the work.

Automation, artificial intelligence, and skill shift

The use of new-age technologies such as automation and AI found prominence in the 'Employer of the Future 2023' study.

Rashmi Mandloi, Co-Founder Leadup Universe, added: “While emphasising the need for upskilling and reskilling, the survey indicated five emerging opportunity areas where companies must focus: specialist roles, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial capabilities, soft skill progression, attaining green skills, and career diversification. The business leaders who participated in the study highlighted sustainability as a key theme along with other important aspects of performance such as cost leadership, customer focus, product differentiation, operations, and people."

Focused-growth through high performance and sustainability  

The fifth and last theme of the study is to achieve high performance and sustainability through the focus on growth. To that end, the survey participants emphasised the creation of sustained economic value by identifying strategies for winning markets across their areas of operations. While 30% emphasised innovative capability as the most important strategy, 28 per cent favoured a strong focus on core business to win over customers.

Further, agility and market insights also find a place in market-facing winning strategies with 26 per cent and 9 per cent of respondents making a case for their adoption.

The study covered more than 75 organisations across industry verticals and sizes and got responses from more than 500 employees who helped to identify relationships between profitability, employee, consumer stability, and social good.

It also highlighted the key areas where organisations can improve to attract talent and emerge as a preferred workplace for new-age employees. These areas include a focus on retention strategies, policies related to DEI, principles for making technology and AI transition, and emphasis on the theme of sustainability.

“Future of work will be brought to us by the “Employers of the Future” hence let’s celebrate them!” said Pankaj Bansal, Co-Founder Work Universe.

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Topics: Business, Strategic HR, Skilling, #FutureOfWork, #DigitalTransformation, #ESG

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