In 2016, business surveys across Asia and beyond showed that executives increasingly saw data as central to strategy. The same surveys showed that many firms had not yet built the strategy, skills or funding to use it.
Microsoft’s Asia Data Culture Study
Microsoft released the first Asia Data Culture Study in spring 2016. It polled 940 business leaders at medium and large companies in 13 Asian markets, asking about digital and data strategy and readiness for the digital economy.
Microsoft’s regional release on 10 May 2016 said 88% of those polled agreed that an agile, data-driven business was important. Only 43% believed they had a full digital strategy in place.
The country cuts showed the same gap. Microsoft Malaysia reported on 11 May 2016 that 85% of Malaysian business decision-makers felt a data-driven business was important, but only 44% were starting to embark on a digital strategy or had a limited one. It listed high costs, lack of digital skills, fear of change and funding as the main barriers.
In the Philippines, the Business Mirror reported that the study put the Southeast Asian figure at 91% for agreement that a data-driven strategy brings agility and competitiveness. It put the figure for a full digital strategy at 44%.
Industrial firms and decision-making
PwC’s 2016 Global Industry 4.0 Survey looked at industrial companies worldwide. It found that 83% of respondents expected data to have a significant impact on their decision-making within five years. Only about half were using data to drive decisions at that point.
PwC said maturity made a difference. Among companies with advanced digitisation and integration, 73% said data and analytics played a significant role in decisions. Among those with low levels, the figure was 38%.
The same report said China’s industrial companies stood out in all aspects of digitisation.
Leadership and policy
Corporate structures were also shifting. Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consultancy, reported in its 2016 Chief Digital Officer Study that appointments of chief digital officers among the world’s 2,500 largest listed companies had tripled in two years. They then accounted for 19% of the total.
Governments made similar moves. A 2024 paper in Future Business Journal notes that China identified big data as a national basic strategic resource in 2016. It adds that China also provided legal support for regulating data processing and ensuring data security.
Analyst forecasts pointed the same way. Microsoft’s Malaysian release quoted a prediction from IDC Asia/Pacific. By the end of 2017, 60% of the region’s 1,000 largest enterprises would have digital transformation at the centre of corporate strategy.
What the 2016 figures showed
Most of these figures measured intent more than execution. Roughly nine in ten Asian leaders in Microsoft’s poll valued a data-driven business, yet fewer than half reported a full strategy.
PwC found a similar split between expecting data to matter and using it day to day. Cost, skills, culture and funding were the obstacles the Malaysian findings named most clearly.