Industry Thought Leaders Share Their Insights on a Challenging Year Ahead

Business leaders are facing a perfect storm. Economic headwinds combined with a cost-of-living crisis are hurting SMBs and enterprises alike.

How can business experts respond?

Whether it’s embracing sustainability, putting a laser focus on customer experience, or a greater emphasis on employee wellbeing, there are routes to making organisations more resilient.

SAP Concur has connected with respected industry experts across customer experience (CX), human resources (HR), sustainability, and finance, to get their insights on tackling the challenges of 2023 and beyond:

CX: Delivering a personalised customer experience

“2023 will be a transition year for a lot of organisations trying to find the right balance between technology and the human touch,” according to award-winning customer experience consultant Rebecca Brown.

“When it comes to customer experience, understanding where your customers are happy to self-serve, and where they genuinely need a human interaction will be critical.

The link between employee experience and customer experience will also be key, with happy employees creating happy customers. Ensuring you look after your teams, cater for their basic needs, and go the extra mile to make sure they know you appreciate them will be critical to the success of your business and your customer initiatives.

We’ve also spoken to several international organisations trying to lean more heavily into personalisation of their customer experience to accelerate revenue growth recently, so it looks like personalisation will continue to dominate a lot of the CX initiatives and investment in 2023.”

Finance: Low carbon economy and digitisation are growth business opportunities

“2023 is, like 2022, going to be another year of flux,” says experienced Chair and serial social entrepreneur Patrick Dunne.

“So many forecasters have gone for the safety of ‘cautious optimism’.

Yet, this is a year where the average outlook matters less for business leaders. 

As the wake turbulence from the seismic events of the last few years meets a fresh tsunami of economic, political, and social issues, it is likely to wreak further havoc for some and propel others into new and exciting islands of profitability.  

Those benefiting from fundamental spending changes such as the shift to a low carbon economy or digitisation, who are talent magnets with strong pricing power and who have the capital to invest as well as withstand short term storms are obviously more likely to prosper.

Sadly, for others it will be about battening down the hatches, a year of anxiety and what will feel like an endless and exhausting amount of tacking to avoid short term dangers.

The good news is if you have compelling case is that there will be plenty of propulsion available for the likely winners. The Private Equity industry alone has a staggering $2 trillion of dry powder to invest an after a couple of years of sitting on their hands for a bit they will be looking for a home for that cash.

This is likely to drive sector consolidation, innovation and investment enabling higher productivity.”

Business Sustainability: Creating a clearer path to a green future

“2022 was a potent amalgam of both short-term and long-term pressures and 2023 will be no different,” believes Mike Barry, a leader in sustainable change.

“What unites them both is that they demand that companies make ‘big calls’ – on the management of today’s cost base and the transformation of business models - this includes their products and services and value chains to slash carbon footprints.

So, what can we expect to see in 2023?

People want to make a positive difference - 71% of people want to work for a company that makes a positive difference and 32% of millennials have shifted their behaviours to find ways to be more sustainable.

• Energy use and cost in business has to be cut - Energy is at the heart of so many aspects of a company’s cost base. For example, food production uses energy to make fertilizers, to heat and cool food and to power farms and factories. We need analytics to ‘find it’ and data to track reductions in energy use and associated cost savings. We also need to track every aspect of mobility in a business from logistics to travel.
• Proof needs to be provided – We live in a world that expects hyper-transparency. Retailers like Tesco and Zalando are already demanding proof that their suppliers have cut their carbon and plastic footprint substantially if they want access to their shelves.
• Scope 3 needs to be managed - Investors are also demanding that large corporates become Net Zero for their carbon emissions, particularly across what’s known as their Scope 3 – their extended global supply chains and networks of business partners or companies they finance, often numbering in their 10000s. Measuring this huge and complex carbon footprint cannot be done via emails and spreadsheets, it demands advanced approaches to big data and artificial intelligence”
• Business transformation needs to be prepared for - Companies are having to make big bets on shifting their business models. Does an oil company become a renewable energy company? A diesel car manufacturer an EV one? A meat business pivot to plant or even cellular based alternatives?” 

To read Mike’s predictions in full, be sure to check out his latest article for SAP Concur as well as our SAP Concur 2022 annual sustainability study.

HR: Updated expense management and business policies can improve employee experience

“Throughout the pandemic, despite the largest physical threat to most employee’s wellbeing, more than half reported that their biggest wellbeing concern was money,” says best-selling wellbeing author Gethin Nadin.

“Most employees are now living on a knife-edge with little to no buffer to cover business expenses themselves while waiting for them to be repaid by their employer.

Almost 40% of businesses recognise their expense management and policies need to be updated at this time. And more than half say their current expense management system is too manual to work in a hybrid environment.

Employees even admitted that when submitting expenses, there was concern their employer may think badly of them, if even they were entitled to claim money back.

Real and effective wellbeing at work begins with ensuring you, as the employer, aren’t putting unnecessary pressure on your people. Employers need to ensure they don’t contribute to worsening financial stress through everyday actions, whether that be late payments or an unclear expense management.”

To find out more about how to improve employee experience, download our latest report.

Business leaders rising to the challenges of the year ahead

Considering today’s economic, political, and societal issues, it paints a challenging year ahead for all businesses.

However, our experts have shown there are clear routes to survival today, as well as success tomorrow. It could be an increasing pivot towards digitisation or easing the financial stresses on employees. It could be taking a renewed focus on transparent sustainability or homing in on a more personalised customer experience. All four areas present opportunities to be embraced.

At their core, each can make businesses more resilient, while also laying the groundwork for future growth.