IT leaders make the best CEO candidates: survey

More than 70% of Singaporean firms believe IT leaders are better equipped to assume CEO roles compared to other department heads.

A massive 94% of Singaporean firms have increased their use of business analytics since the pandemic started, according to ManageEngine’s 2021 Digital Readiness Survey.

This greater emphasis on data and technology has led to firms trusting their tech leadership team more. Around 71% of Singaporean businesses reported that information technology (IT) leaders are better equipped and qualified to become CEOs compared to heads from other departments like sales, marketing, and finance.

More than 85% of respondents said that they have increased the adoption of cloud solutions, such as software as a service, infrastructure as a service, and platform as a service, in the last two years.

Confidence in the use of artificial intelligence has also increased to 89%.

Security concerns on cyber threats, particularly phishing, malware, and account hacking, continue to be high as employees work remotely.

The 2021 Digital Readiness Survey had a respondent pool of 1,210 IT executives from Singapore, India, North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. In Singapore, 101 respondents were surveyed from businesses with more than 500 employees across 16 industry verticals.