Telstra is calling for a ‘Return on Connection’, finding a lack of external professional networks could be costing organisations $15.5 million annually.
Telstra’s Return on Connection report quantifies the value of human-to-human connection for leaders, their organisation and the industries they support, and found Australia has a major collaboration opportunity for leaders facing into big and complex challenges.
Conducted by YouGov, the report’s survey of more than 1000 senior leaders across large businesses and public sector organisations found:
- 1 in 3 have no professional network of peers outside of their organisation.
- Organisations with highly connected leaders saw revenue growth 5% higher on average compared to less connected organisations.
- A growth gap of around $15.5 million in lost opportunity in the past year on average for large organisations surveyed with lower levels of connected leaders – or $53 billion across all large Australian businesses.
The research also compared leader-to-leader connection in different industries. It found a higher proportion of connected leaders in the manufacturing, construction and financial services industries, with lower connections in mining, retail and the public sector.
Leader to leader connection
Telstra Enterprise Chief Customer Officer Peggy Renders says the research not only puts a dollar value on leader-to-leader connection, but it also found better collaboration led to increased problem solving and innovation.
“We asked Australian leaders about what’s keeping them up at night. As you’d expect, it’s a heavy list of challenges, with rising cost pressures, driving innovation, implementing new technology, short term vs long term goals and sustainable work practices rounding out the top five,” she said.
“What surprised us though, is that most leaders aren’t connecting with other leaders – either within or beyond their sector – on these big challenges. That’s despite a huge 96% believing stronger connection would help tackle these challenges.
“What’s more, our research found that higher levels of leader-to-leader connection leads to higher levels of new and innovative ideas being injected into an organisation,” Ms Renders said.
According to the research, in the last 12 months, nearly half of leaders who connect daily (46%) shared that interactions with external networks led to the development of new or innovative ideas six or more times.
Supporting connections
Overwhelmingly though, leaders were clear in their desire to both increase and improve the way they connect with peers. Nearly all (93%) of all respondents said they were willing to share their organisation’s challenges and opportunities.
In response Telstra is launching a new Return on Connection initiative to bring leaders from diverse industries together on the key challenges identified in our report, including driving innovation and implementing new technology through a series of forums.
“Many connections in today’s super-speed society are often one-off or tactical. This doesn’t bring people closer, it doesn’t build trust or take a relationship to a strategic level,” Ms Renders said.
“Through our Return on Connection forums we hope to unlock the value of diverse perspectives on the same challenges all Australian industries and governments are facing. We want business leaders from across sectors to connect, showcase innovation and learn from one another.”
Telstra’s research report is now live, and expressions of interest are now open for business and public sector leaders to attend the Return on Connection forum series: telstra.com.au/returnonconnection.