African CEOs are more worried about opaque and frequent changes in regulation in many countries on the continent, more than changes in technology or the top management in their firms being out of touch with customer needs, a study by IBM showed.

The study by technology firm IBM found out that African senior business executives are putting regulatory concerns and people skills before market, technology and macro-economic factors as their priorities over the next three to five years, The Standard reported.

This is compared to CEOs from other parts of the world whose major worry is that senior officials within their companies – like the chief marketing officers and chief information officers (referred to as the C-suite leaders) – being out of touch with the needs of their customers.

“African CEOs also expect to see a bigger shift to partnering, primarily to increase value, build efficiency and grow their networks, leveraging relationships with other firms who share similar aspirations with their companies,” IBM said in a study titled ‘The Customer-activated Enterprise’.

“Our research with C-suite leaders over the past decade has shown that organizations have steadily shifted to embrace more open, collaborative and reciprocal models,” Katharyn White, managing partner, Global Business Services, Central, Western and Eastern Africa told The Standard.

“Today, CEOs recognize that they can’t do it all alone. They’re opening up their organizations, breaking down barriers and actively engaging customers,” she added.

The study is based on findings from face-to-face conversations with more than 4,000 CEOs, CMOs, CFOs, CIOs and other C-suite leaders from 70 countries and 20 industries worldwide. It interviews 182 C-suite leaders in Africa and the Middle East.

According to the report, African executives also expect that over the next three to five years, they will drive more organizational openness than other senior executives around the world.