Snippets: Sustainability index

Financial services ranked highest in the Korn Ferry Digital Sustainability Index among the five industries—including technology, life sciences and health care, industrials and consumer companies—in the study. The study is a measure of a business’s ability to adapt effectively and continuously to keep up with the constant flux in the digital economy. “Being digitally mature is not enough: the new economy demands companies that are built to change, forever iterating,” said Melissa Swift, Korn Ferry Hay Group global digital solutions leader. “Leaders must recognise that with new products, services and brands entering the market at lightning speed, transformation is needed not just once, but over and over again.” Researchers analysed 362 firms in 14 countries. The ranking is based on five core leadership and organisational dimensions of digital sustainability: agility, connectivity, discipline and focus, openness and transparency and empowerment and alignment.

Digital ad spending

A new report from Juniper Research has found that digital advertising spend will grow by 18 per cent CAGR over the next five years, rising from $184 billion in 2017 to $420 billion in 2022. These figures include advertising spend across mobile, desktop, wearables and digital-out-of-home signage. The research, Future Digital Advertising -AI, Ad Fraud & Ad Blocking 2017-2022, predicted that the annual growth of online ad spend will slow to only four per cent globally by 2022, owing to the impact of ad blocking adoption across desktop devices and the increasing usage of mobile devices as the primary means for browsing. According to the research, ad platforms will seek a greater degree of control over the types of ads being blocked through increased involvement in “acceptable ad” initiatives. Through these initiatives, platforms are starting to shift focus to encouraging the use of adverts that are not blocked.