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New Delhi, 16 January 2015–Business should focus on people and purpose, not just products and profits in the 21st century according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s fourth annual Millennial Survey. This and other findings from the survey suggest businesses, particularly in developed markets, will need to make significant changes to attract and retain the future workforce.

Deloitte Global surveyed tomorrow’s leaders, from 29 countries including India, on effective leadership, how business operates and impacts society. Millennials overwhelmingly believe (75 percent) businesses are focused on their own agenda rather than helping to improve society.

“The message is clear: when looking at their career goals, today’s Millennials are just as interested in how a business develops its people and how it contributes to society as they are in its products and profits,” said Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte Global. “These findings should be viewed as a wake-up call to the business community, particularly in developed markets, that they need to change the way they engage Millennial talent or risk being left behind.”

“Managing Millennials is one of the trending issues globally and organisations are relooking their HR strategies to include inspirational practices to create best connectivity with this segment. In India, in order to take advantage of the huge demographic dividend, increased focus on nurturing talent and skill development is required,” said Deloitte in India spokesperson.

A gap exists between what Indian Millennials would prioritize if they led their organizations and where they believe their senior leadership teams are currently focused. Millennials would place far greater emphasis on making a positive contribution to society, employee well-being and employee growth & development’. Conversely, compared to what they would personally prioritize, Indian Millennials perceive their leaders to be too heavily focused on meeting short-term financial goals, their own personal income / rewards and improving efficiency / productivity.

More than half (53 percent) of the Millennials aspire to become the leader or most senior executive within their current organization, with a clear ambition gap between Millennials in emerging markets and developed markets. Sixty-five percent of emerging-market based Millennials said they would like to achieve this goal, compared to only 38 percent in developed markets. In India, 80 percent aspire to become the leader, while 81 percent aspire to reach a senior executive position. While 58 percent of Indians surveyed feel their current organization is making full use of their skills, the global figure compares to only 28 percent.

The overall image of business is positive in all regions. India is among the top 5 countries where Millennials (90 percent Indians against global average of 73 percent) feel that businesses have positive impact on the wider society in which they operate. Additionally, the survey found large global businesses have less appeal for Millennials in developed markets (35 percent) compared to emerging markets (51 percent). Developed-market based Millennials are also less inclined (11 percent) than Millennials in emerging markets (22 percent) to start their own business.

Other notable findings from the survey include:

·         Millennials want to work for organizations with purpose. Indian Millennials (83 percent) are more likely than the global average (61 percent) or elsewhere in emerging economies (66 percent) to consider company purpose when choosing who to work for. Among Millennials who are relatively high users of social networking tools (the “super-connected Millennials”), there appears to be even greater focus on business purpose; 77 percent of this group report their company’s purpose was part of the reason they chose to work there, compared to just 46 percent of those who are the “least connected.”

·         Technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) most attractive employers.TMT ranked most desirable sector and the one to provide the most valuable skills according to Millennials. Men (24 percent) were nearly twice as likely as women (13 percent) to rank TMT as the number one sector to work in. Even in India, TMT was the most desirable sector (64 percent), followed by professional services and public sector (53 percent each). A large, well-established global business is the type of organization that appeals to 44% of all respondents - 51% (emerging markets), 35% (developed markets).

·          Confidence Gap? Millennial men more likely to pursue leadership. Millennial men were somewhat more likely to say they would like to secure the ‘top job’ within their organization than women (59 percent vs. 47 percent). Women were also less likely to rank their leadership skills at graduation as strong; 27 percent of men vs. 21 percent of women rated this skill as strong. However, when asked what they would emphasize as leaders women were more likely to say employee growth and development (34 percent compared to 30 percent), an area that many Millennials felt was lacking within their current organizations.

·         Organizations and colleges must do more to nurture emerging leaders. While overall Millennials did not feel their organizations make full use of their skills (only 28 percent say their organization makes full use of their skills), this figure falls significantly among Millennials in developed markets to just 23 percent.  In addition, it falls below 20 percent in Japan (9 percent), Turkey (15 percent), South Korea (17 percent) and Chile (19 percent). When asked to estimate the contributions that skills gained in higher education made to achievement of their organization’s goals, Millennials’ average figure is 37 percent.

·         The changing characteristics of leadership. Today’s Millennials place less value on visible (19 percent), well-networked (17 percent), and technically-skilled (17 percent) leaders. Instead, they define true leaders as strategic thinkers (39 percent), inspirational (37 percent), personable (34 percent) and visionary (31 percent).

“Millennials want more from business than might have been the case 50, 20, or even 10 years ago,” said Salzberg. “They are sending a very strong signal to the world’s leaders that when doing business, they should do so with purpose. The pursuit of this different and better way of operating in the 21st century begins by redefining leadership.”

About the Deloitte Millennial Survey

The research findings are based on a study conducted by Deloitte in conjunction with Millward Brown, a UK limited company, of more than 7,800 Millennials representing 29 countries around the globe. Screening questions at the recruitment stage ensured that all respondents were Millennials –were born after 1982, have obtained a college or university degree, are employed fulltime, and predominantly work in large (100+ employees), private-sector organizations.

9 billion apps will be downloaded in India in 2015: Deloitte TMT India Predictions

• Revenues from paid apps expected to exceed Rs 15 billion
• MOOC may not be disruptive in the short run
• Print media to continue to maintain a market share of 40-45 per cent

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Mumbai, 4 February 2015: About 9 billion apps will be downloaded in India in 2015, more than 5 times the number of apps downloaded in 2012 (1.56 billion) at a CAGR of 75 per cent, according to Deloitte India’s TMT Predictions 2015 report that was launched today. Revenues from paid apps are estimated to exceed Rs 15 billion in 2015, up from Rs 9 billion in 2014, driven by the increased app usage on smartphones. Also, expansion of 3G network coverage and the rollout of 4G networks in 2015 are expected to further boost smartphone sales in the country.

“Burgeoning smartphone and mobile internet usage, a growing developer community and the potential for regional/localized apps are likely to favor an app revolution in India this year,” said Jolyon Barker, Global TMT Leader, Deloitte. “India’s app economy is already making its mark in the global arena, and this bodes well for consumers, businesses and app developers alike.”

Aided by mobile apps, Indian consumer will share to gain. India has around 300,000 app developers and is already the second largest Android developer community in the world after the US. By 2017, India is expected to have the largest number of software developers. The country has a large number of business segments where idle supply and unmet demand co-exist. With the ubiquity of mobility, such a large gap can be bridged by facilitating sharing of resources to increase utilisation and productivity and thus providing greater ROI to both the providers and users.

“All players in the app ecosystem may be forced to reinvent their business models in the smartphone and mobile internet age to stay relevant.” said Deloitte India spokesperson.“The app economy’s true potential can be realized if network coverage increases, smartphone penetration continues to rise and the ‘absorptive capacity’ of the Indian population towards new technology grows through schemes that promote digital awareness and literacy.”

Additional highlights and details of the India TMT predictions to impact the marketplace in 2015 include:

Technology:

• MOOC: Not yet disruptive but could create a few local storms: In 2015, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) registrations would have a significant upswing across the country though it would be primarily driven by corporate offtake and a few pockets of tertiary education. While government push might bring a few courses to a few colleges/universities via MOOC, MOOC itself may not become a significant medium of imparting tertiary education in the immediate future.
• Growth in vertical e-commerce: Segments with a highly differentiated buying behavior and complex supply chain would sustain the growth of a new breed of e/m-commerce players who would have sustainable business in the face of the horizontal behemoths that exist in the market. Segments like fashion, jewelry, home decor and possibly healthcare will lead this pack.
• The Re-Enterprization of IT: After a decade of IT adoption being led by consumers, Deloitte sees the tide turning again in favor of enterprises. The standardization and security needs of consumer-driven mobility wave would spur new breed enterprise solutions.

Media & Entertainment

• Digital advertising: On an upswing:  With the rapid growth in penetration of the Internet across urban and rural India, marketers are focusing more on spending their media budgets on different digital avenues. In 2015, online advertising market in India is estimated to grow by 30 per cent over last year.
• Print: It’s still not the end: The print sector will continue on the growth path as in the past few years. This growth will be fuelled by the regional markets and deeper penetration of the markets. Despite the global downward trend in this sector, print in India will tread on a stable road and will continue to maintain a market share of 40 per cent to 45 per cent in the near future. Advertising revenue share is also expected to grow steadily.
• Television content branching out: With increased pace of digitization throughout the country in 2015, Deloitte predicts that television content is likely to become more target audience oriented catering to different viewer tastes. We would see more experimentation in terms of innovative and big budget shows not seen in the history of television content so far.

Telecom

• Growing demand of high bandwidtth to drive 4G services: 4G adoption rate in India would be 1.5-2 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base in the next 1-2 years and reach an inflexion point post this period. With average data usage per subscriber in India expected to double by 2016 and number of smartphones crossing 200 million by 2016, Deloitte expects that there would be a significant uptake of 4G dongles, to keep pace with growth in mobile data traffic and provide high speed connectivity.
• Mobiles driving Financial Services and Commerce: Mobiles may continue to gain importance as a channel to drive financial services and commerce this year. The key drivers will be the expanding user base of enabling devices, increasing mobile data and internet usage, and growing adoption of the mobile channel by financial services and other consumer businesses.
• Transforming Governance through mobile and broadband technologies: Taking an objective view of the 3 pillars - namely availability of online services, telecom infrastructure and human capital - on which success of the e-governance growth depends, India could be on the cusp of an inflection point for growth in e-governance transactions. Increased number of e-government initiatives at the central and state levels and increased participation of private players in e-governance initiatives will significantly transform Governance in India.

Mumbai, 25 February, 2015: Along with the government’s promise of putting in more money towards investment, corporates in India are also likely to allocate a higher amount towards capital expenditure (capex).The year 2015 is likely to see some revival in the corporate capex cycle as according to Deloitte India’s CFO Survey, 54percent of respondents believe that their capex will be higher during the course of the year and 53percent expect hiring to pick up. 44.6percent of the CFOs revealed that they expect higher capex and higher hiring over the next one year.

In the short run CFOs are highly optimistic with around 65percent of them positive about economic growth prospects of the domestic economy. As the economy picks up pace, corporate profitability is also expected to show a meaningful uptick over the next one year. 78percent of the CFOs believe that they will experience an increase in revenue while 71percent expect higher earnings.

“Rise in CFO optimism in the short term is in line with other key developments such as inflation coming under control, current account deficit contracting to manageable levels and the likely hood of the government meeting its fiscal target”, said Deloitte spokesperson.

However, CFOs do not expect it to be a smooth ride. Even as growth has turned around and business confidence is on the rise, regulatory impediments and uncertainty in the tax environment continue to be one of the major concerns shared by the CFOs. Further, while inflation has moderated enough for the Reserve Bank of India to start the rate cutting cycle, it continues to be a concern shared by 25.8percent of the CFOs.

“The percentage of CFOs who are neutral to the current developments drops from by a whopping 33percent to 3.1percent as we move from the one year period to the two-three year medium term period. These findings therefore, clearly show that the CFOs are willing to give the government more time to bring about the structural change that would give growth a more sustainable and meaningful boost”, added Deloitte spokesperson.

Within the realm of industry, increased competition due to new entrants affecting profits, as well as price trends affected by increased competition are major challenges according to a majority of the CFOs.

Even as these issues prevail, there is renewed hope that the new government will address these issues. Another major theme that has emerged in the Deloitte CFO Survey has been the proactive role that the government has played in reigniting the growth process. As such, 37.1percent of the CFOs are very positive while another 58.8percent were positive that the new government will accelerate the pace of reforms. A minority of CFOs were neutral while none of the CFOs were negative.

Although well directed, according to the CFO’s, the ‘Make in India’ campaign faces several infrastructural and regulatory roadblocks. High investment risk and lack of clear policy framework is one of the main roadblocks according to 68% of CFOs. The other major factor highlighted by the survey is tax or other levies impacting cost competitiveness. Both these factors point to the uncertainty associated with unclear policy framework, acting as a major deterrent to the overall business confidence.

Among the major difficulties faced in doing business in India, the one of the most important was the productivity and employability of people. It is considered as one of the main impediments in India realizing its demographic dividend; availability of skilled workforce will pose a deterrent for doing business in India and the successful implementation of the ‘Make in India’ campaign, according to the CFO survey.

The Deloitte India CFO survey 2015, is based on responses of over 100 CFOs spanning across a plethora of sectors, from small scale to large scale companies with revenue spanning from INR less than 250 crores to higher than INR 2500 crores. Similarly, there are CFOs of Indian companies as well as MNC headquartered outside India as well as within India, with a workforce spanning from less than 500 employees to more than 20,000 employees. The survey tries to reflect the overall mood of corporate India with regards to the recent economic and political developments.