One in three leaders of large organisations have no external professional network

Disconnected leaders could be costing organisations $15.5 million annually

Telstra launches new cross-industry connection initiative

New research by Telstra has found a lack of connection between senior business and public sector leaders could mean a missed opportunity of about $53 billion in revenue annually across large Australian organisations.

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[1] saw revenue growth 5% higher on average compared to less connected organisations[2].
• 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.

Telstra Enterprise Chief Customer Officer, Peggy Renders, said the opportunity for Australian industry and government to better connect was enormous.

“Connection is in our Telstra DNA, it’s what we do. Our networks connect Australia – and our incredible country to the world,” Ms Renders said.

“But it’s people that give purpose to technology, and it’s the connection that our connectivity enables that we are so passionate about. We see the power of connection, in all forms, as vital in strengthening and evolving Australia, our businesses and our industries.”

She said that Telstra’s research not only put a dollar value on leader-to-leader connection, it 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,” Ms Renders 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.”

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.

Telstra’s 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.

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.

“In today’s super-speed society so many connections 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.

“Throughout my career it has often been peers working in completely different industries – or countries – that have helped bring diverse thinking to challenges. And that’s certainly been the case over this year as we’ve worked to reset our enterprise business around our customers and Australian industry and government.

“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/return-on-connection.

[1] Highly connected organisations are defined as those with all/most of their senior leaders connected to external professional networks.

[2] Less connected organisations are defined as those with only half or less of their senior leaders connected to external professional networks.