While nearly two thirds of companies worldwide find social business initiatives are positively impacting their business outcomes, maturing organisations in the Middle East say that it represents an opportunity to fundamentally change the way their businesses perform, a report said.

The level of social business value companies achieve is related to their social business “maturity”, added the report, “Moving Beyond Marketing: Generating Social Business Value Across the Enterprise" released by leading professional services firm Deloitte and MIT Sloan Management Review, a media company based at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

The global survey of more than 4,800 business executives across 109 countries and 26 industries, found that nearly 80 per cent of the surveyed companies analyse social data, and 67 per cent integrate it into systems and processes to improve business decisions.

“Maturing organisations in the Middle East are led by executives who believe in the potential of social business, agreeing that social business represents an opportunity to fundamentally change the way their organization works, and leave a positive impact on business outcomes,” explained Rana Ghandour Salhab, Talent and Communication partner at Deloitte Middle East.

The Deloitte MIT Sloan Management Review report finds that respondents who rated their companies further along the social maturity scale were more likely to report their companies practice the following:

•    Employ a leadership vision that social business can bring about fundamental changes: More than 90 per cent of respondents say their leaders believe it can create powerful and positive change.

•    Infuse social business into multiple functions across the enterprise: A total of 87 per cent use social business to spur innovation.

Other study findings include:

•    Social business is perceived as important both today and in the future. Seventy three per cent of this year’s survey respondents say social business is important or somewhat important today. Nearly 90 per cent see its importance on a three-year horizon.

•    Social business is not just a B-to-C phenomenon. Nearly 60 per cent of B-to-B companies agree or strongly agree that social business initiatives are positively impacting business outcomes. Among B-to-C respondents, the percentage is 68.

“It is important to note that employees want to work for companies that excel at social business,” added Salhab. “This is evidenced by the fact that more than half of the respondents answered that social business sophistication is at least somewhat important in their choice of employer.” – TradeArabia News Service