Media, entertainment, & communications
BEACON 2021
30% $1B-$4.99B
25% $5B-$9.99B
16% $10B-$14.99B
12% $15B-$19.99B
18% $20B+
Media, entertainment and communications has adapted so quickly, in the wake of the pandemic. Some of those changes were already due, and just accelerated. Others have completely reframed how the industry sees itself.
So what’s ahead of us? By speaking to over 100 cross-functional leaders – with hundreds of billions in combined revenue – we’ve created a Beacon Report fit for extraordinary times. It’s the true picture of 2021.
2019 Revenue:
14% C-suite
34% Executive
34% Director
19% Sr. Manager
LeVELS:
14% C-suite
65% IT
10% HR, Ops,
and Strategy
FUNCTIONS:
The pandemic has piled enormous pressure on MEC businesses. It’s forced remote working, store closures, and an increase in digitized resources across the board. These changes aren’t going away either. Operational refinement is one answer, but certainly not the only one. Agile models are poised to make or break your next move.
Here, you’ll discover the real influences of the next 12 months. And how to master it.
The evolution of work for your employees
81% of respondents told us it’s a strategic priority
Purpose, mission & vision
Employee experience
EX and employee wellness & safety
40% of organizations list them as a top change catalyst
New customer demands
100% of leaders feel CX will provide it
Competitive advantage
Addressing CX uncertainty
What you need to know for the year ahead.
We’ve found the top strategic priorities for 2021.
Certain priorities (operational efficiency, cybersecurity, and customer experience) have risen to the top of strategic thinking – a sign of confidence in the industry. But there’s still a lot to resolve before moving forward; fewer than half of our respondents feel prepared for their top priorities. Budgets are stretched. Working models are shifting. People are buying online even more. Better planning, hierarchies, and operational foundations will decide which brands struggle or thrive in the MEC industry.
Infrastructure and operations reimagined
Keep costs in check with fresh efficiencies
Exceed employee expectations
Keep pace with changing CX – and use design thinking. Design thinking helps you spot the signals of change so you can act fast, preemptively, while analyzing what’s feasible. First, get customer insights. What problems have you uncovered? Secondly, solve them through mini design sprints. That’ll leave you with quick, cost-effective solutions to test.
Refine CX with design-led thinking
Taking action today
Culture and experience now need to be cultivated in a virtual or hybrid setting. This is the employee experience (EX) magnified. Meanwhile, key functions such as IT have become more prominent, laying the ground for security and continuity. There’s rarely been a greater push for helping teams meet the demands of their role today, as well as caring about their future.
76% of organizations believe this is a priority for the year ahead
44% have these tied as the top internal catalysts for change
Fresh planning and work models can fuel technological change.
The stakes are high in 2021. So, how can you make the online experience seamless and give customers what they’re looking for? Streaming has risen sharply in the last 12 months. Mergers and acquisitions have gone up too, compounding questions around brand perception. To succeed, MEC companies must focus on ease of use and prevent disruption.
40%
CX as differentiator
Fresh planning and work models can fuel technological change.
The second highest priority overall
Where do you start? Here are our main takeaways for people-first improvement:
Refine CX with design-led thinking
Exceed employee expectations
Keep costs in check with fresh efficiencies
Listen and respond to your employees' needs. At the same time, recognize the tension between their desires and issues of cost or customer preference. It's a balancing act – and you should see where shared values lie across all stakeholders. From there, redesign the EX to drive tangible, achievable improvement. You'll equip everybody to power your transformation forward seamlessly. Consider agile ways of working too. It'll help leaders reimagine legacy hierarchies, refine cross-functional collaboration, accelerate output, and decentralize any decision you make together.
As agility ramps up, so can the comprehensiveness of your operational efficiency reviews – targeted specifically at ways to drive efficiency and save costs. Delve deeper into the cracks in your operational foundation, so improved processes are sustainable. Afterwards, implement process mining, automation, and other techniques – along with new digital channels – to do more with less.
MEDIA, ENTERTAINMENt, & COMMUNICATIONS
BEACON 2021
Keep costs in check with fresh efficiencies
Single, hyper-specific talent investments may let you down in the long run. Think about how you can quickly source the expertise needed to keep pace with your evolving priorities. To harness your people as a differentiator, ensure these investments align with your shared definition of value.
Arm HR for continuous change
Bring Human Resources into discussions about efficiency, operations and security. They need
to keep staff healthy and engaged through the transition. Consider shorter planning cycles and embrace agile ways of working.
Refine CX with design-led thinking
Find your shared definition of value, linking employees, customers and business needs together. Then manage changes carefully, with as little friction as possible. How? With flexible governance structures like the Transformation Value Office. They connect top-down vision with the work that gets done.
TAKING ACTION TODAY
Where do you start?
Here’s our main takeaways
for people-first improvement.
Refine CX with design-led thinking
Exceed employee expectations
Keep costs in check with
fresh efficiencies
The second highest priority overall
CX as differentiator
40% of organizations list them as a top change catalyst
40%
New customer demands
Competitive advantage
100% of leaders feel CX will provide it
The stakes are high in 2021. So, how can you make the online experience seamless and give customers what they’re looking for? Streaming has risen sharply in the last 12 months. Mergers and acquisitions have gone up too, compounding questions around brand perception. To succeed, MEC companies must focus on ease of use and prevent disruption.
Addressing CX uncertainty
44% have these tied as the top internal catalysts for change
EX and employee wellness & safety
76% of organizations believe this is a priority for the year ahead
Attainability
Over three-fourths of organizations say data and analytics are a priority
Purpose, mission & vision
The evolution of work for your employees
Leaders understand technology is their best shot at full or close-to-full-scale enterprise transformation. But there’s a confidence gap... How can you bring employees on board with these new tools? Increasingly, our respondents are turning to agile working and more frequent, iterative planning cycles.
The pandemic has piled enormous pressure on MEC businesses. It’s forced remote working, store closures, and an increase in digitized resources across the board. These changes aren’t going away either. Operational refinement is one answer, but certainly not the only one. Agile models are poised to make or break your next move.
Infrastructure and
operations reimagined
Here, you’ll discover the real influences of the next 12 months. And how to master it.
We’ve found the top strategic priorities for 2021.
Certain priorities (operational efficiency, cybersecurity, and customer experience) have risen to the top of strategic thinking – a sign of confidence in the industry. But there’s still a lot to resolve before moving forward; fewer than half of our respondents feel prepared for their top priorities. Budgets are stretched. Working models are shifting. People are buying online even more. Better planning, hierarchies, and operational foundations will decide which brands struggle or thrive in the MEC industry.
14% C-suite
34% Executive
34% Director
19% Sr. Manager
LeVELS
14% C-suite
65% IT
10% HR, Ops, and Strategy
FUNCTIONS
2019 Revenue
What you need to know for the year ahead.
Media, entertainment and communications has adapted so quickly, in the wake of the pandemic. Some of those changes were already due, and just accelerated. Others have completely reframed how the industry sees itself.
So what’s ahead of us? By speaking to over 100 cross-functional leaders – with hundreds of billions in combined revenue – we’ve created a Beacon Report fit for extraordinary times. It’s the true picture of 2021.
81%
30% $1B-$4.99B
25% $5B-$9.99B
16% $10B-$14.99B
12% $15B-$19.99B
18% $20B+
100%
81%
100%
76%
44%
76%
Who we talked to
top priorities for the year ahead
Read the 2021 E-book
Assembling the 2021
Path With People
Efficiency Lights the Path to Employee and Customer Engagement
Read the 2021 E-book