LONDON and ARMONK, N.Y. -- According to the IBM Global CEO Study, there is a dramatic increase in the number of global business leaders who see important change ahead, and the ability to absorb and manage change is becoming an important factor in the global economy.

Eighty-three percent of CEOs surveyed expect substantial change in the future, an increase of 28 percent in two years. However, CEOs set their organization’s ability to manage change 22 percentage points lower than their expectations for the level of change they will have to manage.

CEOs point to their customer base as the source of the most important changes they will have to address, as two new classes of customers emerged: the ‘information omnivore’ and the ‘socially-minded’ customer.

The report defines the ‘information omnivore’ as the customer that craves all types of information and often broadcasts its views and expectations worldwide via the Internet. CEOs are planning a 22 percent increase in investments in the next three years to serve these customers.

In Europe, CEOs are planning a 23 percent investment targeted at these customers over the next three years, a 20 percent increase from the previous three years. In North America, CEOs are planning a 19 percent investment, up 27 percent over the same period.

CEOs also noted that customer expectations around corporate social responsibility (CSR) are increasing and CSR will play an important role in differentiating an enterprise in the future.

To better reach the socially-minded customer, CEOs plan to increase investments by 25 percent over the next three years, the largest percentage increase of any trend identified in the study.

Moreover, companies are looking at the importance of the global market, with 75 percent of the CEOs saying they intend to actively enter new markets and 85 percent saying they intend to partner to capitalize on global integration opportunities.

“The enterprise of the future accepts change as a permanent state in an organization. Those CEOs who demonstrate the capacity to manage major change know they can beat the competition by reaching new classes of customers, and making bold moves to shift business design around principles of global integration,” said Ginni Rometty, senior vice president, IBM Global Business Services. “And it’s clear that out-performers are distancing their enterprises from the competition based on their organizational capacity to take advantage of change.”

For more information on the study, visit http://www.ibm.com/enterpriseofthefuture.