More than 70% of domestic companies are positive about the Digital New Deal.
Activating data utilization is considered a key digital innovation strategy.
Problems of adapting to a new environment


Both large and mid-sized domestic companies are positively viewing the Digital New Deal, and digital innovation is expected to accelerate across all industries in 2021.

IBM Korea announced this on the 19th, announcing the results of a survey targeting domestic companies on their awareness and response to the government's New Deal policy announcement and their outlook on digital innovation.

From late September to about a month later, IBM Korea, in collaboration with KRG, a domestic IT market research firm, conducted a survey of management innovation and management planning managers at 270 domestic private companies in the manufacturing, distribution, finance, service, telecommunications, and medical sectors.

Companies were found to be most actively adopting or planning to adopt cloud systems for digital innovation. Additionally, many expressed the need for public-private cooperation to specifically support the digital innovation of domestic companies.

◇ In the era of digital innovation, the K-New Deal is the right policy.

Most domestic companies appear to have a positive view of the government's digital new deal policy.

In this survey of domestic private companies with sales of over 100 billion won, 87.4% of respondents were aware of the Korean New Deal policy announced by the government in July, and 77% expressed interest in the Digital New Deal policy. Furthermore, 76.7% of domestic companies responded that they would incorporate the Digital New Deal policy into their future business plans.

These results are consistent with the views of companies already achieving results through digital innovation.

Among companies that responded that they are utilizing digital technology, 63.1% have established a system to respond to the market environment through digital innovation, and 56.7% of companies responded that new work environments and flexible organizational cultures are spreading, indicating that overall, the results of digital innovation are high. In particular, domestic companies are expected to see digital innovation through the Digital New Deal from the perspectives of 'increased productivity' and 'enhanced corporate competitiveness.'

Seven out of ten responding companies believed digital innovation and the Digital New Deal policy would provide opportunities for future business growth and that they were either incorporating the Digital New Deal into their future business plans or considering it. This confirms that positive perceptions are actually translating into business outcomes. Another characteristic found is that mid-sized companies have higher expectations for "employee skill enhancement and internalization" through digital innovation than large companies.

◇ Companies are accelerating their adoption of cloud computing as a digital innovation strategy.

When asked about specific corporate preparations and responses to digital innovation, the majority of companies responded that they are focusing on "remote work and cloud system implementation (63%)." In particular, the financial, distribution, and communications sectors have shown a more proactive approach to building cloud-based infrastructure.

Next, they identified "promoting data construction and utilization," "smart work innovation and process improvement," "activating online business," and "building a non-face-to-face service infrastructure" as key measures. This suggests that, due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, domestic companies are focusing on activating non-face-to-face work structures and services based on technologies like cloud and AI.

In addition, the financial sector cited "human resource development (41.3%)" as a preparatory factor for activating and responding to digital innovation, the telecommunications/media sector cited "discovery of new technologies/digital-based new businesses (43.8%)," and the service sector cited "improvement of digital infrastructure management systems (32.5%)," showing that the preparatory factors for digital innovation differ by industry.

◇ 2021 will be the first year of full-scale digital innovation.

The survey results showed that domestic companies, recognizing that digital innovation can no longer be delayed, responded that they will begin full-scale digital innovation this year and next year. Among companies pursuing digital innovation, 33.9% responded that they plan to pursue and respond in earnest "starting this year," while 45.8% of companies considering it said they plan to pursue and respond in earnest "starting next year."

Additionally, two out of ten companies have already implemented digital innovation, and the remaining six companies have begun developing concrete responses this year, indicating that most domestic companies are expected to fully embrace digital innovation in 2021.

◇ The will is strong, but investment is needed for concrete implementation and results.

Despite domestic companies' strong commitment to digital innovation, they are still in their infancy when it comes to concrete implementation.

Of the 270 companies surveyed, only about half (54.8%) responded that they were "establishing or planning to establish an organization and workforce to respond to digital innovation and New Deal policies." Thirty percent of companies responded that they had "incorporated" Digital New Deal policies into their future business plans, and only 31.5% said they had "prepared a department or management structure" to address these issues, indicating that concrete progress is still in its early stages.

63.7% of companies cited 'cost burden' as the biggest obstacle to fully pursuing digital innovation. Following this, many responses such as ‘lack of experts in new technology fields (53%)’ and ‘problems adapting to new environments (43%)’ were found, indicating that more active investment in technology and human resources is necessary for full-scale promotion and achievement of results.

Domestic companies responded that they plan to invest an average of 1.4% of their total sales in "digital innovation and digital new deal-related areas" over the next five years, still lower than the global average of 3.3%. By industry, the telecommunications/media sector had the highest investment at 3.7%.