Without question, we're living in an era of unparalleled innovation. Autonomous vehicles. Biometric authentication. Reshaping business through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These are just a few examples of recent technological innovations that are helping to drive business disruption across multiple industries.
Forward-looking CEOs increasingly recognize the potential for applying innovative technologies to reinvent the business, deliver distinctive customer experiences and create new waves of value for the enterprise in the digital age.
Fortunately for CIOs, they are squarely positioned at the center of business disruption. Thanks to their unique view of the enterprise and how different functions and business units interoperate - combined with their understanding of how technology can strengthen if not reinvent existing business processes - CIOs and technology executives are being called upon by the CEO to identify and act on new tech-enabled business opportunities.
"For the company boards that I meet with, the conversations often go to the unprecedented opportunities for leveraging emerging technologies to disrupt industries, and to create new and distinctive customer experiences," said Patty Hatter, Strategic Advisor to multiple startups, and former CIO and General Manager at McAfee and Intel. "But to successfully disrupt a sector, the company needs to understand the business innovation they are trying to create, and not just focus on deploying a new piece of technology. The technology alone, without the business change, is like a hammer looking for a nail," said Hatter, who will be speaking at the upcoming 2018 Global Innovation Summit on February 21, 2018 in Menlo Park, CA.
As other top-tier executives who are also participating at the Global Innovation Summit see it, creating distinguishing customer experiences that strengthen long-term customer relationships represent some of the greatest opportunities for succeeding with digital disruption.
"Approaching transformation from a customer-centric standpoint is where the really successful companies are in the digital space," said Chad Kalmes, Senior Director, Technology & Applications at Twilio, Inc. "It's not just a matter of revamping business processes through digital transformation, but also re-imagining the customer experience."
Transformational CIOs are devoting a considerable amount of time in understanding the customer journey and the pain points that can be addressed by simplifying the customer experience. "From a strategic perspective, you start with the customer and then work your way backward in understanding and addressing their needs and challenges to deliver an incredible experience," said Mark Egan, Partner, StrataFusion.
Unquestionably, there are multiple skill sets that savvy CIOs must draw upon when contributing to delivering differentiated customer experiences.
"The greatest opportunities for CIOs lie in their ability to think creatively and identify where disruption to business processes and business models can be applied," said Tony Leng, Managing Director, Practice Lead and OMP, Diversified Search. "It's ultimately about the CIO's role in reimagining the business and the value that the CIO can offer to the CEO and to the company."
To learn more about these and other terrific speakers and topics that will be explored at the Global Innovation Summit, click here.
