IBM is regularly slammed for a lack of creative business vision. Despite the turnaround orchestrated by the legendary Lou Gerstner, IBM finds itself back in a corner.
Are your IT teams ready to help the enterprise build the customer-centric systems that will carry it into the future? Have you assembled the right mix of talent and brilliance to compete successfully for customers in highly turbulent markets?
New applications being ushered by the Internet of Things (IoT) are creating incredible opportunities for companies of all types and sizes to fashion new business models. For instance, tire makers Pirelli and Michelin are embedding their tires with sensors that are allowing the two companies to collect data about vehicle performance and road conditions. This information is then passed along to drivers and to the vehicle's telematics system as a means of improving safety and efficiency.
Successful business leaders recognize the importance of putting the pieces in place to make their organizations more nimble and flexible to respond to ever-changing market shifts. And while the CIO plays a critical role in laying the technological foundation for improving the agility of the business, the organization's capacity to react to shifting customer and market dynamics often resides with senior management's ability (and willingness) to anticipate and respond to change.
When CIOs transition to another organization, one of the opportunities this provides them is the ability to create a new technology roadmap for the company. While this represents an exciting undertaking, this also represents a pursuit that's fraught with challenges. As a newcomer to the organization, the new CIO has very little background information with which to work off of in terms of the current technology roadmap that's in place and whether it is well-aligned to the company's business plan.
As competitive threats continue to emerge and the pace of change in business accelerates, CIOs are under immense pressure to enable the enterprise to become more agile and responsive.
The world's most successful companies don't simply respond to industry trends and market shifts. They anticipate them and even create them. The CIO can help the organization to anticipate the future of business, including the types of products and services consumers will want and need in the future.
Given the constant pace of change in business, it's important for organizational leaders to strategize over how the company will need to change over three, five, or even ten years. In many respects, most businesses have undergone dramatic changes over the past several years.
As CIOs take steps to construct IT roadmaps aimed at supporting the organizations current and future business strategies, a critical requirement for many IT leaders is the ability to build greater flexibility into the IT infrastructure to enable different parts of the business to respond to shifting market dynamics more easily.
One of the most important capabilities required by CIOs is having a clear understanding of the organizations business strategy and then being able to translate that into the development of a logical technology roadmap.
Today’s technology executive plays a pivotal role in helping his or her organization respond to these forces of change. In essence, they serve as conductors to orchestrate the three pillars of organizational success – people, processes, and technology – and to draw upon their unique view of the enterprise to bring these elements into harmony.
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