Finding the right balance between operational excellence and business innovation The CiO.com 2017 State of the CIO survey found that 72% of respondents said they were struggling to strike the right balance between operational excellence and business innovation. 87% of respondents also said that “juggling transformational and functional responsibilities has become a permanent job requirement, […]
Last July, I suggested that well-established companies could no longer sustain competitive advantage through using their size and market reach as barriers to entry. The unprecedented assault of new waves of digital disruption have enabled companies of any size to penetrate some portion of well-established companies’ value chains. Taken together these disruptions are making what […]
Most companies today can tell you the approximate lifetime value of their core customers and what they are doing to realize the full potential of that value. How many companies can tell you the lifetime value of their most valued employees and what they are doing get that contribution from them? Many companies have now […]
The connected customer wants a different customer journey Technology-enabled innovation is not only disrupting the competitive landscape, it is redefining the user experience value proposition across a multitude of industries. It is also putting companies on notice that if you can’t successfully engage your customers in this new digitally mediated world you are on your way […]
Almost every C-level executive I speak with tells me they are so busy doing their business that they have no time to think about their business. Whether it’s the back-to-back to back meeting calendars or the explosion of digital communication tools from e-mail to texting to Twitter to Snapchat, executives at all levels are completely […]
In far too many companies, IT is still seen as a cost center/support function rather than as a direct contributor to revenue, margin and profit growth. Most of the CIOs I’ve talked with over the past several years admit that their budgets have been reduced or kept flat. This says that for whatever reason, the […]
In Jim Collins’ seminal book, Good to Great, he makes a very compelling case that getting the right people in the right seats on the bus is more important than your business growth strategy. While that may seem counterintuitive, in the new digital world I think it makes perfect sense. Why? Because with the level […]
A recent IBM study concluded that “no business can remain relevant by making tweaks. The only way to stay ahead of disruptive change is to embrace it, which means being able to develop and release new products and services within weeks or even days.” One of the major implications of the unprecedented level of digital […]
Until very recently, most leaders of established businesses believed that the key to creating sustainable competitive advantage was erecting large barriers to entry through scaling the size and market reach of their companies. The reason this approach was successful was the high costs incurred to: Build product development and manufacturing capabilities Create sales, marketing and […]
“How much value is IT adding to the business?” This is the one question that most CIOs I talk with struggle to answer. For many organizations, IT’s value is only measured by its ability to reduce costs and optimize the capital expense depreciation of large hardware and software licenses. […]
