THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The question is how can IT professionals integrate better with their business partners and assume a leadership role that allows them to develop better digital-based organizations?

Ultimately, that requires a seat at the business-planning table. You can get there by proactively interacting with various business units and departments while informally pitching ideas for using digital technologies to the company’s advantage. Eventually, one will take hold. Soon, your cross-departmental peers will become accustomed to looking to you and your organization for new ideas that take advantage of digital in ways that blow past your competition.

Disruptor Or Disruptee?

Perhaps the word most used to describe the accelerating change brought upon by technological innovation is disruption. The topic is more often referred to as “digital disruption.” Digital disruption shortens the lifecycle of successful products and services, which means organizations have to keep developing new products to compete. We have seen brands such as Nokia significantly lose market share and have to readapt to stay current in the ever-changing realm of tech. 

Companies need to recognize that their market share could be disrupted very quickly. You can usually determine your typical disruption exposure by observing indicators such as consumer satisfaction levels or market sensitivity to product pricing. So the timing of a successful disruption is very dependent on whether the market is ripe for a new product that improves customer service at a lower price or offers more service options. Ultimately, firms need to think about whether they want to be disrupted or be the disruptor.

Risky Business

Being in the right place with the right disruptive idea is not solely a mathematical calculation. It may be predictable in many ways, but there will always be risk factors because of the complexity of variables at work in any market. However, if you do decide to transform your business model, you must move quickly; the time to act and complete an initiative is critical.

Be sure to take into account that all disruptions will have a failure rate. For example, when an athlete plays soccer, not every kick towards the net results in a goal. The same goes for disruption. The challenge then is to determine an acceptable success rate. Always remember that if you don’t kick the ball, you can’t score. Taking risks is simply a requirement of digital transformation. Thus, businesses need to launch many initiatives of which some percentage will be successful.

IT leaders need to be the advocates and executors of change. They must provide the leadership and the direction to help navigate an organization through digital transformation. All this means that IT leaders must reinvent themselves into a role that transcends being the person who keeps the lights on. IT leaders who fail to seize this opportunity will likely be locked into a permanent support role. Indeed, many organizations have already established new C-level positions such as the Chief Digital Officer and Chief Innovation Officer, who are responsible for the digital strategy in their firms.