- Chris Pick
- May 7, 2019
Technology is no longer about IT and “run the business” initiatives to keep the lights on: It’s about driving revenue-generating innovation and growth. That’s why every business – no matter the industry – is focused on driving digital transformation.
But Forrester finds that up to 25% of business leaders are likely to deaccelerate their investments in digital this year because they don’t know how to show the return and don’t know how to measure success.
That’s because digital transformation can mean many things. Every organization’s digital transformation is unique, which means how you measure success should be tailored to what your business needs and your overall goal of investing in digital initiatives. But what is consistent about every company’s digital experience is that it is centered around speed. The speed at which teams can identify and mitigate risk, the speed at which planning can occur, the speed at which organizations can retire tactics that are proving ineffective and invest in new, emerging processes and protocols. Speed is everything – the speed of delivery and the speed at which technology and finance leaders can adapt to change and adopt new strategies and modern tools to manage their business. The most successful leaders are focused on bringing the best and quickest value to the customer.
Forrester analyst James Staten says, “This means that speeding up business insights, decisions, and actions — a fundamental organizational change — is the key leadership challenge of today.”
So how are leading organizations optimizing processes, making data-driven decisions around optimizing costs and agile development practices to accelerate delivery, all while clearly articulating the cost, value, and quality of digital transformation investments?
They are using Technology Business Management (TBM) to cultivate a commercial mindset, build culture and transparent communication to effect change, and working cross-functionally in leadership to drive business impact.
- Cultivating a commercial mindset: Every modern leader needs to cultivate the ability to understand what makes a business successful, and how to build, deliver or manage products and services that create revenue. It no longer matters what part of the organization you belong to; you are responsible for quantifying and articulating the impact and value you and your team have on the business bottom line.
- Building culture, trust, and transparent communication to effect change: Technology is driving change – not just in investments and spend – but also in the fundamental culture of how the business interacts. Success now depends on the ability for leaders to break down silos to earn trust from their business counterparts, embrace a business value mindset, and communicate the value of assets to increase adoption and realization. The most strategic CIOs approach their role in leadership as a change-agent for culture and communication.
- Driving business impact with cross-functional leadership: Technology is no longer about IT. Technology helps businesses drive competitive differentiation, innovation and revenue growth through digital transformation. Every company is a technology-fueled company, and that means IT, finance and business leaders must all work together to set strategic business agendas, measure business impact, and drive shared accountability.
Join me and leading IT and finance leaders from across Europe to discuss how digital transformation helps accelerate change in their business. Join us at the European TBM Executive Strategy Forum 21-23 May in a city near you: www.execforumeurope.com.
