Gartner Says CIOs Must Develop New Strategic Business Capabilities to Restore their Businesses
Gartner Says CIOs Must Develop New Strategic Business Capabilities to Restore their Businesses
Analysts Discuss the Importance of Strategic Business Competencies at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, November 21-23, in Mumbai
Mumbai, India, November 23, 2011— Over the next two to three years, CIOs will be tasked in helping business leaders identify, develop and instill the new strategic business capabilities (SBCs) that will help restore their businesses to full health in the post-recession world, according to Gartner, Inc. Those who don’t may find themselves sidelined.
Analysts at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, being held here through November 23, today explored how IT can make a more strategic contribution to the business.
“If you think the task ahead of you (the CIO) is simply to introduce a new technology, standardize a disparate set of computer systems across the corporation, update vendor agreements and revise the IT governance structure for your company — think again,” said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner fellow.
Great companies compete by advancing SBCs. Customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management are two clear examples of what is meant by an SBC. These are not “just” technologies. They involve process changes, mind-set shifts, new job roles and organization changes.
“Think of SBCs as a vector through which technology changes the way companies do business, and SBCs also creates industry disruption. A number of these major business strategic ‘weapons’ are moving to a point of maturity where they can provide considerable new business value,” said Mr. Raskino. “The pipeline of newer and emerging SBCs is very healthy. For these reasons, we believe IT will continue to have disruptive potential, in business strategy terms, for at least 15 years. These major innovations depend on funding, ingenuity and market development. Even if Moore's law stopped next year, we believe that most of them would continue to fruition.”
However, analysts said SBCs are getting more complex and challenging. They require skillful and often enterprise-wide change management at the transformation level. This carries failure risks on significant investments, and many CEOs may find simpler and easier ways to compete and win new business. The path of least resistance may be the barrier to SBC-based business progression.
Gartner has created the Strategic Business Capabilities Hype Cycle that plots SBCs at their various stages of advancement (see Figure 1). After the great economic “reset,” analysts said the Hype Cycle will help businesses to identify the biggest value-producing capabilities IT is enabling in progressive businesses.
The action to be taken by CIOs varies as the Hype Cycle progresses. At the earliest stages, the task is to assign resources to R&D, in order to give the organization the option to invest in the SBC later. For example, today, a toy company might examine the possibility of 3D-printer-based digital fabrication for uniquely tailoring Lego-style plastic building bricks. The main window of investment opportunity comes next, that is the period when leading organizations, through their own trial and error, incubate and define the SBC itself, gaining perhaps five years or more of competitive advantage. M-commerce is being defined by leaders now - for example, what mobile banking will look like and how it is controlled.
For organizations that wait until later, fast follower, or copying, action will reduce the negative effects of industry disruptions. Those who leave any decision until the Plateau of Productivity will likely find themselves at an increasing comparative disadvantage and must invest quickly to repair damage to business results. For example, slow incumbent retailers that failed to invest in a move to e-commerce five or 10 years ago can find themselves losing share and trying to catch up today.
Gartner analysts will discuss the trends, innovation, current and future directions of IT and emerging technology trends for 2012, with a specific focus on the Indian business environment moving into 2012 and beyond at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2011 being held on 21 – 23 November 2011 in Mumbai. For further information about the event, please visit www.gartner.com/in/symposium.
Members of the media can register for the Symposium by contacting Sony Shetty at sony.shetty@gartner.com.
About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo
Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the world's most important gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives. This event delivers independent and objective content with the authority and weight of the world's leading IT research and advisory organization, and provides access to the latest solutions from key technology providers. Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of attendees' annual planning efforts. IT executives rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/symposium/us.
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