Emerging Technologies

Internal competition is on the rise!  All must exercise caution given the increasingly high level of internal competition that many organizations have begun to experience.  The Information Technology part of the organizations no longer owns technology.  Today, they may not even be called upon to support it!  Some internal business components of the organization have begun to research and analyze emerging technologies and build their business case for action, fund it and implements it.  Much of the time the implementation is on an external cloud by a technology vendor.  More often then not, that vendor introduced the emerging technology to that internal business component.

INSIGHT: In a report, Accenture stated that, “Leading in this new decade means working to redefine the intersection between people and technology.”  Clearly every part of today’s organizations must do this within as well as for their external customers as well as other stakeholders.

Internal competition around the use of emerging technologies given their potential implications both positive and negative will likely continue to grow rapidly at least through 2025. With that management at all levels need to keep this in mind as the challenges for growth between now and 2025 are not likely to decrease.  They will more than likely increase and an accelerating path ahead. The best approach for management going forward is to seek an objective source of information about the technologies that hold the most promise to their organization. Being cognizant of these and their potential implications is half the battle that we are all most likely to experience.  At least for the next few years. Are you competing internally? What is your personal strategy to win the technology race that we have entered? Two very important questions we must all consider and have answers to!

As if competition was not challenging enough, now we are competing within and throughout our organizations. All must exercise caution given the increasingly high level of internal competition that many organizations have begun to experience.  The information technology (IT) part of the organization no longer owns technology.  Today, they may not even be called upon to support it!  Some internal business components of the organization have begun to research and analyze emerging technologies and build their business case for action, funds it and implements it.  Much of the time the implementation is on an external cloud by a technology vendor.  More often then not, that vendor introduced the emerging technology to that internal business component and shows the value in a case study or white paper.

INSIGHT: In a report, Accenture stated that, “Leading in this new decade means working to redefine the intersection between people and technology.”  Clearly every part of today’s organizations must do this internally as well as for their external customers as well as other stakeholders.

Internal competition around the use of emerging technologies given their potential implications both positive and negative will likely continue to grow rapidly at least through 2025. With that, management at all levels need to keep this in mind as the challenges for growth between now and 2025 are not likely to decrease.  They will more than likely increase and an accelerating path ahead. The best approach for management going forward is to seek an objective source of information about the technologies that hold the most promise to their organization. Being cognizant of these and their potential implications is half the battle that we are all most likely to experience.  We should repeatedly answer a few questions over the next few years. Are you competing internally? What is your personal strategy to win the technology race that we have entered? How prepared are we with the necessary knowledge about the emerging technology? These are three very important questions we must all consider and had better have answers to!

In today's world, strategy is far more important than we have ever seen throughout history. At this time, strategy must look beyond today and tomorrow and examine what is on the horizon. This gives organizations a narrow window of time to put in place their strategic plan of action to capture emerging opportunities and prepare for the disruption about to be delivered by breakthroughs in science and technology. This is not an easy task by any measure, but essential for organizations of nearly every size and within every industry.

There are a number of strategic implications when it comes to the emerging technologies that are on the horizon. Unlike other periods of time where a single technology drove disruptive change, this time multiple technologies, some working with others will have a cumulative effect where their combined impact will truly be highly-disruptive when it comes to our existing business models and many of our mental models as well.

High Level Approach

1. Identify and embrace the change that is on the horizon.
2. Investigate, analyze and understand the drivers of disruption that is likely to impact you and your organization.
3. Strategize to identify and challenge, current and potential roadblocks and internal resistance to addressing the disruption you have identified.
4. Create and or change the way you or your organization delivers strategic value to current and potential customers that may not even exist today.
5. Prepare yourself and your organization through continuous learning to rapidly respond to disruptive change being brought by emerging technologies.

Many organizations are likely to find themselves faced with sudden, violent disruptions that may threaten their existence. Reacting to these disruptive forces may not be enough. Therefore, anticipating and preparing for the numerous implications that are on the horizon is required and no small task.  It will undoubtably include; new educational requirements, changes to financial models, enhanced competitive differentiation as well as new product and service offerings worldwide.  Examining the implications of emerging technologies and disruptive forces that are on the horizon is essential.  It is the foundation when it comes to guiding where organizations should head.

I wanted to take a moment and thank those that have called me and emailed me about contributing during my role at Internet pioneer NETSCAPE to the #1 Influential Projects of the Past 50 Years – the World Wide Web.  Netscape was the creator of the very first web browser that all but eliminated technical skills from surfing the Internet.  We grew at 65,000 % in under 5 years.  At that point we merged with AOL and about a year later we merged with the multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, Time Warner.  I was chief strategist at Netscape and worked with many organizations around the world in their efforts to understand and exploit the capabilities of the Internet.  It was by far the greatest job of my career and that is not to short my time at Deloitte and CSC. 

Again thank all of you for your thoughts.

An interesting question came up in an executive briefing and thought it would be interesting to get your thoughts on it.  How dependent will your business be on technology in the next 3 to 5 years?

Please comment below and take the poll at the web address below.

https://www.projectmanagement.com/polls/540198/How-dependent-will-your-business-be-on-technology-in-the-next-3-to-5-years-