When you think about your company’s strategic priorities for the coming year, or even the next three or five years, where does IT rank?
For a long time, executives figured IT wasn’t much more than glorified typewriters and photocopiers. Some techie looked after all that stuff, while top executives focused on Sales, Marketing, Product Development, and Finance. They only cared when something broke.
But those days are fading fast, and a new survey of CEOs shows just how much attitudes are shifting.
New Digital Attitude
Earlier this week, Gartner released its annual CEO survey, which examined the top business priorities of 388 CEOs.
Here are some highlights:
- 58 percent of CEOs say growth is the No. 1 business priority (up from 42% in 2016)
- 31 percent of CEOs cite IT-related priorities within their top three priorities — which Gartner has never seen in prior years
- 47 percent of CEOs are being challenged by their boards of directors to make progress in digital business
- 56 percent say digital improvements have already improved profits
- 42 percent say “digital first” or “digital to the core” is now their company digital business posture
How Competitive Is Your IT Strategy?
Of course, Gartner is a major research consultancy, and most CEOs that responded to the survey had annual revenue of $1 billion.
But what if you’re leading an organization that doesn’t have quite that much heft? What does this mean for you?
Well, to compete against the big players, you have to take their strategic priorities seriously—and then find better ways to beat them to the punch. Billion-dollar companies can throw their weight around. You’ve got to be ready to stay one step ahead.
In other words, if big shots focus on scaling their digital business, you may have to make it a strategic priority too.
Digital Business In Bloom
I admit, “digital business transformation” does have the scent of just another tech industry buzzword. But the concept is important: applying digital tools and data analytics to Sales and Marketing, and just as importantly, Operations to adapt your business to unique customer preferences. (If you want to learn more about it, here is a good article on what digital business transformation means.)
Digital business is much more than just e-commerce or digital marketing (although the Gartner survey shows many CEOs still define it this way). We’re no high-priced business consultants, but we do know IT strategy, and to make any kind of digital leap forward, you need to think about your technology infrastructure first.
Digital business is all about using the scale, speed and flexibility of modern IT. You can’t do much of anything if your technology infrastructure isn’t ready. Your company needs a really solid IT foundation to pursue any digital business transformation that helps you keep pace with larger competitors.
Harness IT Strategically
As you think through how your organization needs to embrace digital business strategies, our IT consultants can help ensure you have the right building blocks. When you’re ready to make IT a strategic priority, get in touch.
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