How governance for transformation can drive value and support the humanity of organizations
I recently gave the opening keynote at the SAP Australia User Group Summit on Leadership in Enterprise Technology. After my keynote Inside SAP did a brief video interview of me. The video and a rough transcript are below.
Some of the key themes are the idea of governance for transformation, how technology can support the ‘humanity’ of an organization, and of course leadership in enterprise technology.
Transcript: The intersection between enterprise technology trends and leadership
What will the future of enterprise technology look like?
We now have a truly connected world, where computing can literally happen anywhere. Where individuals have access to extraordinary technologies and dictate how they want to be able to use their technologies. It creates an entirely different landscape in which Enterprise Technology needs to take a leadership role. It is being subject to buffeting forces in where technology is coming from.
How can companies overcome barriers to innovation?
Organizations need to become more agile, adaptable, able to change what they are. This changes the nature of the organization itself. This is far more a cultural shift than it is technology or structure. I do believe that the idea of governance for transformation is fundamental.
We do need governance to be able to put structures around some of the risks as well to be able to understand the benefits emerging, but governance must be an enabler of transformation. So when we are looking at innovation efforts, be they explicit strategy innovation or product innovation, or they are simply creating organizations that can respond better to environment, I believe that governance from the Board of Directors down to the organization is a fundamental enabler of being able to drive effective innovation.
Which technology trends are particularly disruptive?
Vast computing powers are going into the hands of individuals. There’s processing power in terms of connectivity, and mobility is fundamentally changing the dynamic of enterprise technologies. Providers of technology and the consumers of technologies will often already have better technology in their own hands.
It applies differently across every industry, but the rise of the amount of data available and what can be done with that, the whole idea of big data which is now becoming ‘staggeringly enormous data’, changes the whole nature of what the organization it is, how it makes decisions.
What impact does technology have on organizational culture?
What is more important today than ever before, is not just technology as the enabler, but how technology relates to the humanity of the organization, to the culture of the organization.
I think social media is just one aspect of that. But on a deeper level technology is becoming enmeshed in the humanity in the organization, which was never the case before.
How will the role of the CIO change?
One of the aspects of the CIO is they are moving from managing infrastructure to hopefully managing the strategy of technology, being at the heart of strategy inside the organization. It is a shift in role to be truly in the C suite of the organization.
We’re seeing diverging paths. In some organizations technology is becoming marginalized. It is viewed as a commodity which needs to be done well and done cheaply. There are other organizations where it’s seen that technology is truly at the heart of strategy, at the heart of what the organization is becoming. The role of the CIO is to demonstrate the importance of technology being the heart of the organization. Those CIOs that are not doing that effectively are really abrogating their responsibility to that organization in creating a successful future.
Keys to innovation: Tapping communities of lead users
By Ross DawsonToday I was interviewed on ABC Radio National’s ByDesign program on how our expectations of beauty are increasing. You can listen to the interview here.
At one point the conversation shifted to how companies could generate the innovation that will meet the soaring expectations of users.
Notably through the work of MIT’s Eric von Hippel, companies have grown to recognize the critical importance of co-creation in innovation, and in particular the role of ‘lead users’. Lead users are typically those who find new applications for products, extend their use, and are the most discerning.
In the interview I was asked how companies can find these lead users to help them innovate.
Read more →
The 7 roles of company directors in driving successful innovation
By Ross DawsonI have just finished running a two-day program in Phuket for the Malaysian Directors Academy on The Innovation Zone: Unleashing the Mindset.
The Academy also asked me to contribute an article to their magazine Board View. The piece is below, providing a high-level view on the role of company directors in driving innovation.
I find it interesting how little attention seems to be paid explicitly to the role of directors in innovation. Many aspects of driving successful innovation are operational, so within the purview of management. However there are critically important roles for boards of directors to play in innovation, and innovation must be squarely on directors’ agenda.
How Directors Can Drive Innovative Organisations
As the pace of change in the business environment increases, driven by technological and social shifts, innovation is moving to the centre of value creation in organisations. Efficiency and effectiveness in well-established business processes and business models are of no value if those models are being destroyed by new products or new classes of competitors.
Read more →
GitHub launches service for open government
By Ross DawsonFuture of government seems to be the topic of the moment.
After my post yesterday on Citizen sourcing and the future of cities and last week on Four fundamental principles for crowdsourcing in government, I have to report about GitHub launching government.github.com.
As it happens, in my recent keynote on A Future of Crowds: Implications for Government and Society, I discussed the issue of GitHub as a tool for crowdsourced government.
Read more →
Meeting of the Minds: Key future trends with Ross Dawson and Gerd Leonhard
By Ross DawsonWhen I was in Switzerland recently, esteemed colleague Gerd Leonhard and I recorded a number of video conversations, produced by Jonathan Marks. Following ones on Big Data, the future of privacy, and the future of Switzerland, here is our conversation on Key future trends.
For more conversations about the future see Meeting of the Minds.
After discussing some of the major trends, we go on to discuss our own preferred futures.
Trends and implications that we raise and discuss in the video include:
Read more →
Citizen sourcing and the future of cities
By Ross DawsonAs I noted last week in my post on Four fundamental principles for crowdsourcing in government, one of the most powerful applications of crowdsourcing is in government.
PSFK has just launched a nice report and summary presentation on the future of cities, embedded below.
The third section of the report covers Citizen Sourced aspects of the future of cities, including:
Read more →
The role of the futurist as leader
By Ross DawsonWhen I was in Amsterdam recently for client engagements I also gave a keynote to the Dutch Future Society about the role of the futurist.
It was a fascinating evening. Given the audience of futurists and those well engaged with the future, my presentation went further out than usual, and the ensuing conversation went beyond that, to issues including the nature of humanity, the ethics of the future, and more.
In coming months I intend to share some of the many fascinating strands that came up during the evening.
After the event I was interviewed by Stephan Verveen. The interview, embedded below, covers quite a few of the points raised during the evening.
Read more →
Cloud Can Simplify and Empower Enterprise IT
By Peter Evans GreenwoodMigrating our applications to the cloud creates the opportunity to do something meaningful for our customers
It looks like cloud computing is taking over. So if cloud is the future, then what might our future technology landscape look like?
The two largest centers of gravity in most IT departments are their back-end ERP and front-end CRM platforms. It’s clear that both of these platforms are migrating from the datacenter to the cloud. Organisations moving to using CRM and social-enabled front-end cloud platforms to engage with our customers. There’s a similar story with our HR and EPR backends that manage our firm’s transactions and help ensure compliance.
Each of these major cloud platforms swaps modules-that-we-customize for apps-that-we-download. The shift to apps allows business units to configure cloud platforms to their liking without much (if any) help from the IT department. Bought a CRM and need it configured to support a sales methodology? Just turn on Holden or Miller-Heiman, for a small additional fee. Want advanced analytics on that HR database? There’s an app for that.
Where we can’t find an app we can pick and choose from the growing number of cloud-delivered point solutions that solve all manner of problems. These solutions might be focused on our vertical, or they might represent general cross-industry capabilities. Need workforce management to support you consulting team? Or scheduling, supply chain planning and asset management to manage logistics? Or inventory management and planning for retail? There’s (probably) a cheap and cheery solution out there just waiting for you and your credit card.
Solutions are also morphing into services. Rather than buying a project and portfolio management solution we’ll buy Project Management Office (PMO) as a Service. We’ll get the tools we need, the methodology and training we need to get the most from the tools, and admin support to help us manage the tool and ensure compliance, all under a single fee structure.
Integration between these cloud-platforms will be treated as a feature to turn on (or as an “integration app” to buy) rather than as a major integration project. The application installation and customization work that used to be the bread and butter of many IT organizations will dry up.
There will, however, continue to be some custom build that we either do ourselves or with a partner. We’re not at the stage where there’s a solution to every problem we have. Nor would we want to push everything out to an external cloud provider, as there are some solutions that are central to the products and services our business provides.
The future IT landscape will be much simpler that those that we’ve struggled with over the last couple of decades. The complexity that used to consume so much of the CIO’s (or CTO’s) time is being hidden inside cloud platforms and app market places, a problem for the vendor to manage, not the CIO. However, as I’ve pointed out before, the CIO will still be accountable if these services are not working. When email stops working it will be the CIO, and not a cloud vendor’s service desk, that the CEO turns to.
But if the shift to the cloud means leaving behind many of the engineering-based skills and competencies that we worked so hard to develop, then why would we do it? Because, as Zach Hicks (Toyota’s CIO in North America) said:
What do you think? Is moving everything to the cloud a bridge too far? Or do you relish the day when you can roll up your sleeves, get out of the back room, and get involved at the coal face of the business?
How technology is enabling the humanity of organizations
By Ross DawsonAfter my recent opening keynote at the SAP Australia User Group Summit on Leadership in Enterprise Technology, I did a video interview for Inside SAP magazine, shown below.
The full transcript of the interview is available on our new publication CIO of the Future.
Read more →
Four fundamental principles for crowdsourcing in government
By Ross DawsonA few weeks ago I gave the keynote at the annual conference of the Business Improvement and Innovation in Government (BIIG) network of the Queensland Government, speaking on A Future of Crowds: Implications for Government and Society.
I have been increasingly pulled towards the government sector over the last years. I’m delighted, as changing the nature and structure of government is one of the most important aspects possible in creating a better future for ourselves.
In my keynote, after describing the underlying tenets of crowdsourcing and giving a varied set of examples of how they can be applied in government (which I’ll share in another post), in my final section on leadership I ran through the practical issues that drive success and finally offered four principles for crowdsourcing in government.
Here are the four principles in summary:
Read more →
[VIDEO] The Intersection Between Enterprise Technology Trends and Leadership
By Ross DawsonHow governance for transformation can drive value and support the humanity of organizations
I recently gave the opening keynote at the SAP Australia User Group Summit on Leadership in Enterprise Technology. After my keynote Inside SAP did a brief video interview of me. The video and a rough transcript are below.
Some of the key themes are the idea of governance for transformation, how technology can support the ‘humanity’ of an organization, and of course leadership in enterprise technology.
Transcript: The intersection between enterprise technology trends and leadership
What will the future of enterprise technology look like?
We now have a truly connected world, where computing can literally happen anywhere. Where individuals have access to extraordinary technologies and dictate how they want to be able to use their technologies. It creates an entirely different landscape in which Enterprise Technology needs to take a leadership role. It is being subject to buffeting forces in where technology is coming from.
How can companies overcome barriers to innovation?
Organizations need to become more agile, adaptable, able to change what they are. This changes the nature of the organization itself. This is far more a cultural shift than it is technology or structure. I do believe that the idea of governance for transformation is fundamental.
We do need governance to be able to put structures around some of the risks as well to be able to understand the benefits emerging, but governance must be an enabler of transformation. So when we are looking at innovation efforts, be they explicit strategy innovation or product innovation, or they are simply creating organizations that can respond better to environment, I believe that governance from the Board of Directors down to the organization is a fundamental enabler of being able to drive effective innovation.
Which technology trends are particularly disruptive?
Vast computing powers are going into the hands of individuals. There’s processing power in terms of connectivity, and mobility is fundamentally changing the dynamic of enterprise technologies. Providers of technology and the consumers of technologies will often already have better technology in their own hands.
It applies differently across every industry, but the rise of the amount of data available and what can be done with that, the whole idea of big data which is now becoming ‘staggeringly enormous data’, changes the whole nature of what the organization it is, how it makes decisions.
What impact does technology have on organizational culture?
What is more important today than ever before, is not just technology as the enabler, but how technology relates to the humanity of the organization, to the culture of the organization.
I think social media is just one aspect of that. But on a deeper level technology is becoming enmeshed in the humanity in the organization, which was never the case before.
How will the role of the CIO change?
One of the aspects of the CIO is they are moving from managing infrastructure to hopefully managing the strategy of technology, being at the heart of strategy inside the organization. It is a shift in role to be truly in the C suite of the organization.
We’re seeing diverging paths. In some organizations technology is becoming marginalized. It is viewed as a commodity which needs to be done well and done cheaply. There are other organizations where it’s seen that technology is truly at the heart of strategy, at the heart of what the organization is becoming. The role of the CIO is to demonstrate the importance of technology being the heart of the organization. Those CIOs that are not doing that effectively are really abrogating their responsibility to that organization in creating a successful future.