Innovation Room: Forging a New Normal

By Aaron Shaver, Ph.D. | CISSP, Field CTO

The initial shockwave of the pandemic has passed but many sequential waves remain with additional opportunities and challenges. IT leaders can prepare for these to minimize the downside of these waves, maximize the opportunity to leap ahead and forge a new-normal.  

• Leaders in digital engagement will capture the market. Organizations that learn to engage clients, suppliers and partners digitally will capture a disproportionate amount of market share.  The most successful will learn to go beyond a single engagement and establish deeper long-term digital client relationships.

 

• Remote working will consolidate top talent. Companies that invest in mature capabilities for remote or decentralized working will attract top talent, from anywhere, faster than organizations that attempt to return to the old, localized ways of doing business. Most companies will experience significant false steps attempting to return to normal and shed their most valuable contributors to more relevant competitors.

 

• Automation will determine long-term winners. Traditional markets thrive on stability but significant market fluctuations are part of the new-normal. Organizations built on automation and orchestration as their foundation will thrive as they are able to flex up and down with changes in demand while minimizing disruption to supply chains and workforces.

 

• Data intelligence will control decision-making. Only companies who make the necessary investment in datasets, infrastructure, applications and use cases across the enterprise to drive micro and macro decision making through real-time data intelligence will identify and mitigate risk and opportunity faster and more precisely allowing them to thrive and grow.

To make the most out of the crisis and be counted among the ultimate leaders of a new economy, each organization requires a new business strategy - fueled by emerging tech and championed by digital leaders. In the next blog series, we look at these new strategies, tailored to the four different company archetypes we have identified; where they sit today, how they should proceed and what a successful plan of action looks like.

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