There has never been a more exciting or enabling time to be an entrepreneur. Two friends working from a tiny house - anywhere in Southern Africa - given decent connectivity, some commercial nous and creative thinking can flex digital assets and drive ideas and services across the globe, far faster and undeniably more cheaply than big established organisations and brands. The two friends are social and organised. They cultivate their own data and connections in personal Salesforce, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. They have influence, followers and a personal brand. They blog, comment and build their own thought leadership followings that may impact established corporate brands, for good or bad. They have expertise and tools. They want to connect to supplier and customer ERP systems via standard and readily available APIs. They carry out their own modeling and analytics from personal and public data sources, in the cloud. They tap massive and completely elastic computing power at will.
They meet suppliers and customers online and can present their products in virtual meeting rooms, following up instantly via IM, e-mail, etc. They sign contracts through Docusign and retain legal expertise in any geography they need. Their financial transactions are electronic and potentially borderless.
Let's not even mention Bitcoin.
If they need design or development elements, they turn to the Crowd for solutions and prototyping via providers like Topcoder, 99Designs or a 3D print shop, then have it delivered overnight to anywhere in the world. They can disrupt whole supply chains by sourcing product and leveraging discounts through their own established networks. They are highly mobile and carry their portals to this burgeoning new reality with them. If you were to employ them, they will have flipped MDM (Mobile Device Management) to become their own self-sustaining enterprise container that doesn't entirely trust you, your security layer and your application set to protect their personal IP, data, creativity and digital integrity, thus their motivation, earning potential and job satisfaction. They understand the customer because, in effect, they are your customer. As a consequence, the boundaries between customers, suppliers, partners, staff, contractors, channels and even competitors have begun to diminish and even disappear, creating a whole new user community for enterprise IT systems.
Disruptive immediacy
These two may not have completed any formal education, and are now filling in some of the gaps by enrolling on Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which they can complete in their own time. They're also planning to take online MBAs through a respected US business school, or the bits of the course they're most interested in anyway.
This may seem an extreme example but even if only a couple of these factors are applied, for established businesses and public institutions, this disruptive immediacy and flexibility is daunting. It's also at odds with the predictability and efficiency they have built into their systems and services over time. At Forrester, we talk about this being 'The Age of the Customer', a 20-year business cycle in which the most successful enterprises will reinvent themselves to understand and serve increasingly powerful customers.
Technology management leaders will come to understand that infrastructures that were once at the apex of predictability and standardisation no longer meet the requirements of disruptive and disrupting business models ? in a customer-centric world. The new order of business will still expect secure resilience and predictability, but in an opportunity-driven world, pliable architectures and mindsets will prevail. In response, disruptive CIOs will:
* Bring change management authority and skills that tame and focus disruption. They understand the secure and resilient core that has been crafted over time. But they must now seek to provide technical coaching and mentorship for the organisation that exemplifies positive change, leverages legacy, and integrates with the new digital tools. CIOs need to build on that base by brokering partnerships, exploring options, and breaking a few rules along the way.
* Seek agility in business operations. Digital is already disrupting your business and the way you communicate with customers. Agile technologies and processes are essential to join customer expectations to your fulfilment capabilities and services, seamlessly and responsively. In the Age of the Customer, only customer-obsessed organisations will survive and prosper.
* Seize the initiative. CIOs who take the initiative, build new products, and broker new business models while evolving the incumbent engines of commerce will beneficially disrupt from within to ensure relevance for both corporate technology and their organisations as a whole.
* Provide superior customer experience throughout all customer interactions. In the Age of the Customer, demand is being fuelled by the transformative symbiosis between technology and consumer practices. Search technologies have made product information ubiquitous; social media and mobile connectivity enable consumers to interact from anywhere about anything. Customers expect personal service through tailored experiences and will not hesitate to transact with your competitors if you disappoint.
Disruption can represent an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and craft the business of the future. CIOs who will go the extra mile and implement innovative technology or advocate for an alternative way of doing things will become true business leaders.
First published in the April 2014 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.
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