This was the message today from Gartner analyst Andy Kyte, who spoke on aligning business and technology to drive business growth at the research company's symposium in Sydney today.
Kyte told delegates that businesses have not kept pace with the rapidity of change and warned them of 'pockets of resistance' within organisations who may believe that, if they wait long enough, the pace of change will slow again.
"The pace of change we're experiencing now is nothing compared to the pace of change we'll have in 10 years and 20 years," said Kyte. "Get used to it."
He said the acceleration in change was driven by a number of factors, particularly globalisation, which results in deregulation of industries, increased competition and the opening up of markets that were previously closed. The Internet exacerbates this by allowing increased market access both between industries and between countries.
Kyte also pointed to the high levels of innovation today. "There are more scientists and materials technicians working today in universities than all the scientists who have previously lived in the world," he said.
The rapid pace of innovation will, he said, cause a shift in the current practice of many companies to be a "fast follower". This is the strategy of watching those companies on the "bleeding edge", waiting till they've finished making all the mistakes, and then implementing what works. This strategy has worked well in the past, but Kyte claimed it would be less successful in the future.
"The problem with being a follower is that the product cycles are shrinking," said Kyte. He said the time available to exploit innovation was getting shorter, so companies would have to invest in the technologies earlier than they do now.
Kyte said successful companies were focussing on core competencies, finding a renewed importance in strategy and were outsourcing a range of functions, including business processes. Kyte said successful companies had adopted a strength in one of four value disciplines:
- Product innovation
- Customer intimacy
- Operational excellence
- Brand mastery
Kyte said a business cannot be successful in all four value disciplines, and had to decide which one was their strength and outsource the other disciplines to partners.
"The sort of investment you make in IT systems will vary depending on which value discipline you have chosen," said Kyte. He recommended CIOs take the lead in engaging company executive leaders on IT, become a "huge fan" of business practices and use a portfolio approach to IT investment management.
Kyte also recommended that when IT departments encountered a conflict between overall business objectives and "line of business" objectives, they elect to support the "line of business" objectives of people who are keeping the business running. He said it was a tightrope to be walked between following the large strategic initiatives and helping in the day-to-day operations.
"If you don't support the line of business objectives you'll find that IT gets a bad reputation and that bad reputation continues," said Kyte.
He also told delegates it takes a long time for business ideas to enter the mainstream business world, which is why they will hear old paradigms pulled from the closet and given an airing over the next few years.
"We will see the introduction of many of the fads that occurred throughout the 90s, especially when it comes to core competencies," Kyte said.
