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The following article is designed to help CEO’s seamlessly merge business and technology discussion to produce winning results and be in the best technology position!

 

Four easy to answer questions CEO's should ask of their organisations to build the best technology position....png

These four questions are designed to bring the ‘debate’ out of the tactical arena and move it more into a discussion about increased performance and driving innovation. These four questions shift the ‘technology discussion’ from ‘necessary cost’ to business capabilities.

Question 1 – Are we behind our competition?

We have seen over time that it is common for leadership teams in businesses to be unaware of how their technological capabilities (combination of business processes and supporting systems) fall in comparison to their competitors. A rigorous benchmarking of the businesses technology performance relative to competitors gives the CEO an opportunity to see where their investment budget is being consumed by ongoing maintenance and enhancements to sustain the status quo, rather than support new functionality.

While CEOs do not need to know all the ground level details of the companies IT, a totally hands off approach can lead to a poor review of the risks associated with serious competitive blind spots. Completing an annual review of IT capabilities including topics such as Operational basics, market intelligence on competitors of technology, analysis of competitive gaps that might affect the company’s market share and financial performance

Questions 2 – How can we leverage technology to change the ‘game’?

While some companies are enjoying a strong technological position today, tech-enabled competitors and new entrants are always preparing to strike. This is why it is important for Executives to know where technological threats are emerging and how they are best to respond or stay ahead of them.

Threats can come from a variety of sources, for example over the last 10 years some of the most influential threats have been the exponential growth of Social media, smart phones and other mobile devices, The ‘Internet of things enabling new level of automation and Cloud has allowed companies to become agile and scalable in an instance.  

Another area that is seeing huge growth opportunities is ‘data’ – this is a growing focus for companies (and should be for your company), with the evolving nature of the way we interpret and analyse data it has the capacity to change the terrain of a business, creating competitive advantage for proprietary information.

Questions 3 – How can we implement strategies used by other industries, where can we learn?

Looking beyond your industry to proven technology leaders is always a good way to ‘shake up your thinking’. Whilst this may seem like an obvious and simple idea, many business leaders never venture out of their own industry for new technological insights and more importantly opportunities.

Seeking to understand what makes other businesses ‘tick’ is the foundation of strong innovation. Using companies that are unrelated to your business can prove to spur useful insights into improvements and business functionality.

Question 4 – How can we sustain a funnel and culture of change over time?

This question is more organisational specific and can be directly related to the company’s culture, Mannagement and competitive situation. Many CEOS have created a ‘mindset shift’ by including technology strategy as a core element in the business reviews of each division.

The radical changes taking place with technology today are creating more opportunities than ever before. These opportunities extend far further than ‘traditional IT’ and as a result of these increased opportunities available CEOs need to tackle technology today more than ever, rather than letting it ‘be someone else’s problem’, In order to step ahead of competition and become a market leader and ‘expert’ in their field CEOs need to pay more importance to how technology can impact the core business functions and leverage its transformative capabilities.

Enter Lanrex - Best Managed IT Services 

At Lanrex we love technology and we love business, and we absolutely love when the two meet and work harmoniously together.  

With over 30 years in the business we understand that as a CEO getting a handle on where to focus, and how much to invest on opportunities and threats is an increasingly frequent item on meeting agendas. The most challenging part is often ‘Where to start’.

In our experience CEOs need to jump into the technology discussions and shape the debate more which for most is often a difficult task.

 

What are you waiting for, contact Lanrex today!

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