6 minute read
WITH IMPACT OF SOCIAL FRACTURES IS ALSO THE CIO’S JOB
THE IMPACT OF IT HAS CHANGED DRAMATICALLY OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS, SAYS FRANK BUYTENDIJK, DISTINGUISHED VP, GARTNER FELLOW IN DATA AND ANALYTICS. ‘TEN YEARS AGO, IT'S JOB WAS PRIMARILY TO MAKE BUSINESS OPERATIONS MORE EFFICIENT. BUT SINCE THE EMERGENCE OF DIGITAL BUSINESS, IT HAS BEEN AT THE HEART OF THE BUSINESS AND THE BUSINESS MODEL, THE WAY YOU INTERACT WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD, BOTH ON THE TECHNICAL AND THE DATA SIDE.’ DURING THE IT SYMPOSIUM/XPOTM, GARTNER WILL TAKE CIOS THROUGH VARIOUS SCENARIOS ON HOW TO HANDLE THIS INTERACTION.
By: Martijn regting
The COVID-19 crisis has not brought us anything new, but what was already happening has been greatly accelerated, Buytendijk begins. Companies are primarily concerned with virtualizing the work environment. To the outside world, it’s about using AI applications to adapt the business model to what is happening in society, drawing on insights and predictions from data. ‘Over the past eighteen months, CIOs have been running around frantically trying to keep up with digital acceleration. In addition, the concept of the composable business helps to make processes, people, and the organization flexible and sustainable enough for whatever the future may bring. The idea is to divide everything into small blocks that you can put together in a variety of ways at any time to respond to upcoming events and changing needs.’
AGILE & MICROLEARNING
Related to this, agile and microlearning has taken off enormously. No longer do we need to spend years on formal education or extensive courses, but – as is the case learn how to virtualize the processes in the organization, all in accordance with the concept of the composable business.’
IMPACT ON SOCIETY
A CIO shouldn’t just focus on the impact of IT on operations and the business, but also on society as a whole. ‘With the choices you make in IT and how you use data, you also influence the world outside your company. In terms of imaging, but also the actual impact – be it positive or negative.’ The increasing emphasis on IT and data usage does have a downside. More and more people are concerned about what is happening with their data. That’s the trouble with zero-knowledge computing: how can you make business decisions without using large amounts of data? That also requires another way to deal with data. Until now, the dominating trend has been to store data for no particular reason, allowing it to be used independently of the source system for each type of application. Now, we are seeing an increasing tendency toward storing data for a specific purpose. ‘ ust look at security,’ says Buytendijk. ‘That’s about how you as a company
with micro learning – we can frequently absorb fragments of information, knowledge, or explanations about specific tasks and developments. Buytendijk continues, ‘A new, agile way of learning is desperately needed because changes are ge ng faster. eople are already doing that a lot anyway. Often we don’t read a manual to perform a task anymore; we search for a YouTube video about it instead. And now it’s finding its way into the business world too.’ Fusion teams are a third internal change: pu ng people from various departments – IT, business, and the back o ce – together and giving them the mandate to work together to determine the best way to deploy IT. Here too, you can see where the composable business comes in: fusion teams that are structured but vary by subject being put together and deployed. This is a terrific learning path for the CIO, says Buytendijk. ‘You will learn how you and your employees will need to start learning differently and how to facilitate this for everyone; you will learn to work together differently to create a more agile way to run IT in the organization; you’ll
FRANK BUYTENDIJK
protect you from the evil in the outside world. But with the rise of more and more smart applications – smart home, smart cities, and so on – security is increasingly the opposite. How do you protect the users of those smart applications or the people who have to deal with them as citizens against data breaches or misuse by hackers, governments, or even by your very own company. Security has become part of product management.’
AN EXPANDING ROLE
At a macro level, these developments mean that a company or a CIO could also be becoming more and more concerned about their own role and impact in society, and they feel expected to have or develop an opinion on this. ‘And all other societal issues too, for that matter,’ Buytendijk continues. ‘As a CIO, you need to be aware that you might be expected to do something that doesn’t directly relate to your job such as ensuring data and technology is used responsibly. Once again, you as a representative of the company need to provide an answer.’ According to Buytendijk, society is increasingly demanding this from people who more or less represent a company. ‘CIOs might see this as a distraction from their real job, but it’s actually just an extension to your duties.’
PROVIDING GUIDANCE
In short, CIOs can no longer treat their organization or managers as operating independent of society. Gartner will be presenting four scenarios at the November symposium, looking at what developments might be at play here, with a view to provide guidance on how to deal with this in every area. Buytendijk says that the scenarios are based on profound research into the fractures in society, which occur on when there is a lack of interaction, when the interaction is polarizing, or when there is no attention paid to the greater good.
FRACTURES
‘Fractures include a lack of mutual trust between societal players, a lack of diversity, the existence of separate realities – each one in its own bubble – and the decline in the degree to which ideas are still exchanged. Conversely, there is an increasing lack of interoperability, from money – think of all the kinds of cryptocurrencies – to information. We know from our surveys that there is no single subject that stands out more than the other, but that many social fractures are emerging at the same time. You’ll soon be surprised by what’s coming at you out of society.’ Normally, Buytendijk says, these scenarios are used for long-term planning, five or ten years ahead. But it’s a different story on this subject. ‘As a CIO, you can’t focus on just one subject, nor can you determine what that subject is – it’s society that determines it for you, and you just have to deal with it.’
VOICE OF SOCIETY
You already need to listen to the voice of customers, shareholders, and employees. Now, you have the voice of society to an increasing extent. As a CIO, you can deal with this in different ways, Buytendijk explains. You can see that voice as a way to differentiate yourself by engaging with customers in a new way about what matters to them. You could just ignore that voice and plough on by focusing on your organization’s products and services. Or you can watch how others do it and wait. ‘We want to study all these directions,’ says Buytendijk. ‘The most important question that we need to answer is: as a C-level representative of your company, should you or should you not talk about societal issues? If you want to know the answer, I recommend that you attend that part of our symposium. Because even if you don’t intend to do address those issues externally, you will encounter those social fractures internally as a CIO. Ultimately, your department too is a reflection of society.’
