The Technology Advantage – Four Ways Integrated Technology Boosts Market Advantage
Written by: Dax Grant, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
All CEOs of technology-based companies are faced with the integration of the end-to-end service model. Bringing together customer and client value whilst harnessing the benefits of integrated technology and the operational organisation remains a key pivot point in a CEO's success path.
What happens to business that don’t integrate technology?
The business is focused on ways to improve the consumer experience, yet without technology in partnership around the table, there is only tactical progress resulting in other organisations taking the market leader with an end-to-end service-based approach. In some cases, technology innovation occurs without a business connection resulting in increased cost for no external benefit. Result – an erosion of market position!
Key take-away
The connective tissue that links the consumer experience to the heart of the technology organisation is essential to harnessing the capabilities of the organisation for the external benefit and commercial value. Anything else is suboptimal! Your business needs to run like a well-oiled machine!
How to foster the integrated technology advantage?
1. EMBRACING SECURITY:
Ensure technology is at the heart of all business security conversations. Today’s businesses are typically driven through a technology platform. Security of the platform remains paramount, with cyber expertise essential. Embedding technology as a security centre within the organisation requires a cultural awareness across the organisation underpinned with vigilance to report early and ensure proper usage of software/equipment. Not only is security focus essential to the prosperity of the business, but cyber security focus is also a regulatory requirement in many of today’s industries, together with reinforcement as a cornerstone of critical national infrastructure within influential organisations.
2. EQUIPPING STAFF
Connectivity of employees remains essential for productivity and the ability to create value enabling environment. Post-Covid – technological connectivity remains the core route through which many employees communicate, share notes and documents, and speak to each other. A visual picture of a colleague is the next best option in a post-Covid world. Technology is the glue. Firms already invested in connective technology pre-covid have the market advantage in their nimbleness to act and equip colleagues within communities across the world. Technology advantage is particularly evident within focused FTSE and FORTUNE firms and remains the lifeline to the firm in all post covid scenarios.
3. DIGITIZATION
Harnessing the right technology unlocks a positive consumer experience. The right technology enables the business to evolve with emerging trends and scale to market with a safeguarded positioning for growth. Successfully integrating technology to underpin and unlock customer experience requires the right culture within the firm. Strategy positions! Culture wins. It is the job of the CEO to lead this unlock, enabling the potential of collaborative working within the firm for increased societal impact and combined value.
4. SIMPLIFICATION
Embedded technology within operations naturally enables simplification of processes and digitisation of the estate, eliminating waste. Adopting consumer and client-centricity guides whilst harnessing digitalisation and aggregation technologies ensures external focus when implementing technology solutions.
Post-Covid the emphasis on technology-based advantage is amplified
Technology provided a core function in pre-covid. However, post-covid firms are doubling down on technology advantage. Firms invested in technology lead in equipping their staff and ensuring security in a virtual world.
The requirement for digitisation and a technology-based business model has grown exponentially as firms redesign to survive, minimise costs and offer increasingly digital routes to market. Consumers are not only more open to digitized purchase and consumption of services; consumers also see health benefits with the adaption of the home as the central hub of life. The world was always moving to an on-demand model, and covid has shifted mindsets on a permanent basis where home delivery and online consumption are the norms. Firms destined to outshine in the next decade already have their technology-based blueprint clear and designed.
So, what does ‘technology-based advantage’ mean for the C-Suite?
The C-Suite is not static, and technology is an enabler within the boardroom. The handshake and collaborative relationship between the Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Technology Officer is the critical centre of a well-functioning business model. This tripartite relationship is pivotal in implementing a service-based business approach focused on the value chain, pivoting the digitized customer experience with defined relationship touchpoints.
A call to action for the C-suite
As a key member of the C-suite and extended leadership group, your responsibility is to the business first and your function second. Opening the boardroom conversation to leverage technology advantage is not only key for developing the strategy; it is also essential for success in a post-covid world. The time to act is now, now is the time to have the conversation and ensure capability is being seized within the business. How equipped is your business to leverage the technology advantage?
Dax Grant, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dax is a leading global authority on entrepreneurial c-suite leadership. As CEO, of Global Transform, Dax is a renowned Woman in Technology, accomplished keynote speaker and societal voice. Listed within the Global CIO 100, Cranfield School of Management 100 Women to Watch, Dax has significant expertise in leading global COO and CIO functions, an experienced NED and member of the Forbes Technology Council. As a Chartered Banker and Associate of the London Institute of Banking and Finance, Dax also holds an economics degree from Cambridge and MBA, Alumna of Cranfield Business School and Harvard Business School, Dax is recognized for her philanthropic activities, as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
