First off, a very happy new year to all our clients and visitors! I feel, like many of you, that there is a revolution out there and we must continuously reinvent ourselves to keep our businesses alive and healthy! This puzzle is broadening and you never know where your next biggest competitor is going to emerge from.

The IBM Global C-suite Study

IBM recently published the Global C-Suite Study featuring one of the largest portfolios of C-level executive insights with over 5000 CxO's interviewed from 70 countries and 21 different industries.

The New Era of Competition

Not so long ago, CxO's could see the competition coming. They would be developing a new product or service that would rival theirs by being better or cheaper. Organizations would simply have to make sure they improved or expanded their product range or services to fend off their rivals, or go to market faster and more creatively. Today, the game changer is that your competition may be invisible until it’s too late.

Disruptive Innovation

The C-Suite Study focuses on what it terms, “disruptive innovation” to describe how new players enter the competitive landscape from the bottom of the market. As they move up, they eventually displace established organizations. This phenomenon used to be rare, but in this new era, it is now becoming far more common. Just think of Uber and its growing impact!

We are now seeing that the most disruptive players don’t gradually displace the incumbents; they reshape entire industries, by changing them forever and force out whoever stands in their way.
Technology is often at the center of new business models and playing an ever increasing role.

How Are CxO's Facing the Age of Disruption?

The IBM C-Suite Study explores what CxO's think the future holds, how they’re identifying new trends and how they’re positioning their organizations to prosper in the “age of disruption.”

The boundaries between industries are continuing to get blurred, as companies in one sector apply their expertise to others – bringing previously separate industries together and sometimes redefining the very way in which they’re classified. CxO's are acutely aware of this change.

The competition is now coming from the transformation of old industries as well as digital invaders with totally different business models. These companies typically target a key part of the value chain, bypass the incumbents and seize control of the customer relationship, rendering other suppliers irrelevant.

The Role of Technology in Disruptive Innovation

CEOs have identified technology at the top of the list as an enabler to disruptive innovation for the last four years. But now, for the first time ever, the other members of the C-suite also see technology as the main game-changer.

Most CxO's, regardless of role, believe that the various technology elements that will have the most impact in facilitating this disruption for the next three to five years are cloud computing, mobile solutions and the Internet of Things (IoT). Most CxO's anticipate that their organizations will be changing the way engage with customers. With consumers and businesses engaging more directly with businesses through mobile and social media, CIOs will need to focus more heavily on improving the customer experience and getting closer to customers, according to a new report released by IBM.

"Cloud enables us to 'dematerialize' services and deliver them remotely. We don't have to own the infrastructure to do this." Kyra Arcia Marcano, CMO, Banco Bolivariano, Ecuador

Download the full study here:
The IBM Global C-Suite Study

If you're looking to increase your business' agility through further technological enhancements, don't hesitate to call me or drop me a line to discuss the areas you may need help with.