Future State 2025 E-Book

Hunter Muller

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 332

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Identify the best technology investments and implement them rapidly Future State 2025: How Top Technology Executives Disrupt and Drive Success in the Digital Economy gives CIOs an essential playbook for learning how to implement and sustain innovation and invention. Drawing on the experiences of many of the world's leading CIOs, the book reveals the strategies and techniques they used to put in place the newest techniques and technologies. Since the rise of the digital economy, the role of the CIO has expanded the responsibilities of the IT team function. The new norm is continuous innovation; CIOs must deliver or perish. This book offers a guide for selecting and implementing the right technology that is so essential for success in the hyper-competitive marketplace. This vital resource offers a guide to tech investments including: * Artificial Intelligence and advanced cyber security * Robotics and advanced networks including Mesh, Edge and Hybrid Cloud * Virtual Reality and smart cities * Autonomous transportation, logistics and rapid prototyping, and digital twin Future State 2025: How Top Technology Executives Disrupt and Drive Success in the Digital Economy is written to help identify the best technology investments and move forward with rapid implementations of new tech and stay ahead of the competition.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Confronting and Overcoming Unexpected Challenges

The Time for Courageous Leadership

Pivot Quickly and Effectively

Do You Inspire Confidence and Trust? Are You a Beacon of Hope and Compassion?

Are You Being Your Best Self?

Note

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

A Shift in Focus

INTRODUCTION

Facing the Challenge

Winning Strategies for Success

How This Book Is Different

Unrelenting Pressure to Innovate

Speed, Agility, and Creativity

Critical Insights

Chapter 1: Technology Leadership Is Indispensable and Essential

Role of the CIO in Guiding the Enterprise to the Future State

Tailoring the Message for Board and C-Suite

Pressure Testing Candidates for Executive Leadership Roles

Building Your Personal Brand

Learning Valuable Lessons from Customer Centricity

Diving Deeper in the New CIO Mandate

Legendary Lessons from Andreessen

Critical Steps for Achieving Strategic Goals in the Modern Enterprise

CIO as a Customer-Centric Leader

Tech Leaders and the Customer Experience

Guiding Structural Change Across the Enterprise

Transforming a Major Industry

Riding the Artificial Intelligence Wave

Notes

Chapter 2: Leading in Disruptive Times

Becoming Boardroom Ready: Advice from Board-Level Tech Execs

Understanding the Role

Voice of the CIO in the Boardroom

Navigating Amid Continual Change

Motivating and Inspiring the Enterprise

Connecting the Dots for E-Commerce

Renewing the IT Value Proposition

Notes

Chapter 3: Achieving Future State Goals

Scaling Innovation at the Speed of Business

Great Executives Leverage Deep Business Experience to Drive Lasting Transformational Change

Focusing First and Foremost on the Customer Experience

Enabling the Enterprise to Evolve

Speaking the Language of Business

Notes

Chapter 4: Macro Challenges for Tomorrow's Executive Leaders

Creating Wealth and Driving the Global Economy

Great Leadership Is Critical to Success

Why U.S. Executives Should Pay Closer Attention to the Surging Chinese Tech Sector

Top Tech Trends Include Increased Reliance on Social Networks

Making the Future Global Energy Company

Fine-Tuning the Systems Experience to Deliver an Optimal Customer Experience

Notes

Chapter 5: Confronting Global Shifts

CISOs Are Essential for Achieving the Future State

A Truly Holistic View of the Enterprise

How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming IT

Dealing Effectively with the Transfer of Sensitive Technologies

Tech Industry Will Remain a Strong Driver of Disruption

Validating the Belief in IT as a Value Driver

Across the Atlantic: Content Protection Vote Fails, But the Battle for Control Isn't Over

Facts and Fiction: Talking to the C-Suite and Board About AI

How Does Facebook's Monopoly Impact Innovation in the Technology Space?

Are You Prepared for the Era of Content Validation?

Taking Stock of Elon Musk

Senior Execs Should Pay Attention to the Larger Lesson

Notes

Chapter 6: The New Customer Focus Imperative

Rejuvenating the Customer Experience Through AI

Reimagining the Restaurant Guest Experience

CIO's Role in Driving the Business Forward

Notes

Chapter 7: Next-Generation Leadership

Workforce Diversity at All Levels

Diversity as an Economic Imperative

Notes

Chapter 8: The Future Is Already Here

Mandate for Disruptive Transformation

Art of Effective Communications

Creating Value Continually

Welcome to the Era of Trillion-Dollar Market Caps

How Will the “Amazon Effect” Impact Your Company?

Rise of AWS Influences the Broader Economy

Apple Takes on Role of World's Privacy Watchdog

China Rising: Is the United States Losing the Battle for AI Dominance?

Notes

Chapter 9: Key Takeaways

ABOUT THE SOURCES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT HMG STRATEGY

INDEX

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Guide

Cover

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Additional praise for Future State 2025: How Top Technology Executives Disrupt and Drive Success in the Digital Economy

“The book is extremely relevant as digital has become pervasive throughout business. Every function and process in every industry will be reinvented by technology. If you are not doing it for your company, you'll cease to exist because someone else is doing it at their company.”

—Andrew Campbell

CIO at Terex Corp.

“What if you could assemble the brightest practicing CIOs and ask them candid questions about leadership, culture, and strategy? Hunter has done just that. The result is a rare view inside the digital hearts and souls of today's most successful companies.“

—Ralph Loura

SVP and CIO at Lumentum

FUTURE STATE 2025

How Top Technology Executives Disrupt and Drive Success in the Digital Economy

HUNTER MULLER

This edition first published 2020

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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For Brice and Chase

AUTHOR'S NOTE:GREAT LEADERS RESPOND AND ADAPT COURAGEOUSLY AND BOLDLY TO DRIVE ACCELERATED TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

Together, all over the world, we are experiencing a historic moment of accelerated transformational change. For many of us in the technology community, the COVID-19 pandemic represents the ultimate challenge of our careers.

The speed of the response is truly extraordinary. In a matter of weeks, we have transformed our organizations and our workforces. These processes of swift change and rapid transformation will likely continue.

What remains unchanged is the essential need for authentic leadership expressing a strong message of hope, confidence, compassion, kindness, and courage.

Over the past 30-plus years, I've been blessed with the opportunity to work with visionary leaders at amazing companies such as Zoom, Darktrace, Adobe, Moveworks, Zendesk, Nutanix, Okta, RingCentral, UiPath, and many others.

Based on my experience, I am absolutely convinced that now is the best time to be a technology leader. Despite the crisis, we are on the cusp of a new era of technology-enabled innovation and reinvention fueled by advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, 5G, cloud computing, edge networks, virtual reality/augmented reality, facial recognition, and geolocation.

When the scale and severity of the crisis became apparent, our team at HMG Strategy pivoted quickly to shift from a live summit model to a digital summit model. In addition to producing and presenting a full slate of virtual summits featuring top-tier world-class industry thought leaders and executives, we also produced dozens of virtual briefings, meetings, conferences, and webinars.

None of this would have been possible without clear-eyed and confident executive leadership, and a team of dedicated colleagues who shared an optimistic and uplifting vision of the future.

Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom, put it nicely when he said, “Hunter and the HMG Strategy team confirm that now is unquestionably the best time to be a technology leader. Executive Leadership Summits highlight the responsibilities and opportunities we have as pioneers guiding the next amazing cycle of innovation on a global scale.”

Patty Hatter, SVP Global Customer Services at Palo Alto Networks, told me that “HMG Strategy provides a looking-glass view into the future state of technology and its global impact. Every tech leader needs to be inclusive in thought leadership and HMG Strategy provides the necessary, diverse viewpoints.”

I sincerely appreciate the affirmations we have received from our network and I am deeply grateful for their continuing support and engagement throughout these difficult times.

Confronting and Overcoming Unexpected Challenges

I find it fascinating that world-class executives such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bob Iger of Disney, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook have resumed their primary leadership roles during the crisis.1 Modern leadership requires presence, even in a world of virtual meetings. Exemplary leaders actively demonstrate their commitment and sincerity, no matter where they are in the table of organization.

From our unique vantage point at HMG Strategy, we can see the shift and observe how great leaders adjust and adapt quickly to the new normal. Facing a torrent of new and unknown challenges, our leadership capabilities are being tested as never before. From my perspective the new and pressing challenges include:

Leading the digital enterprise courageously and enabling strong growth, inventing new business models and creating opportunities for growth, and profitability in core, adjacent, and new markets.

Redesigning and reinventing the organization's portfolio of digital assets and capabilities.

Elevating the customer experience and reducing friction at all levels, in all markets.

Accelerating cultural shifts through new platforms and collaborative tools that enable, enhance, and augment workforce productivity, anywhere and anytime.

Ensuring safety and security in all workplace environments and processes, whether at home or in traditional business settings.

Enabling and implementing processes and technologies required for smooth “return-to-work” scenarios and hybrid scenarios involving a blend of work-from-home and in-office arrangements.

Identifying and mitigating risk through the next 18 months.

Inspiring, coaching, mentoring, and guiding the organization through difficult times.

Creating and supporting an authentic culture of gratitude, humility, collaboration, teamwork, and kindness that will outlast the crisis and serve the organization when new challenges arise.

Inspiring hope and confidence by providing exemplary and courageous leadership throughout the crisis.

Confronting an onslaught of hard challenges and responding effectively to them will be difficult. Finding and implementing the best processes and solutions will require all of our skills and experience. They will require the kinds of superior courage, knowledge, and experience that great leaders bring to the table.

Great leaders accelerate their efforts to reimagine, reinvent, and innovate the customer experience and invent new business models to drive value across the enterprise while ensuring the highest possible levels of safety and security. They deepen and extend the strength of their relationships in the C-suite and boardrooms, and open new paths to success in receptive markets. They complete the shift to digital and embrace the new normal. They thrive and succeed, despite obstacles and barriers.

At HMG Strategy, we have a history of engagement with top-tier brands such as Apple, CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group, McKesson, AT&T, AmerisourceBergen, Ford, Cigna, Chevron, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Verizon, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

I recently asked my friend Snehal Antani to share his thoughts on leadership excellence. Snehal is co-founder and CEO of Horizon3.ai, a cybersecurity startup focused on AI-enabled red teaming. Prior to starting Horizon3, he served as a CTO for the DoD within the U.S. Department of Defense, responsible for transforming the technology capabilities of the command to include cyber security, advanced R&D, AI, and data analytics.

Here is Snehal's insightful response to my question:

I've worked with both great leaders and terrible “leaders.” What makes them different is a question that's been top-of-mind lately. It wasn't about technical expertise, or business savvy, but rather a simple difference: the great leaders were naturally inclusive, making everybody feel that they were part of one team regardless of title, rank, org structure, or pedigree.

With inclusiveness as the foundation, they trusted and empowered their people to move out, giving them room to maneuver, coaching along the way. When things went wrong, or problems were daunting and ambiguous, the truly great leaders were able to roll their sleeves up and “troop lead,” quarterbacking their team through issues without seeking blame or fault, but extracting lessons to continuously improve.

They never let issues linger or fester. These leaders inspired me to punch above my weight, helping me discover my limits vs. stifling me. They demanded excellence of me without saying it. They coached and rarely admonished.

The terrible “leaders” I've worked with have been almost the exact opposite: engaging people based on rank, title, pedigree; dictating tasks under the guise of policy or authorities; demanding loyalty; hiding when things are tough; seeking glory off the backs of others.

Great leaders also recognize the extraordinary value and “infinite potential” of their teams, colleagues and partners. “Assume that your team has that infinite potential,” says Shankar Arumugavelu, SVP and Global CIO, Verizon. “My leadership style has always been about empowering my teams and giving them challenges. What I want to make sure is that people have the autonomy and I always look for people who are life-long learners.”

The Time for Courageous Leadership

Now is truly the time for courageous and visionary leaders to step forward. Here's an excellent example of what I mean by visionary leadership:

I had a wonderful and truly illuminating conversation recently with Nicole Eagan, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and AI Officer of Darktrace, one of the first companies to develop an AI platform for cybersecurity.

Nicole's extensive career spans 25 years working for Oracle and early- to late-stage growth companies. Named one of HMG's “Top 100 Technology Executives to Watch” in 2019, Nicole has introduced machine learning to enterprises of all sizes. Under her leadership, Darktrace has won more than 100 awards, including being named one of Fast Company's “Most Innovative Companies” and a CNBC “Disruptor 50.”

Naturally, we spoke about how the pandemic is transforming the universe of enterprise security and forcing companies to develop new strategies for coping with a continually evolving range of cyber-risks.

“Until recently, the security industry has focused on traditional concepts such as network security, cloud security and endpoint security. Today, with so many people working from home, the focus has shifted to workforce security,” Nicole explains.

Here's why: Cybercrime is an organized business operating on a global scale. Attackers are often handed lists of target companies. When most of us were still working from corporate offices, the majority of attacks were thwarted by enterprise-grade cybersecurity systems.

“But all of a sudden, people are working from home on their laptops, using their home Wi-Fi routers, and using a variety of new tools for collaboration and videoconferencing,” Nicole says. As a result, the enterprise-grade security systems we had relied on are no longer fully protecting us.

The attackers know this and are probing for new weaknesses they can exploit. “They're circling back to those hardened targets in hopes of finding new vulnerabilities and gaining a foothold,” Nicole says. “They're looking for those weak links.”

The “new normal” is a constantly changing landscape of cyber-threats and countermeasures. Security strategies must be continually updated, adjusted, and optimized in real time to remain effective.

Cybersecurity solutions that incorporate machine learning can adjust much more rapidly to continually evolving threats and dynamic workforces than systems that are based on “pre-planned” scenarios. “You really can't pre-plan for a lot of this,” Nicole explains. “You need the capability to change as the world changes around you.”

Another unexpected consequence of working at home is the tendency for work to continue around the clock with no clear downtime. The “always on” nature of work today creates new opportunities for cyber-attackers.

“Not every company is set up for 24/7 operations. That's the reality. So one of the things we've done is extended free 24/7 Proactive Threat Notification coverage to all of our customers for exactly that reason. The most important feedback we've received from our customers is just knowing that in addition to the ML and the AI, our teams of threat analysts are providing 24/7 eyes-on-glass for them. That's really helping them at this time,” says Nicole.

I genuinely appreciate how Nicole and her colleagues at Darktrace have developed such a clear vision of the present moment and its unique challenges. From my perspective, Nicole is a role model for technology leaders and executives everywhere.

Pivot Quickly and Effectively

As mentioned earlier, our team at HMG Strategy pivoted rapidly to a digital summit model. Without missing a beat, we produced a full slate of virtual summits, drawing on the strength of our global network to feature an all-star roster of thought leaders and executives.

Here's a brief sample of the genuinely valuable insights offered by some of the exemplary speakers, presenters, and panelists at our virtual summits:

Wendy M. Pfeiffer, CIO, Nutanix:

“The biggest lesson for me over the last two weeks is how to help people create structure when they are working completely remotely. The kneejerk reaction is to feel like it's an emergency and to work 24/7. But that will exhaust people. So, what I've done with my team and we've since rolled it out to many employees in the company is that I've asked people to block out their work hours so that they can be available to help their kids with homework or if they need to take a walk.

What we discovered is that when we didn't force people to fit into traditional work hours, we found more capacity for people to be available for extended hours in exchange for taking some hours to be available for their families. I'm encouraging people to do this. Even creating that schedule week by week is extremely helpful from a psychological standpoint.

I see each member of our C-suite not only connecting with each other but also reaching out to schools and their communities to help them to connect during this crisis.”

Steve Phillpott, CIO, Western Digital:

“This over-rotation to working remotely will forever change our work environments and we're not going to return to work as it was before.

As we manage through times of crisis, it accentuates the importance of communication and the robustness of our communication and collaboration tools. Now more than ever, communication is critical, and we need to communicate more than we think we need to, and we need to seek out new forms of collaboration.  As we're working remotely, we need a robust set of tools that can scale. On our side, we've seen a 3–5X increase in collaboration tool capacity in days, so the ability to scale quickly is critical … IT must serve as a role model to the rest of the company as a remote workforce.”

Bhavin Shah, CEO & Founder, Moveworks:

“Each of us are working remotely and we're seeing increased demand for IT services, including a 2X increase in overall IT support ticket volumes.

Every walk-up help desk in America is vacant—they can't be used. So, we're seeing a 3X increase in demand coming through the chatbot using these digital channels. Systems and access have gone through the roof … we're seeing greater demand for automation, to use AI and machine learning to resolve support issues. And this shift to remote workforces has become a semi-permanent thing that America and the world is experiencing.

And while many of us will eventually return to the office, we'll gain a deeper appreciation of what it takes to provide that type of support remotely and digitally.

It's important to give people an understanding of how the landscape is shifting. We're helping organizations to quickly transform and become better at supporting employees as they are remote. We're seeing a massive uptick in chat adoption. How you operate in this mode is going to separate those companies that succeed going forward and those that don't.”

Do You Inspire Confidence and Trust? Are You a Beacon of Hope and Compassion?

Everyone has their own ways of coping with stress. When you're an executive or leader, however, you have a special responsibility to help others manage through a crisis. You have to be more than a business leader; you need to be a role model for the behaviors that will most likely result in positive outcomes for the organization and the people in it. You must become a beacon of hope and compassion.

In difficult times, great leaders inspire confidence and trust. They provide guidance, counsel, and advice. They listen and they learn. They become true servant-leaders, serving the larger needs of their colleagues and co-workers.

Is the glass half empty or half full? I bet that most of us in our amazing industry would say it's half full. From the perspective of the modern technology leader, we have been given the rare opportunity to genuinely transform ourselves and our companies.

Let's not waste this opportunity. Let's learn from it, let's build on it, and let's collectively find the good in these difficult times. I firmly believe that by working together and leveraging our incredible talents and abilities, we will emerge stronger and better from this crisis.

Today, modern technology leaders everywhere are playing pivotal roles in determining the future of the enterprise. I am exceptionally confident that as a group, we will provide the guidance, counsel, advice, and experience required to drive forward and achieve success.

Remember, the enterprise is counting on us to overcome the hurdles and devise practical solutions on both the tactical and strategic levels. This is the true test of our character and our determination. I know in my heart that we will make the proper choices and navigate successfully through this storm.

Are You Being Your Best Self?

In one of our early virtual events, my good friend Tony Leng observed that great leaders are “givers, not takers.” He reminded us to remain authentic and to offer hope, reassurance, and confidence to all of the people who look to us for guidance and direction.

In my conversation with Tony, we spoke mostly about the need for honest and courageous leadership in times of extreme emergency. Here's a quick summary of the advice we shared for technology leaders and executives:

Be authentic when you're leading a virtual meeting. People can sense authenticity, and they're looking to you for reassurance. Great leaders radiate authenticity and honesty, even in virtual meetings.

Be a giver, not a taker. Again, people can sense your intentions. Show them you have a big heart and that you are prepared to make sacrifices for them.

Hold virtual meetings frequently and keep them short. Assign relatively simple tasks and quick projects to keep your people engaged in their work. This is a time for using the light touch. It's okay if the meetings are brief; what's important is regular check-ins to touch base and reassure people that their contributions still matter and that you still value their work.

Remember that the crisis will end and that when it's finally over, the quality of your leadership will be judged by how you acted in these difficult times. Make no mistake: The coronavirus will likely be the ultimate test of your leadership capabilities. Be your best self and don't be afraid to show your compassion.

I wholeheartedly agree. As business and technology leaders, we definitely have the strengths and experiences required for handling periods of turbulence and uncertainty. As a group, we have a unique view of complex transformational processes. We know how to get things done and we're not afraid to tackle hard problems. Together, we will prevail and emerge stronger.

Hunter Muller

May 15, 2020

Note

1

.  

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-amazon-facebook-disney-saw-their-chiefs-retake-control-142735464.html

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is my sixth Wiley book and, like its predecessors, this book represents several years of in-depth research and analysis.

I am honored to acknowledge the contributions of our expert sources who shared their time, insight, and experiences freely and without reservation. I am deeply grateful to Eric Anderson, Snehal Antani, Renee Arrington, Shankar Arumugavelu, Ashwin Ballal, Shawn Banerji, JP Batra, David Bessen, Steven Booth, Chris Colla, Bob Concannon, Barbara Cooper, Jamie Cutler, Dale Danilewitz, Daniel Dines, Amy Doherty, Nicole Eagan, Mark Egan, Thomas Farrington, John Fidler, Hugo Fueglein, Curtis Generous, Chuck Gray, Marc Hamer, Jon Harding, Vishwa Hassan, Patty Hatter, Jason Hengels, Donagh Herlihy, Sheila Jordan, Chad Kalmes, Tom Keiser, Steven Kendrick, Justin Lahullier, Zackarie Lemelle, Tony Leng, Beverly Lieberman, Ralph Loura, Christopher Mandelaris, Quintin McGrath, Lynn McMahon, Matt Mehlbrech, Vipul Nagrath, Vish M. Narendra, Earl Newsome, Helmut Oehring, Tom Peck, Wendy Pfeiffer, Steve Phillips, Steve Phillpott, Mark Polansky, Phyllis Post, Nathalie Rachline, Dan Roberts, Dave Roberts, Jon Roller, John Rossman, Dr. Kenneth Russell, Vijay Sankaran, Candida Seasock, Bhavin Shah, Jikin Shah, Naresh Shanker, Prabhash Shrestha, Stephen Spagnuolo, Patrick Steele, Milos Topic, Angie Tuglus, Sangy Vatsa, Ken Venner, Gautam Vyas, Craig Walker, Bart Waress, Patricia Watters, Jon Wrennall, Angela Yochem, Eric Yuan, and Jedidiah Yueh for contributing their expertise and wisdom to this book.

I also thank my excellent team here at HMG Strategy: Kimberly Ball, Conor Claflin, Melissa DiPreta, Travis Drew, Jef Fisk, Nikki Frederick, Tom Hoffman, Rob Kovalesky, Melissa Marr, Bryan McCreedy, August Pelliccio, Mark Pelliccio, Peggy Pedwano, and Lindsay Prior.

Additionally, I thank the members of our editorial group: Tom Hoffman, Mike Barlow, and August Pelliccio. Their contributions were truly indispensable.

And of course, I thank my editor, Sheck Cho, for his continued support and guidance over the years. I am proud to be a Wiley author and sincerely appreciative of the role played by Wiley in our industry.

PREFACE

The term “perfect storm” typically refers to a rare combination of catastrophic events leading to an unimaginably awful outcome.

In the technology industry, however, we are experiencing the opposite. Now is the perfect moment to be a technology executive. Collectively, our timing could not be better.

I am truly fortunate to have a front-row seat for this remarkable convergence of amazing leaps forward in the rapid development of exciting new technologies, systems, and platforms.

We are living at an unusual point in history. From my perspective, our industry has achieved phenomenal success. Many of our dreams have been realized and are now woven into the fabric of our daily lives.

Moreover, we are on the cusp of even greater achievements, thanks largely to a continual stream of innovation in numerous fields, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, robotic process automation, cloud computing, high-speed data networks, 5G wireless communications, connected devices, low-cost sensors, distributed ledger, virtual reality, augmented reality, advanced manufacturing, transportation, and energy.

Those continuous waves of innovation can exert a heavy toll on the modern enterprise. Sometimes new technologies can be tempting, even if they are not a good fit for your business model. And even if they are great for the business, they might not integrate smoothly with existing infrastructure.

“You don't want to throw a bunch of digital assets against a wall and see what sticks,” says Ralph Loura, senior vice president and chief information officer at Lumentum, a market-leading manufacturer of innovative optical and photonic products enabling optical networking and commercial laser customers globally. “You need to be disciplined and stay focused on execution. Technology should create value, for the customers and for the business. If the technology isn't connected to your value stream, it's not likely to generate a return on your investment.”

I like how Ralph cuts directly to the chase. It is all about creating value for the enterprise and its markets. Plain and simple.

At the same time, I also believe that technology executives have an obligation to push the envelope and help the enterprise go where it has never gone before.

Executives should have a strong focus on raising a company's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), according to Marc Hamer, a chief information officer and chief digital officer currently working in private equity. Marc was formerly a corporate vice president, chief information officer, and chief digital officer at Sealed Air, an innovative packaging company known for its Cryovac food packaging and Bubble Wrap cushioning packaging brands.

“You have to think of yourself as an accelerator to everything the business wants to do. Use technology to get back time, to go faster, to solve more,” Marc says. ”If you can do that, your organization will be the most sought after in the industry and provide enormous returns.”

Unquestionably, the rise of cloud computing has made the technology executive's life more interesting—and more challenging. Everyone is heading for the cloud. But not everyone knows what to do once they have gotten there.

Wendy Pfeiffer is an authentic cloud expert. She is the chief information officer at Nutanix, an amazing company that unifies private, public, and distributed clouds and empowers IT to deliver applications and data that power their businesses. Nutanix is a leader in hyperconverged infrastructure appliances and software-defined storage.

“The newer technologies empower you to make small changes that have large effects,” Wendy says. “We've moved past the era in which you had to spend millions of dollars, or sometimes tens of millions of dollars, to make a significant change. The new tech allows you to operate at an atomic level. You don't have to build a new CRM system or invent a new taxonomy for your information. Today's tech is much more subtle, and tremendously powerful.”

Wendy really hits the nail on the head. Yesterday's tech was like a giant freight train while today's tech is more like a Formula One racecar. For technology executives, this translates into vastly higher levels of agility and incredibly shorter business cycles. Essentially, you have got your foot on the accelerator throughout the race.

Daniel Dines is the founder and chief executive officer of UiPath, a global industry leader in robotic process automation (RPA). I spoke with him just before the manuscript for this book went into production, and I am delighted that we were able to include his valuable insight. In our conversation, I asked Daniel to describe how RPA is transforming the modern enterprise. Here is a brief summary of his reply:

Most agree on the importance of AI. But operationalizing AI is a challenge. Your data scientists can write beautiful predictive models based on machine learning, but getting those models into production isn't easy. By automating the mundane and repetitive tasks, RPA frees up time for your data scientists and lets them do what they're good at doing. So we see RPA enabling AI in the enterprise. It's an absolutely critical step on a long journey that is unfolding very fast.

From my point of view, Daniel is a brilliant leader and pioneer. Innovative thinkers such as Daniel are rocking our world—in a good way.

A Shift in Focus

In this wild and turbulent world, what keeps the modern technology executive up at night? It is not the email servers or the ethernet connections. Those days are long gone.

Today's technology executives focus on providing the leadership and guidance required to lead, innovate, disrupt, reimagine, and reinvent to create and sustain competitive advantages amid rapidly evolving markets and constantly changing customer expectations. That is the challenge—now and for the foreseeable future.

Recently I wrote about the problem of legacy tech companies struggling to keep pace with rapidly evolving markets, shifting customer expectations, and an absolutely astonishing array of products and services based on newer and more powerful technologies.

From my perspective, we have moved way past the tipping point. This is a truly watershed moment for the technology industry and the larger global culture. For years people have been talking and writing about the “new industrial revolution,” and now it is happening, in real time.

For many of the legacy tech firms, however, the big question is whether they are active participants in the revolution or merely spectators watching from the sidelines. That is not an idle or trivial question; their futures depend on their ability to keep up with global markets that are moving ahead and continually changing with incredible speed.

But instead of focusing on legacy firms, I prefer to spend my time with the bold and innovative leaders of companies that are proactively shaping the future of our industry.

At HMG Strategy, we are fortunate to have sponsor partners that are genuinely blazing new trails and pioneering new business models across the expanding technology universe. Our partners include these superlative forward-thinking companies:

Nutanix, whose Enterprise Cloud OS software delivers one-click simplicity to infrastructure and application management, elevating IT focus

Zoom, a leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video, audio, and more

Lenovo, a Fortune Global 500 company focused on the bold vision to deliver smarter, world-changing technology for all

UiPath, which is leading the “automation-first” era by delivering free and open training and through its robotic process automation (RPA) platform

RingCentral, a global provider of flexible, cost-effective cloud enterprise unified communications and collaboration solutions

Adobe, whose tools help customers create highly compelling content and whose innovations drive the future of digital media

Google Chrome Enterprise, which delivers a future-proof OS that makes it simple to work smart and keep your business safe

Darktrace, a leading cyber-AI company whose “Autonomous Response” technology is modeled on the human immune system

Fortinet, which provides top-rated network and content security as well as unique security fabric–based secure access products

Moveworks, which provides an AI platform purpose-built to solve one issue for large enterprises—resolving their employees' IT support issues

Info-Tech Research Group, the fastest-growing and most innovative IT research and advisory group, serving 30,000 IT professionals

Zerto, whose software platform simplifies workload mobility to protect, recover, and move applications freely across hybrid and multi-clouds

Digitate, a software company that leverages machine learning and AI to manage IT and business operations

Equinix, a global interconnection platform linking the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees. and partners

Zendesk, a powerful and flexible customer service and engagement platform that scales to meet the needs of any business

Ivanti, which unifies IT and security operations to better manage the digital workplace, reducing risks with insights and automation

Pure Storage, a data platform powered by all-flash storage, offering a simple, effective way to build a better world with data

Box, a cloud content management company that empowers enterprises to revolutionize how they work

Delphix, whose Dynamic Data Platform provides an approach to DataOps that enables easy and secure data delivery

OutSystems, the number-one low-code platform for rapid and simplified application development, with high attention to detail

Catalyte, an AI company that solves a superlative challenge in IT today: creating a diverse, affordable, and sustainable ready-to-hire workforce

These companies are role models for a new generation of tech firms. I am deeply grateful for their presence and involvement in our summits, conferences, and events. From my point of view, they represent the future of our industry. They are lighting up a path for all of us and clearly demonstrating how continuous innovation and disruption are essential to business growth and success.