Since the dawn of the Internet, companies have been leveraging new technology to improve efficiency and deepen client engagement. We’ve seen many large and small companies succeed with this strategy, but a third of European companies are yet to make the move. In this session, we explore a range of digital transformation strategies, why you might embrace them, and how to kick off an initiative within your organisation.
How do you grow a mid-market business without constantly growing the headcount? Our experts explain.
[Watch the full Online Service Delivery video here]
Part 1: Efficiency In Challenging Times
Part 2: How do you grow a mid-market business without constantly growing the headcount?
Part 3: Why are RPA tools so powerful?
Part 4: How does IT reduce error rates in manufacturing?
Visit our Digital Transformation Knowledge Centre which includes all content related to this topic.
In challenging times, how can mid-market businesses save money while improving service to customers? Our experts discuss manufacturing in this clip, but the lessons apply to all sectors.
[Watch the full Online Service Delivery video here]
Part 1: Efficiency In Challenging Times
Part 2: How do you grow a mid-market business without constantly growing the headcount?
Part 3: Why are RPA tools so powerful?
Part 4: How does IT reduce error rates in manufacturing?
Visit our Digital Transformation Knowledge Centre which includes all content related to this topic.
Software robots can have a transformative effect on a mid-market business. Find out how.
[Watch the full Online Service Delivery video here]
Part 1: Efficiency In Challenging Times
Part 2: How do you grow a mid-market business without constantly growing the headcount?
Part 3: Why are RPA tools so powerful?
Part 4: How does IT reduce error rates in manufacturing?
Visit our Digital Transformation Knowledge Centre which includes all content related to this topic.
Our experts explain how new IT tools can help mid-market manufacturers.
[Watch the full Online Service Delivery video here]
Part 1: Efficiency In Challenging Times
Part 2: How do you grow a mid-market business without constantly growing the headcount?
Part 3: Why are RPA tools so powerful?
Part 4: How does IT reduce error rates in manufacturing?
Visit our Digital Transformation Knowledge Centre which includes all content related to this topic.
When a mid-market business runs efficiently, it’s more profitable. Customers are happier and employees enjoy their jobs more as well. So how does IT help? We spoke to our experts about using IT to increase business efficiency—to add value, lower costs, improve service, and ultimately grow a mid-market business without growing the headcount. The sectors we discuss include professional services, manufacturing, wholesale, and more.
And visit our Digital Transformation Knowledge Center, which includes more quality content related to this topic.
How do you get to the top spot in technology? And how do you stay there? Freeman Clarke’s ‘The Curious CIO’ brings you the stories of technology leaders, how they made it to the Boardroom, and what they learned along the way. Featuring CIO James Alcock and CEO (and former CIO) Steve Clarke, ‘The Curious CIO’ is a conversation about leadership, business, and technology.
For over 20 years, James Alcock has helped CEOs and business leaders ensure long-term success with sound technology strategies. He focuses on harnessing digital innovations to reduce risk, increase competitive advantage, and add value.
Steve Clarke is an IT and technology expert with a deep interest in leadership and career development for CIOs. He is co-founder and director of Freeman Clarke, the UK’s largest and most experienced team of fractional CIOs, CTOs, and IT Directors.
Freeman Clarke provide fractional, Board-level IT leadership for mid-market businesses. Our technology leaders become part of the senior team to drive growth with technology—at a fraction of the cost.
E1: Sajjad Ahmed: From a Pakistani wheatfield to CIO (and back)
The podcast kicks off with Sajjad Ahmed, CIO at International SOS, who started thinking about leadership as a 9-year-old in Pakistan. Ahmed explains his journey from Pakistan to a London boardroom, his motivations and leadership style, and how he keeps a CEO engaged in the technology function.
At the beginning of 2021, CIO.co.uk outlined what they believed would be this year’s top eight challenges for IT leaders:
Well, okay, I get all these. But is this as good as it gets? Couldn’t we aim a bit higher?
For example, we shouldn’t be ‘facilitating the future of work,’ we should be driving it! As for 24/7 uptime, surely we’ve all got that in place already? Particularly now, when technology has enabled businesses to carry on despite the pandemic?
I think we can easily come up with a more inspirational and impactful list—especially when we’re looking for talking points to bring to the CEO.
In this accelerated moment, CEO attentions are more than usually divided. But part of your job as a CIO is to make a case to the CEO for how technology makes a difference to competitive advantage. Technology can and should be the key to more rapid growth, to outstripping the competition, and to becoming more profitable.
And yet the above list would have us focus on infrastructure. If we were in a car, it’s as if the next five sets of traffic lights have all turned green, and yet we’re driving along in second gear: admiring the scenery when we should be hitting the gas.
So, what do I think we should be doing now? We need to focus on getting the CEO excited about their IT. And we need to demonstrate, as CIOs, that we’re commercially astute businesspeople and not propeller heads. We need to show that we’re thinking about how to help the company grow faster and make more money.
So, what about this list instead:
1. Omnichannel everywhere. Everyone engages with the business however they wish, whether they’re suppliers, customers, or employees.
2. Bring the customers closer. Digitisation of everything—now!
3. Integrate and automate to speed up the business; RPA, APIs and Middleware to deliver a connected business.
4. Real BI/MI to make delivering data the lifeblood of the business and enable fantastic decision-making.
5. Give the business what it wants. Departments should want to come to you first.
6. Support innovation. Create sandboxes where employees can safely innovate.
7. Programmes and projects delivered on time, within budget, and to specification. Always.
8. Right person in the right seat on the right bus. Wrong people off the bus.
Consider this list less about challenges than priorities. After all, if there is anything that past eighteen months has taught us, it’s that challenges have a way of finding you whether you plan for them or not.
FACT: The CIO/CTO position is the only Board position where the necessary knowledge and skills need constant updating. Just like Moore’s Law has seen the exponential increase in computing power, so has the IT expert’s need to stay abreast of technology. It can be a nightmare. CEOs want their teams to be on their ‘A’ Game, and for us that means constantly updating our knowledge and our ability to handle new tech.
And the stakes are high. IT increasingly underpins all strategic business objectives—no department can deliver them without IT. It’s our team that increasingly underwrites the strategic objectives and enables the CEO to deliver them and to provide shareholder value. So we absolutely must understand the latest technology and being able to discuss options, ideas, and principles with department heads.
We don’t have to know everything. I’m not talking about in-depth ‘build-a-layered-network’ type of knowledge. I mean having enough technical knowledge to be able to innovate, to make informed strategic decisions, to keep the business ahead of the competition, and to know what the technicians are talking about.
This means that a fundamental part of knowledge acquisition is deciding what to learn, how to learn and when to learn. So, how do you choose?
The idea then is to figure out where each bit of technology falls on the continuum. Here is what I suggest:
· What do you need?
· What does the company need?
· What does your team need?
Where is the most urgent need for knowledge? Concentrate on that area, but don’t ignore the others—make sure they have an appropriate place in the order.
· The traditional route. Websites, books, magazine articles, etc. Many CIOs we know set up Google Alerts on topics they want to stay on top of. This method is useful for finding new knowledge or innovative ideas.
· The on-the-go route. Podcasts, TED sessions, audiobooks and the like—sources that you can learn from when you’re driving or exercising. This method works well for topic assessment or getting under the skin of a specific technology.
· The planned attendance route. These are occasions when you’ve signed up to a training session, a conference, or a webinar, because the topic is interesting and useful, but it’s not an immediate priority. It’s also useful for ‘large topic’ learning.
· Just-in-time. This is when you’re just a few pages ahead of those you’re working with. This sort of knowledge can be gained from peers, colleagues, or even the technical teams. You just need to know how to ask the right questions. This is not a substitute for the other routes; it has to be ‘as-well-as,’ not ‘instead-of.’
· ‘Find an expert who knows.’ Look within your network for someone with an in-depth knowledge of the subject. Buy them a coffee or lunch and find out the salient points. Also: ask the expert how he or she acquires their knowledge; they may know a website or seminar you haven’t heard of.
Remember that for the most part this is not about monolithic knowledge. It’s about distinguishing which pieces of knowledge will be useful to you and the business. Prince2, for example, is all very well. But if you try and implement the whole thing you lose credibility. Instead, implement a few useful parts as the basis of sensible project management. The key to knowledge acquisition is knowing which bits to leave on the cutting room floor.
CIOs and CTOs have a complex job, and their knowledge base reflects that. It’s not just the functional IT knowledge they need to keep improving, there’s all the IT leadership knowledge as well. Not to mention the business and commercial skills, like forecasting and budgets. Whilst these other areas of knowledge don’t change at half the speed functional IT does, they do move on. So you need to constantly review the diagram above, adjusting your learning objectives accordingly.
A successful CIO or CTO will be the one who invests time and energy in judiciously updating their knowledge and skills. If it’s not yet a priority for you, it damn well should be! The fundamental point is don’t let it become something that you look back on and realise you should have done more of. Regret can be a painful thing to have in a career.
We’ve seen so many changes in online service delivery. What does it all mean to a mid-market business? Our IT and technology experts discuss the pressing topics in online service delivery, such as the big shift to ecommerce, adding value post-purchase, better integration with vendors to save time and money, and meeting the needs of demanding corporate clients.
Also, visit our Technology Roadmap for Growth Knowledge Centre, which includes more on this topic.
Plain English board-level briefings focused on technology strategies to deliver competitive advantage and business success.
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Call us on 0203 020 1864 with any questions.
Graeme Freeman
Co-Founder and Director
Plain English board-level briefings focused on technology strategies to deliver competitive advantage and business success.
You can unsubscribe at any time.
Call us on 0203 020 1864 with any questions.