Whether facilitating a rapid shift to remote work or developing new digital capabilities for customers, the past year has reinforced the mandate for technology leaders to deliver greater value for customers faster than ever before, and to enable that speed and agility at scale.
In a poll of more than 100 technology executives at the Metis Strategy Digital Symposium, 42% noted speed to market as their key measure of their company’s nimbleness, with customer satisfaction coming in second with 27%. The findings underscore the increasingly strategic importance of CIOs and other technology leaders as they enable their organizations to succeed in the digital age.
For example, speed and customer-centricity took center stage at Dow as the company revamped its IT organization in recent years. Led by CIO and Chief Digital Officer Melanie Kalmar, the company re-oriented its work around services, and created product teams that were accountable for delivering those services from end to end. Throughout the transformation, “we focused on the customer experience, the employee experience, and working at the speed of business,” Kalmar said.
That mandate became more acute during the pandemic as many leaders transformed their organizations overnight to serve customers and employees that suddenly faced new, often more difficult, circumstances. “That speed and agility that we’ve always talked about as being important starts to have a lot more meaning when you realize you’re helping your friends and neighbors,” said Kimberly Johnson, Chief Operating Officer at Fannie Mae.
Dow and Fannie Mae are two of many companies born before the digital age that are transforming their people, process, technology, ecosystems, and strategy to seize new opportunities and stave off threats. Throughout our recent conference, leaders from Capital One, CarMax, The Washington Post, Novant Health and many more shared how they have enabled their companies to move quickly by embracing DevOps, shifting to product-oriented operating models, and revamping their talent strategies to bring in new and diverse skill sets.
You can find more insights from the Metis Strategy Digital Symposium on our YouTube channel, including conversations with:
