Cutter Business Technology Journal

Technological advances such as augmented reality, virtual reality, cognitive assistants, 3D/4D printing, personalization, conversational interfaces, drones, deep learning, predictive analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, digital currencies, new payment systems, and affective computing play major roles in promoting and enabling the next wave of business innovation. These technologies — combined with new business models facilitated by social/collaborative commerce, shared services, and crowdsourcing — will have a profound influence across the business world. Furthermore, businesses will need to cater to the new expectations and demands of the digitally embedded “selfie” generation of customers, while also serving older generations. This scenario raises a few pertinent questions among business executives and IT professionals: Where is the business world headed? How will businesses get transformed, and what new applications and innovations will emerge? What will evolve as the “new normal”? What new opportunities will arise for the IT industry and technology professionals? In this issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal, we examine these questions and provide perspectives on them from experts in different areas.

Today, when everybody wants to disrupt their own or somebody else’s business, and new technologies that let them do it seem to appear almost daily, people with the “capacity to lead” are critical, and nowhere more than in the exploitation of IT. Obvious though this is, recognizing, empowering, and sustaining good IT leaders has been a challenge. People who can think strategically about what, why, and how to deploy technology but have trouble delivering it — and the reverse — fall short as IT leaders. Both skills are needed, and this edition of Cutter Business Technology Journal covers them in great depth.