Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

In Part X, we examine survey findings pertaining to current AI application design and development trends and plans by organizations to utilize outside AI experts and to train employees in AI development. 

We cannot measure organizational agility from a simple definition. We must break down this definition into some measurable elements and build a measurement tool around those elements. Luckily for us, many scholars and others have worked on developing such tools. In this Advisor, we explore one of them.

Several factors are leading the fintech revolution and affecting technological innovations. These include cryptocurrencies, tokens, initial coin offerings, blockchain, and other security advancements (i.e., multifactor and biometric authentication). The ability of the financial services industry to experiment with these new technologies responsibly is an essential component of their future success and sustainability. The disruption affecting innovation in the financial industry is also driven by the pervasive connectivity that characterizes today’s telecommunications sector, enabled by the diffusion of Internet access worldwide and the integration of the Internet with other sensor-based technologies, forming the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure.

We have learned that the cloud has enabled a shadow IT to emerge. That sounds scary (mostly to the IT people), right? But we have also learned that shadow IT is not totally a bad thing, as long as there is communication, coordination, architecture, and governance. We discuss this shadow IT more specifically in this Advisor.

We have learned that a big part of the motivation or benefit for going to the cloud is agility. Call it flexibility or scalability if you want, but “agility” is a bit broader and evokes the principles of the Agile movement. The cloud allows you to try something, fail, and move on to something else with relatively less severe consequences. The cloud does not require you to calculate with high accuracy the amount of resources you will need, or the length of time you will need them. You should be able to scale up and down, to add and remove services, to get the latest updates, and so on — without having to do the work yourself.

Most organizations will experience a large security incident at some point. The difference between an organization that survives and thrives following an incident versus one that flounders can be summed up in one word: preparation. Athletes, emergency responders, performers, and many others practice for hours before the main event. So why do organizations not do the same for security incidents? Urgent timelines, high stress, uncontrollable events, and scrutiny from customers, regulators, press, and investors are surely good reasons to put better preparation practice in place. While many organizations have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan, few focus on preparing specifically for a large security incident. In this Advisor, we examine the preparation of a strategic incident response plan.

This article takes us into the insurtech platform world and describes how incumbents must adapt their business models and processes to exploit technological opportunities to remain competitive. The authors suggest that the definition of “platform” can extend from a purely technological definition to a more integrated one, and they explore ways incumbents can benefit from the capabilities insurtech offers.

This Executive Update explores some tools and techniques that have been used to successfully deal with and manage a hidden culture.