Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

One of the most prevalent blockchains in the world, Ethereum, is poised to switch from a proof-of-work (POW) algorithm to a proof-of-stake (POS) algorithm, likely in 2017, with the release of the Casper codebase. Why does this matter? Because blockchain technology is becoming increasingly relevant and prevalent in businesses across the globe. It holds great potential to disrupt how businesses perform basic transactions, from payments, to programmable, self-executing contracts, to identity verification. 

2016 surprised most of us with two big political decisions that we didn’t expect. Britain had a referendum that returned a vote to leave the European Union — popularly known as “Brexit.” And the US voted for a business and property magnate who had never held elective office as its next president.

Commentators around the world have analyzed these two results, and the consensus seems to be that these political battles have ushered in a new era of politics in which the truth and rational debate are less important, and emotion, lies, and propaganda are more likely to sway voters. What does this mean from an enterprise architecture perspective?

Today’s work environment is changing rapidly, so much so that the ever-increasing velocity of innovation and technology will create a workplace five years from now that looks nothing like the one of today. The big three factors in this coming change are: the “gig” economy, or project work, becoming the norm; moving from networks to ecosystem; and augmenting human work with AI systems

Last year, I declined to make specific predictions about specific technologies, what they’d disrupt, and their impact on society — a decision based on a mix of humility and cowardice. Instead, I made three predictions about challenges in the environment in which IT exists. These challenges have only become more real, making the predictions at least directionally accurate. In this article, I present updates to those predictions.

There has scarcely been a day the past few years in which there hasn’t been a breathless press release or article touting some new technological advance and how it will “literally change the world as we know it — forever.” We’ve seen in quick succession big data, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), to mention just a few, given the mantle of being the next big societal ­revolutionary change agent.

Every year pundits, hardware vendors, software vendors, consultancies, academics, and even government agencies publish their technology “picks” for the following year. One cannot help but notice that just about all of the lists identify the usual suspects; cloud computing, AI, predictive analytics, wearables, and augmented reality are among about five others that make nearly everyone’s “Top 10.”

The approach I take here is a little different. I look at clusters of technologies. I do this because of the overlap among the usual suspects and because of the interrelationships among the technologies. The identification of clusters is also useful because it acknowledges the interdependencies among technologies as well as the integration and interoperability required to optimize whole technology clusters and meaningfully impact business rules, processes, and models. In other words, it’s operationally impossible to acquire, pilot, deploy, and support technologies individually because they’re always dependent upon each other and always connected.

A Lean management system encourages those closest to the customer, those who best understand the work, to own their processes, solve their problems, and make their own improvements and innovations, guided by the strategic priorities of the overall organization.

The societal effects of AI-driven automation and the like are just beginning to be felt in earnest. The one thing that seems to be certain: over the next decades, companies and countries should be preparing for more political risk and uncertainty, and revamp their enterprise risk management approaches accordingly.