Do business leaders need to upgrade their skills in order to adapt to a technology-driven world?

This short article represents the first in a series of posts examining the influence of modern technologies such as AI, Blockchain, and Quantum Computing on governance, leadership, and organizational management in the current business environment. It is important to note that the views expressed in these articles are my own and do not necessarily represent those of any groups or organizations with which I am associated.

Historically, leaders (i.e. executives, BOD members, etc.) have been asked to "remain abreast" of trending technologies so that they are familiar with the applications, systems and processes that are being discussed, proposed and often implemented throughout their organizations. The idea here has always been to simply ensure that those responsible for the strategic direction of the firm possessed at least a cursory understanding of the technologies that were, for the most part, focused primarily on incrementally improving a company's operational efficiencies. NOTE: Ecommerce was/is a notable exception to that rule.

Today, contemporary technology concepts like artificial intelligence, blockchain and distributed autonomous organizations have the potential to reach much further up the food chain in terms of their impact on an organization's overall strategic direction. Recognizing that the development, communication and governance of strategy falls to the most senior leaders within an organizational structure, there is an emerging need for these leaders to become significantly more literate in terms of which of these powerful technologies are most relevant to their respective organizations and how these technologies can be leveraged to create and/or refine a strategy that serves as the foundation for competitive advantage.

In order to put themselves in a position to answer the critical questions that ultimately surround these technologies (i.e. how do we prioritize our investments in technology?, how and when should we deploy these types of solutions?, etc.), leaders will need to double down on their understanding of the underlying concepts. What used to entail a relatively trivial amount of time that leaders dedicated to scanning macro-level content regarding technology concepts off the side of their desks now demands that leaders reallocate an increasing amount of time to becoming more technology-savvy...at least for those who want to remain truly impactful in today's business environment.

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), including the technology savants that already exist within most environments, will continue to be essential to the detailed assessment, implementation and management of these contemporary technologies. However, with due consideration given to the exponential impact that these emerging concepts are now having on an organization's ability to differentiate itself in the marketplace, the leaders that are responsible for a company's strategic direction will need to start upgrading their skill sets very soon or risk being surpassed that those that will.