Do you have Tech Intensity?

During my own career, there has been one constant mantra that echoed in my head, through teachings, in books, on Ted-Talks and in the media....and that has been the mantra of change. Since I can remember the drive has always been that the only constant is change. The downside here is that change was often referred to ‘and received” as a necessary evil instead of the enabler to innovation and the key to unlock new revenue streams and possibilities.

This past couple years however has highlighted that change is managed and dealt with differently throughout many organisations and this can be a massive problem. During the pandemic I observed businesses as well as technology teams at every level stepping up as the primary drivers to enabling companies to adapt to the most trying of circumstances ensuring they remained relevant and sustainable.

Unfortunately this period also highlighted something about change that many of us has known for a very long time, and that is that many businesses do not like change, and does not easily adapt to changes regardless of contradictory mission statements in their marketing collateral and passive leadership statements acting more as a vanity for self than their businesses. The reality in enterprises is that change often happen at a snail’s pace and the start of the pandemic highlighted the need for rapid business transformation and a change in the way we work. The last couple years also put a spotlight on the need for a resilient competent technology team and a solid leadership team that embraces the technology team as an integral part of the organisation and not just as another service provider that need to deliver against deadlines.

The case for digital transformation has never been more urgent than it is today.?Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella?said it best - for an organisation to succeed in a world of unprecedented constraints they will need to empower employees to foster a new culture of hybrid work, we need to engage our employees and customers in new ways, intelligently and virtually. We need to transform our products and services to facilitate new innovative business models that can adapt, change and scale as needed and optimize operations and processes to keep customers and employees safe and secure. This as he calls it is?Tech intensity?and is key to future business resilience and transformation.

We also need to use the data from each of the touch points and sources available to us improve and optimize future outcomes and ensure the data is close, accessible and visible at every level of the organisation when needed, and not only reactively after an incident when we want to investigate what actually went wrong. This as he calls it, is Tech intensity”” and is key to future business resilience and transformation. The data will often surprise and shock you into reality as what you think is working and what is actually working often contradicts what you get from feedback loops and surveys, although this feedback is still critical and important as it talks to a big part of your customer and or employee journey and experience.

Leaders and business owners need to acknowledge that times have changed and so too must products and services, just because your existing customers use a feature, doesn't mean it should exist in a new product or service, that exact feature or complexity of existing solutions could very well be the reason you don't have customers breaking down the door to get signed up, and it could also be the feature holding you back from progress as it is eating up time to support and maintain.

Tech intensity firstly speaks to how you adopt the latest technology and integrate it into your organisation to enable sustainability and growth through new innovative delivery models, products and services and secondly how you as an organisation build your own unique technical capability to enable rapid go to market intensity based on several factors and data. This further highlight how the entire organisation regardless of which sector of the economy you are in, has to embrace a culture where everyone is part of and involved in the entire innovation process. Now is the time to be brave and in some cases forget what you know,… turn the page and start anew with a fresh outlook and new perspective on tomorrow.

Everyone within every organisation must be able to grow, learn and act on the conjecture in play. Every leader has to take a step back and ask themselves if this is true for their company today, and if not, they need to ensure that they work tirelessly to foster this culture and bring IT, SecDevOPS, HR, Marketing and the entire business in its totality closer together. A lot of work needs to be done here as current research shows that only a third of employees in a company are usually required or encouraged to learn new skills, and usually only for client facing deliverables and not to drive change adoption and or innovation internally.

When it comes to change, there has to be trust between technology teams and the business to ensure transparency and alignment towards the same goals. Trust does not come without transparency, constant engagement and collaboration, from inception and concept through to execution and delivery.

The stakes have never been higher and those that made it through the pandemic with only minor bruises and breaks are those who embraced the concepts of Tech Intensity. Over the past couple years I have seen mature established service providers and businesses crumble and fail due to their inability to embrace change, communicate and be transparent. I have seen established companies taking a back seat to new companies and players, not because they are smaller and nimbler, but because they have a culture of change, a culture of learning and adapting at all levels. They challenge the status quo and more important, they encourage this behaviour, as this is what truly drives innovation and change.

As we head through 2023, more of the same is not an option anymore, as leaders, innovators, change makers, tinkerers and doers we should ask ourselves what we are doing to empower our organizations and our peers to embrace a culture of change and learning at all levels.

We should ensure that we are focusing and addressing the gaps in?employee wellbeing?in what has been lost in human and social capital due to remote work and isolation. We need to grasp the reality of how mindfulness and wellbeing is being impacted due to no separation for many between work and personal life contributing to employee burnout and fatigue.

I do not know how the world of work will look like in three or four years, and honestly, I roll my eyes at the very mention of "the new normal" as it is just another buzz phrase for reads and likes. What I do know is that many myths about productivity and remote work has been busted over the past years, I know and have seen that people are capable of great things if you uplift, empower and support them.

I also know that an inspiring leader and even a peer who "walks the walk" with his employees and or team is ten times more likely to weather the storm than those leading via smoke signals and fluff statements once or twice a month in a vanity communication email or video. Leaders need to be present and engaged and actively involved at all levels.

Leader can be anyone within the organisation, not just the CEO, CIO, COO, CTO, CRO, ……leaders can be anyone as everyone should be empowered to engage, motivate, encourage, influence and communicate.

My final statement is to push for change where needed, be tenacious and get working on your Tech Intensity, explore AI, CX, UX, UI and XI changes and additions, as long as you make sure you build technical runway for future needs, remove complexity where possible, simplify and do everything with integrity.

I have published in the past that we are moving towards a future where customers, partners, vendors and employees are aligning more and more with companies that share their values and engage around them, so this is a great opportunity for every organisation to be open and transparent, this statement still rings true today.

Be transparent, vigilant, passionate and intense, be courageous and show us that you mean it. The future for customers, employees as well as partners and vendors of tomorrow needs to be one that is simple, effortless and easy, so up your game.

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