by Oliver Bossert, Klaas Ole Kürtz, and Anna Wiesinger
A lot has changed in the 20 years we’ve been hosting our annual IT conference for CIOs, CTOs, and other C-level executives from around the globe. Leaders across business functions have become more fluent in tech concepts and more adept at making tech decisions and working hand in hand with tech leaders. And tech leaders are now expected to master increasingly complex interdependencies across their business strategies, organizations, and architectures, and they are expected to partner in new ways with business leaders to co-own business and tech agendas, including digital transformations.
As advancements in technology continue to accelerate, it’s more difficult to distinguish the hype from the forces that will actually shape the future. Trade-offs are more multifaceted and interconnected, and they have wider-ranging implications for the complexity and cost of IT as well as, ultimately, business results.
Five priorities for steering through the noise
At our conference, leaders discussed how to separate the “signals,” the forces truly driving the evolution of technology, from the “noise,” the hype and marketing-driven trends that emerge from year to year but never catch on in any meaningful way.
1. Being a ‘smart laggard’
With technology trends extensively covered across all forms of media, IT leaders often get questions or advice from well-meaning senior colleagues on what trends to adopt. However, not every trend warrants immediate attention or even playing catch-up if you’re late to the party. Wise leaders often opt to be “smart laggards” who focus on adopting and scaling the trends that really matter to their organizations. And they focus on demonstrating value quickly or stopping pilots or initiatives that are not delivering.
One technology leader sees a risk in labeling every application or project as “AI” or “generative AI” (“AI-washing”) instead of getting the AI basics right and focusing energy and money on the most promising, prioritized use cases.
Another experienced technology leader and member of multiple boards advised CIOs and CTOs to consciously set and communicate the tech agenda for boards, steering clear of the latest short-term trends and instead emphasizing the important technology options to be considered for the long-term success of the organization.
2. Taking a platform approach to enabling innovation
To use the full potential of new technologies, multiple executives stressed the importance of enabling innovation across the whole organization by leveraging platforms instead of aiming for central coordination.
According to one senior technologist, a well-designed platform can fuel innovation through reduced complexity and harmonization. By analogy, he quipped that the “A4 paper standard does not stifle the creativity of what you can draw on it.” A sure sign of a good platform is when users are able to build something on top of it that surprises the platform’s owner.
Another technology leader described building a decoupled, open-banking platform that allowed the bank to build and operate “mini fintechs,” enabling it to expand its product portfolio and orchestrate an ecosystem.
3. Pushing the frontier
With the rapid evolution of technology and tech management practices, yesterday’s boundaries could be the next frontier to explore. Therefore, tech leaders need to champion innovation and reinvention, challenging the status quo wherever possible and allowing their organizations to take determined risks to continually propel them forward.
One CIO shared how she used a major spin-off from her company’s parent organization as an opportunity to challenge the current state, simplifying radically and driving down IT costs by 30 percent. Starting with the people aspects of the transformation, she reimagined how IT could deliver significant business value while running much more effectively and efficiently in a fresh setup. As part of the effort, she upgraded and streamlined the operating model and revamped the vendor partnership model.
4. Navigating uncertainty with resilience rather than retrenching
In the current environment of uncertainty, marked by persistent macroeconomic challenges, global fragmentation, and growing cybersecurity challenges, tech leaders shared their perspectives on risks and resilience. More than one described reinventing the technology function and its value proposition in times of crisis, taking a “through-cycle mindset”: pushing forward in times of crisis rather than retrenching, and focusing on long-term value creation to help the company emerge stronger when conditions change. We also discussed how dashboards should balance short- to mid-term KPIs with long-term value delivery.
The CIO of a global financial institution shared how recent regulations aimed at bolstering resilience presented not only a requirement to ensure compliance but also an opportunity to increase security, align security operating models, and adopt the latest resilience technology—all for the benefit of the organization as a whole. For example, the company’s “legacy index” measures applications based on their inherent risk, age, and number of toxic components. This establishes an easy-to-understand and pragmatic KPI reflecting the technology debt and operational risks related to an application, driving application modernization and decommissioning.
5. Empowering teams and breaking down silos
Technology talent is a critical enabler of the business and tech agenda, but many leaders shared how attracting and retaining the right tech talent continues to get harder amid intense competition. Therefore, it is crucial to tap into new talent pools and systematically invest in upskilling existing talent across the organization.
Empowering teams with true end-to-end ownership of something meaningful has been demonstrated to help retain high-value, in-demand talent. Multiple CIOs shared how their operating-model transformations tore down silos and replaced them with integrated teams and a more flexible organization with fewer hierarchies. One CIO discussed the importance of shifting mindsets and structures; for example, former line managers had taken on new roles as visionary, architect, and coach.
A chief data and technology officer described the ways his company’s digital transformation is powered by talent, and he shared lessons on building a future-ready workforce and bolstering internal tech capabilities by upskilling with at-scale learning offerings on topics such as data and digital technology.
With a keener understanding of the trends behind the trends and strategies for steering technology through the noise, tech leaders can better identify the signals of true innovation and build the operating model, platforms, and talent needed to act on them.
Oliver Bossert is a partner in McKinsey’s Frankfurt office; Klaas Ole Kürtz is a senior practice manager for McKinsey Technology, based in the Hamburg office; and Anna Wiesinger is a partner in the Düsseldorf office.