{"id":72987,"date":"2019-01-02T17:25:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T17:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=430203"},"modified":"2019-01-02T17:25:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T17:25:08","slug":"5-tech-decisions-ceos-need-to-make-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/01\/02\/5-tech-decisions-ceos-need-to-make-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"5 tech decisions CEOs need to make in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/strong>\u00a0Ralph Haupter<\/a>, President, Microsoft Asia.<\/b>\u00a0This article was originally posted on\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As I look out at 2019, there\u2019s certainly plenty to be optimistic about \u2013 revolutionary new technologies are fueling the 4th Industrial Revolution and positively impacting how we work, live, connect and play.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exciting to see technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mixed Reality (MR) and the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming key drivers for digital transformation and making a positive and lasting impact on our society and environment. In Australia, for example, the\u00a0Department of Primary Industry and Resources<\/a>\u00a0for the Northern Territory Government is using AI and IoT to identify and analyze hundreds of precious fish species in one of Australia\u2019s largest harbors. This massive undertaking will ensure fisheries\u2019 resources are sustainably-managed, protected and developed for future generations.<\/p>\n

In Australia, AI now automates the laborious process of counting local fish stock (Click\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to read more)<\/em><\/p>\n

Although there is good reason to be generally optimistic about economic and societal prospects for 2019, some business leaders have also confided in me that they see significant challenges ahead.<\/p>\n

In particular, many industries are being disrupted, sometimes even revolutionized, by the adoption of digital technologies and processes, often bringing with them new and more agile competitive entrants to their industry.<\/p>\n

How should established industry participants respond to these kinds of disruptive challenges?<\/p>\n

In late 2018, Microsoft\u2019s CEO, Satya Nadella, introduced the concept of \u201ctech intensity\u201d, where organizations can embark on accelerated digital transformation journeys by adopting technologies much faster than before and focusing on building their own digital capabilities.<\/p>\n

In 2019, to help organizations embrace and drive \u201ctech intensity\u201d, here are five technology decisions that Asian CEOs should make as we enter the new year:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0Modernize your data strategy:<\/strong>\u00a0If we compare a digital organization to the human body, then data is the blood that provides nourishment and allows it to grow.<\/p>\n

In large organizations across Asia Pacific, the challenge is often not about the availability of data, but the vast effort needed to manage the almost-uncontrollable growth of the organization\u2019s data estate. For example, banks today need to track and analyze tremendous amount of unstructured data coming in from new channels such as connected devices, new customer touchpoints and 3rd party data flows. They also need to factor in additional resources to cope with increasing regulatory and compliance requirements.<\/p>\n

CEOs need to prioritize the redefinition of their organization\u2019s entire data strategy, from creating a secure platform to managing and harnessing data to creating a corporate culture where the workforce embraces data in their daily work. It is only with a sound data strategy that organizations can truly optimize new digital transformation technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Accelerate full cloud adoption:<\/strong>\u00a0There was a time, not that long ago, when CEOs would ask me:\u00a0\u201cShould we move our data to the cloud?\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0Now, increasingly, they are asking:\u00a0\u201cCan we afford not to?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The question is not just one of economics (although, for most customers, the ROI of moving to the cloud are highly \u2013 and increasingly \u2013 compelling). They are also considering the risks of maintaining their own on-premise security data-centre infrastructure, including hardware, software, physical and operational security, hiring IT security experts and meeting statutory or industry standards and certifications. Many large customers now opt for a hybrid cloud strategy that combines both public and private cloud by allowing data and applications to be shared between them. This approach gives businesses the ability to seamlessly scale their on-premises infrastructure via the public cloud when required \u2013 without giving third-party datacenters access to the entirety of their data.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Workforce reskilling is a new CEO priority:\u00a0<\/strong>Many of the CEOs I speak with are excited about AI\u2019s potential to increase productivity, reduce costs and accelerate innovation. For example,\u00a0Airdoc<\/a>, a fast-growing start-up from China, uses AI to help detect medical problems by examining a patient\u2019s eyes in less than a second. Its potential to transform patient care is limitless. But would healthcare organizations be able to seamlessly integrate Airdoc\u2019s AI solution into healthcare professionals\u2019 workflow if they do not have the necessary training?<\/p>\n

CEOs need to focus increasingly on workforce reskilling in their digital transformation journey to ensure that their people and processes are aligned to optimize the new technology. Without that, AI projects are likely to fail because of the lack of digital expertise to utilize the technologies and the absence of data skills to derive actionable insights.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Cultivate a new digital mindset:<\/strong>\u00a0To paraphrase Peter Drucker, culture eats technology for breakfast. No amount of new technology application will deliver an organization\u2019s true digital transformation unless it is accompanied by a corresponding change in culture; one that embraces an open mindset and favors experimentation, learning and growth. At Microsoft, we laid this foundation over four years ago when we underwent our own transformation, focusing on creating a \u2018learn-it-all\u2019, rather than \u2018know-it-all\u2019, culture. This change in mindset enabled us to, for example, embrace a dramatic transformation of our business model.<\/p>\n

(You can\u00a0<\/em>read<\/em><\/a>\u00a0more about how Microsoft has successfully transform in this Forbes feature story)<\/em><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Trust defines the new digital organization:<\/strong>\u00a0When it comes to customer trust, it has been said that it is often \u201cearned in drips and lost in buckets\u201d. Trust in your organization can take years to build and can be destroyed in a single moment. This ethos resonates particularly deeply in today\u2019s digital world where organizations face mounting cyberthreats as well as evolving regulatory and ethical expectations when it comes to online transactions and handling of customer data.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the responsibility for the creation and maintenance of customer trust sits squarely with the CEO, who needs to ensure that all elements of trust \u2013 including security, privacy, reliability, transparency, compliance and ethics \u2013 are embedded into digital transformation initiatives right from the start.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, CEOs also need to examine if their ecosystem of partners recognize and share the same trust principles as their own organization. Specifically, do the technology partners they entrust with their customer data have the same set of values, principles and policies \u2013 when it comes to the use of that data \u2013 as they do.<\/p>\n

In summary, I believe that 2019 is the year of hyper digital transformation, where many business leaders will start to take quantum leaps in their response to a new digital economy. To do so, CEOs need imbue their organizations with \u2018tech intensity\u2019 by focusing on the five technology decisions that I have outlined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Ralph Haupter, President, Microsoft Asia.\u00a0This article was originally posted on\u00a0LinkedIn. As I look out at 2019, there\u2019s certainly plenty to be optimistic about \u2013 revolutionary new technologies are fueling the 4th Industrial Revolution and positively impacting how we work, live, connect and play. It\u2019s exciting to see technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mixed Reality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-72987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}