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Staying Ahead of the Next Hospitality Technology Disruption

Mar 2017/in , /by

It was 2008 when Airbnb caused an industry-wide double take. Suddenly, technology was disrupting how and where people were booking hotels. Hotel companies navigated the change – by targeting business travelers, redesigning loyalty programs, and, for some, partnering with Airbnb. In a true “if you can’t beat them, join them” move, small hotels list their rooms on Airbnb for a lower reservation fee than traditional hotel listing services. In return, some hotels provide check-in services and amenities for certain Airbnb properties. Now, hospitality companies aren’t taking any chances that technology could disrupt practices beyond bookings. To avoid being surprised again, hospitality companies are incorporating technology on their own and in response to “nearly two-thirds of U.S. guests stating it was “very or extremely important” for hotels to continue investing in technology to enhance the guest experience.” These hospitality technologies range through the top tech trends of the moment.

Not unlike Airbnb, hotel companies are discovering the advantages of a new, mobile-first society, as depicted in StayNTouch’s ebook, How Mobile Technology Will Generate More Revenue for Your Hotel. Many hotel companies apply a hospitality technology, cloud Property Management Systems (PMS) solutions, to automatically offer room upgrades, promote amenities, and provide greater services like early and late check in and out options. This same solution can gather customer knowledge in real-time on arrival time and guest preferences to best manage housekeeping and customer service. The interconnected processes ultimately improve room turnover along with brand loyalty.

Woman wearing an Ocean Medallion wearable hospitality technologyHospitality Technology image from Cruise Critic

Let’s look at three transformative technologies that the hospitality industry is jumping on: wearables, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.

1. Wearable Technology Cruising

Following top tech trends, hospitality companies are introducing wearable technology into their offerings. Most commonly, these high technology hospitality companies turn to smart watches that can deliver dynamic guest details in real-time including dining preferences, food allergies, and spending histories. Royal Caribbean Cruises offers smartbands on certain high-end ships that act as room keys, wireless payment methods, and tickets. In response, Carnival Cruises introduced a credit card-connected Ocean Medallion, able to be worn in multiple ways including like a watch as pictured above, that will offer similar capabilities to Royal’s watches but will also power a future, ship-wide gambling platform. The hospitality technology that is the Ocean Medallion utilizes an IoT network of sensors and computing devices along with NFC and Bluetooth communication capabilities throughout the ships and ports. The Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management stated that, “wearable devices will transform consumers from tourists to explorers.” From the company side, wearable devices provide data and access to customers that enhance offerings to stay competitive in new ways.

“Leading hotel companies are … lever­aging advances in data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to increase online reservations, im­prove the return on advertising spend (ROAS), better understand guest pref­erences, and build stronger customer relationships,” according to global analyst firm EY

2. Artificial Intelligence Assistance

In terms of artificial intelligence, Ivy from Go Moment is an IBM Watson-driven system designed to handle guest requests. The cognitive technology can interpret questions to fulfill requests and converse with you by phone. Other AIs take a more dramatic, tangible form in robots. Also powered by IBM Watson, Hilton introduced Connie the concierge in one of their Virginia hotels last year. Connie informs guests on local attractions, hotel features, amenities, and can make recommendations for dining and activities.

3. Virtual Reality Hotel Experience

77% of U.S. consumers are interested in virtual reality (VR) equipment right now, as reported by the Consumer Technology Association. The hotel industry is quickly taking this into account and working to incorporate VR as a hospitality technology. Marriot Hotels & Resorts collaborated with Samsung in 2015 for a virtual reality hotel room experience offering titled VRoom Service that received a headset and headphones. Best Western Hotels & Resorts leveraged a VR experience that allows guests to immerse themselves in the hotels before their stay.

 

Ultimately, these heightened experiences through technology enable hospitality companies to charge higher prices, create up-sell opportunities at each point of the customers’ journey, and stay ahead of the next potential disruption, all the while delighting their customers.

This blog is part of an Industry & Market Series –  analyzing what FirstRain users are tracking at the moment in order to gain advantage for the moment.

car tires

Autonomous Cars That Drive Us Together

Jan 2017/in , , , /by

Few things indicate an industrial revolution better than a controversial topic that ironically becomes a unifying factor. The biggest, boldest, headlines shout that 3 in 4 Americans are afraid to drive in an autonomous car, Uber and the DMV are head to head, and the autonomous car industry has the potential to eliminate jobs in up to 128 industries. However, other headlines have written a different story. From companies to technology to cars themselves, the Autonomous Car market is driving us all into a new, collaborative future.

Considered an initial stretch on the roadway to fully autonomous cars, V2V technology, vehicle-to-vehicle, is a wireless network enabling cars to converse with each other. At the next level, the technology would extend to V2I, vehicle-to-infrastructure, enabling cars and say, stoplights, to communicate as well. Consider a future city that is completely connected, from autonomous cars to smart buildings.

Collaboration is not just in the future. Even now, auto manufacturers and car service companies are establishing surprising relationships in order to win this grounded version of the “race to space”. Industry giant General Motors has reached out to carpool service application, Lyft, to test self-driving taxis. Alphabet, Google parent and Autonomous Car technology leader, may now be an Autonomous Car social leader as well in its car project, Waymo. The company already paired with Chrysler Pacifica minivans and is now in talks with Honda on accommodating Waymo’s self-driving technology in an upcoming model – a significant change from Google’s small, bubble cars I pass on our Bay Area roads. In a recent development, Audi and Nvidia have united over autonomous cars.

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Those large companies seeking committed relationships, are resulting in start-up acquisitions at every turn:

  • GM spent $1billion on Cruise Automation for their self-driving technology
  • Uber spent $680 million on Otto for their self-driving truck
  • In the second biggest tech acquisition in history, Qualcomm spent $39 billion to takeover NXP Semiconductors for a path to make chips for autonomous cars

Why do Autonomous Cars drive such cooperation? Maybe it is the cars’ origin – a unique world of technological cooperation. Founder of Comma.ai and iPhone unlocking, 26-year old George Hotz, has published open-source software and hardware driving agents in an effort to “become the Android of self-driving cars”. Consistent with this approach, Linux has devoted a foundation project to the mission of “creating open source software solutions for automotive applications.” The project, Automotive Grade Linux, or simply AGL, recently released the most advanced version of its platform yet. The AGL community is made up of nearly 90 companies with an impressive roster of Ford, Honda, Toyota, and more.

“This unprecedented level of collaboration is a clear indication that the automotive industry is adopting an open source development methodology that is resulting in faster innovation with more frequent software releases and new features.”

Dan Cauchy
Executive Director, Automotive Grade Linux

Maybe you’re not a fan of jumping on bandwagons. But with expectations of 21 million autonomous vehicles sold globally by 2035, it might be time for all of us to take a seat in any wagon pulled by the Autonomous Car.

 

This blog is part of an Industry & Market Series –  analyzing what FirstRain users are tracking at the moment in order to gain advantage for the moment.

erasing logos

The Social Network Mid-Life Crisis

Jan 2017/in , , , /by

Each social network has its own persona. We have the style icon, all looks, in Instagram and the hotheaded, no-filter urbanite that is Twitter. Then, there’s the socialite, Facebook, and the professional, LinkedIn – both who seem to be undergoing respective identity crises.

FaceInTraditionally a sharing point for family and friends, Facebook is crossing into professional realms. TechCrunch recently shared Facebook’s announcement that it is testing out job features. The idea is to give businesses the ability to promote job listings from their company Facebook pages. These recruitment features include job post creation, posting, and even the ability to receive applications. Similar to applying directly through LinkedIn, Facebook is considering a prepopulated format when applying through the network.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has tested LinkedIn-esque features. Last year, Facebook tested out “Profile Tags” that showcased a user’s interests, skills, and personality. Sound familiar? Take a peek at your LinkedIn endorsements.

LinkedBookLinkedIn users seem to be favoring the social aspect of the professional social network. My colleague finds about every third LinkedIn update on her feed to be more personal than professional. However, it’s difficult to pinpoint what’s driving this behavior.

A confusion of what is “work related” is possibly to blame for the increasing clutter on our LinkedIn feeds. For example, the included quote was pulled from a lengthy LinkedIn post.

linkedbook formula

The quote was accompanied by a big, smiling, “selfie.” Though work and career are essential themes to the post, the emotional description and personal image reflect Facebook’s intimate reputation more than that of the professional networking psyche originally associated with LinkedIn.

The pseudo-work related post formula has spread like wildfire across LinkedIn. Always, a personal photograph follows the assertion. Another “selfie” shot I came across this morning was captioned, “Ready for my first interview!” I can’t image any interviewer not checking the LinkedIn profile of candidates before meeting.

LinkterAlongside the emotional, personal posts popping up throughout your updates are the political statements. Statements an employee wouldn’t dare utter in the office are suddenly posted for every co-worker to see in dark gray Source Sans font.

Rather than these posts being overlooked, LinkedIn users can’t resist the bait. Each political post is accompanied by Tweet-worthy replies from every part of the political spectrum. Even posts without political themes are subject to these users.linkedbook politics

There’s no confusion of these being unrelated to work (unless one’s industry is, in fact, politics) so what’s driving users to share these on LinkedIn?

LinkedBlrLinkedIn may be, accidentally or not, encouraging unprofessional behavior. Just as Facebook has begun to mimic LinkedIn, LinkedIn is mimicking other social networks, especially those heavy on the social. Earlier this year, LinkedIn began developing its own version of Facebook’s “Instant Articles”.

Nowadays anyone can “publish an article” to LinkedIn’s “news” in the same style used by any unprofessional blogging platform including the micro-blogging network Tumblr, with its neo-new wave, post-punk persona. After publishing a blog an article, it will be conveniently placed into the view of their connections via LinkedIn’s “Recommended Reads” emails’ “Published by your network” section. If you play the game right, as outlined here by this highly-shared author, LinkedIn Editors will push your news to the featured #dailyrundowns. Though curated by the human hand, the Daily Rundown sometimes consolidates trends across all interests, creating one noisy summary. Take a look at the below headline on death.

LinkedIn Editors

In a world of information overload, the last thing we need is a noisy, one-stop shop. From retail to news to TV channels, our society is demanding filtered, specific access points to what we consume. If LinkedIn loses its sense of self, we lose a productive, professional networking tool and the relevant-information sharing possibilities it offers. On the flip side, if Facebook loses its carefree persona, I may have to limit the number of cat photos I post.

Still not sure the lines are being blurred? Check out this comment made on LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner’s recent update:linkedbook post

manatees

An Internet for Our World, Not Just Our Things

Dec 2016/in , , /by

Across the globe, big data and IoT are revolutionizing Conservation efforts.

A concept first named in 1985, the Internet of Things (IoT) is undergoing a modern revival thanks to advances in big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. As consumers rush towards the benefits of wearable technology and smart house applications, a handful of revolutionary thinkers are applying the technology to benefitting our earth.

 

smart city

Smart Cities
30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 came from electricity and heat production. In reaction, cities are incorporating climate change, resilience, and sustainability goals into their smart city aspirations. By 2020, half of all smart city objectives will include these concerns, as reported by @Gartner. Part of the smart city movement, Atlanta, Georgia has already begun incorporating sustainability into its city grid.

A smart cities innovator, Ingenu recently announced an Atlanta project. The Atlanta Machine Network intends, as stated by Peter Murray of @Dense Networks, to connect and monitor “everything from street lighting, traffic signals and parking” in an effort to reduce energy and water usage city-wide.

 

manatees

Conservation of Marine Mammals
Marine residents of the Indo-West Pacific waters, dugongs are threatened by “local fishing, destruction of habitat and illegal hunting” rendering them vulnerable for extinction. To help, IoT cloud provider, @Kii, has been supporting @Smart Earth Networks (SEN) and @Community Centered Conservation (C3) in a “citizen science” conservation project in the Busuanga region of the Philippines. The project equipped fishermen with basic smartphones, provided by local company @Cherry Mobile, enabling them to take photos when they spot the vulnerable marine mammals. Photos are uploaded via SEN’s app to Kii’s cloud, indicating dugong location through GPS. This allows C3 to map and evaluate the local dugong population for future, actionable, protection recommendations.

Close relatives of the dugong, manatees are also at risk. A project started in November, applies AI technology to manatee conservation efforts. Owned by @Google, AI protocol @TensorFlow is being taught with the aid of machine learning to spot manatees in aerial drone-produced photos. The ability would save hours of researchers’ time and lead to quicker, more frequent conservation efforts.

 Tree_lion

Anti-Poaching Efforts

Most threatened species, including the manatees and dugongs, lose a large number to poaching. AI platform, @Avata, is being applied to anti-poaching efforts in Uganda. AI learns poacher behavior and how to arrange effective security patrols so wildlife rangers can stay a step ahead of poachers.

 

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Self-Awareness

Though IoT, AI, and big data are becoming extraordinary tools for environmental efforts, they are innately part of the problem. In the U.S. alone, data center electricity consumption is expected to reach an annual 140 billion kilowatt-hours by 2020, equivalent to an annual 100 million metric tons of carbon pollution. Fortunately, many of these companies are working towards self-improvement.

For example, with data centers accounting for 6.9% of all energy consumption in Singapore, active data companies are applying environmentally friendly practices:

  • A modular approach to data centers that utilizes just-in-time principles
  • Waste reduction through adoption of renewable energy sources
  • Alternate cooling techniques such as reclaimed water

In America, @GE and @Intel combined their respective offerings, Predix and gateway technologies, to create intelligent lighting – a networked lighting system that aims to improve efficiency. Each have applied the system to their own infrastructures including GE’s factory, Intel’s Arizona plant, and, soon, at Intel HQ in Santa Clara.
 The Market
Through IoT, it is thought that information technologies can reduce carbon dioxide emissions globally by 20%. With major companies entering the IoT market, the percentage may be even greater. From telecommunications companies like Verizon to platform providers like Salesforce to IBM, companies across the board are making moves into IoT.*

*Entry moves provided by FirstRain market analytics

 

This blog is part of an Industry & Market Series –  analyzing what FirstRain users are tracking at the moment in order to gain advantage for the moment.

Buyer-Persona-image-5

Market Trends: The Hunt for Revenue Streams

Apr 2016/in , /by

 This is part of the FirstRain Persona Series.

Every company needs an executive leader with a lion mentality.  One that won’t shy away from a tough deal, someone that has mastered an intuitive awareness of how and when to nurture new business, and one that can lead the rest of the sales pack with a clear vision. And across many enterprise C-suites, Sales now has a direct seat at the table.

With today’s fast moving digital marketplace, the objectives of a sales executive continue to transform the traditional sales role. Sales responsibilities are inheritably linked to revenue goals and the tasks have brought on new members to the C-suite, such as the Chief Sales Officer, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Revenue Officer. To keep things simple in this persona post, we will refer to these C-Suite level lions as the Chief Sales Officer.

Today, CSOs are constantly leveraging a sales strategy and market trends that will create the most impact for the enterprise, evaluating ways for new revenue streams, analyzing market disruptions and always, always on the hunt for business opportunities.

Clearly, the role today involves more than managing sales teams and includes strategic goals such as finding niche market opportunities and enterprise solutions to better position the company’s products and services. With characteristics of a true pioneer, they are always steps ahead and on the quest to competently execute a sales plan and turn value propositions into business deals.

In the Venture Beat article, “The Rise of the Chief Revenue Officer: Silicon Valley’s new secret sauce,” the author states, “A great CRO must be able to wedge into any aspect of the company to lay the underpinnings of a scalable revenue engine and tune everything for execution.” CSOs must continually assess and re-assess the current marketplace and then look for avenues to implement acute strategic business analysis to meet and exceed revenue goals.

Identifying what will create the strongest impact for the enterprise is the first step; deciding what steps to take next requires setting both, short-term and long-term goals; does the company continue to make deals more profitable and lower cost of sales, does it need to expand current contracts or scale products and service offerings into new industries, does the company leverage cross selling, does the company win in competitive situations, does the company provide thought leadership, does the company create sustainable teams and of course, they must execute.

Quarter after quarter CSOs must measure activities, technology and marketing strategy campaigns and understand what works, what doesn’t and ensure that they are introducing their products with the most compelling value proposition and approach into the market. The mindset is results-driven and efficiently integrating activities that will ignite results, both short-term and long-term is a must.

In addressing the need for a CSO, Greg Alexander of Sales BenchMark  Index (SBI) writes, “A CSO understands how change ripples throughout an organization. They understand how decisions affect organizations, markets, product lines, competitors and business units.” – CSO’s leadership style must demonstrate an intuitive understanding of industry analysis, region, contract deals and clearly match them to the appropriate team members that will get the job done. They must always strategically seek, nurture and create business relationships for the profitability and product expansion of the business.

CSOs must find ways to connect the dots within an enterprise and bring more revenue streams in a constantly changing market.  Relentlessly, they solicit new ideas to approach more streams of business and strengthen value propositions within different industries, often partnering with the Chief Marketing Officer to present the strongest, sometimes aggressive, go-to-market-strategy into play. Together, they will assess the strength of a business deal, with the aid of marketing campaigns, and deploy salespeople to initiate contact, and work together with product development to ensure that the product presentation maximizes value factors for the end markets.

Today’s CSOs must understand disruptions and their competitors, and be agile with a clear mindset, bold attitude and a keen insight of the best marketing strategy. They are responsible for connecting the dots; finding sales intelligence and new value propositions to better target go-to-markets and finding ways to move enterprise solutions forward, making the business profitable and expanding value in the product offering.

Partnering with other members of the C-suite is crucial to the successful growth of the enterprise.  To transcend value through different industries in today’s digital marketplace, CSOs need competitive intelligence tools that show them the way, like FirstRain, that uses modern day technology not only to predict business opportunities but rather align business deals with real customer needs. FirstRain’s dynamic platforms aligns:

  • industry targeted coaching for sales reps with reasons to call and reasons to check-in
  • market analysis intelligence that identifies threats and accelerators that will leverage sales teams’ agility around business deals
  • industry knowledge to better position sales deals, that is intermingled with internal and external content
  • trigger events of when deals require attention or  when a new target and acquisition plan is taking place

The responsibility for the growth and acquisition of new business is heavy, but with the successful integration of competitive intelligence tools and a solid marketing strategy, CSOs can propel a company forward.

CSOs do a lot of talking to nurture business relationships, but at the end of the day, their role is all about measurable results. True, successful sales leaders have a sixth sense of where profitability and business development must stand within their company’s initiatives, and partnering with sales intelligence tools that deliver them a cunning, comprehensive view of their customers and markets, allows them to execute on their sales acumen with real smart data.

Like a lion on the hunt, sales executives must have an acute awareness of their environment, and understand what small step will cause a disruption, when it is best to go in for the kill and when it is best to act patiently and wait for a bigger meal.

To read additional posts on FirstRain buyer Personas:

Rockstar-Image

Build a rock-star C-Suite with Gartner’s six personas

Mar 2016/in , , /by

Digital business has made a once linear marketplace, fast-paced and in constant change, making it difficult for stagnant leadership mindsets to remain competitive.  Successful business tactics that worked in the past, will leave you in the dust today.  To optimize a business strategy, one must be able to adapt quickly to change, and be aware of risks, opportunities, market changes and trends.  Enterprises must demonstrate agility to strive in the current marketplace by balancing essential leadership roles throughout the C-Suite.

Letting go of past behaviors is difficult, but with digital business dictating the customer market, enterprise leaders have to “let it go.”  Gartner’s recent research report “Take Digital to the Core — Remaster Your Leadership Using Six Personas to Win in Digital Business” forms the argument that C-Suite level executives must learn to adapt to new digital business, as new technologies are constantly disrupting industries and more and more companies become marginalized.  The article warns leaders that using “mature” business practices will cause enterprises to miss out breakthrough opportunities.

Adapting to change is not easy, and rather than changing your leadership team, teams should instead self-assess, find strong traits, acknowledge weaknesses and promote to fill in the voids to create a rock-star, digitally-ready, executive team. As Gartner points out in this research, management behaviors should be complementary of one another, and these six personas will help fill in the gaps:

  1. Adventurer –the thrill seeker—the one that “enjoys adrenaline rush from a bold quest.”  Leadership needs “brave” executives that will force their teams to face “the new competitive reality and calculated risks.”
    • This persona is important because digital business is increasingly disruptive and the risk-reward involved with a bold attitude is suitable for today’s marketplace.  Be bold, be brave and lead with innovation. Gartner says, “challenge the norm!”
  2. Ambassador – This persona is inclined to “finding common ground in adverse situations.” This C-suite leader will have “an artful balance of power and persuasion” for the overall good of the company’s mission and goal.
    • Digital business “causes friction” and often times requires a person that can diffuse disruptive situations.
  3. Clarifier –Moving quickly, business competition can bring a lot of uncertainty. “[S]uccessful digital business leaders flip their mindsets from viewing uncertainty as a paralyzing force to seeing it as an opportunity.”
    • This executive will draw clarity from experimentation and “fail-fast behaviors” and instead draw focus on execution competency and reward with target market analysis.
  4. Educator – The C-suite needs a leader with keen awareness of new technologies; that is tech savvy and astute to market trends, changes and disruption.  Most importantly, this leader must be able to educate the C-suite of current business analysis of market conditions and help teams visualize new ideas and move business forward.
    • Educators are finding ways of leveraging technology with enterprise solutions that can strengthen and align their business strategy to a digital business market.
  5. Attractor –the social butterfly –“Someone who is the natural hub of social networks and pulls others toward them.” Top-notch digital-business savvy talent is in short supply; and someone that couples deep industry analysis insight with likeability is rare.
    • This trait is especially important when introducing new products, finding new business or expanding contracts; “the attractor” will find the sweet spots of business.
  6. Cartographer –Gartner describes this persona as someone who seeks to improve the understanding of context in order to navigate a business toward an optimum path.
    • This person will navigate an enterprise through new paths, ensuring that the speed of product delivery is up to par with “new contours of digital business.” 

In this research, Gartner makes a strong argument that by re-mastering leadership styles, with these six personas, your enterprise will be fit for the modern day challenges of digital business.  Business competition and practices, specifically within the C-suite, have changed in the past five years forcing leaders, executives and VPs to readjust. People need to adapt to digital business no matter how successful previous tactics were.  Fill in leadership gaps with a digital-business-ready executive team!

To read the full Gartner report you can register for free here: “Take Digital to the Core — Remaster Your Leadership Using Six Personas to Win in Digital Business”

To read additional posts on FirstRain buyer Personas:

Optimize your Digital Strategy

Optimize your Digital Strategy this Year

Jan 2016/in , , , /by

It’s a new year and everyone is looking for digital trends that will optimize business strategy this year. We trust that things are already in full swing your business initiatives and we want to recap on our favorites brought to you from our friends at Altimeter.

CEO, Charlene Li, thinks, “Agile customization of experiences becomes a priority” in 2016, and we could not agree more.

  • Data must be able to run at the pace of today’s constant moving global economy, but most importantly around your business world.  “Agile customization”, as Li puts it, is not based on “static transaction profiles”, but a combination of information, analytics, verticals, and to put mundanely, a whole lot of data.  Information crosses paths and together can illuminate your business strategy with relevant market insights and actionable industry analysis.

  • Digital organizations are more than ever depending on data that is “tied together with world-class analytics.”  Both of these tools need to be packaged together for greater optimization.  CRM tools, real-time data analytics, coupled with customization around your key business markets will optimize your digital strategy in 2016.

Industry Analyst, Ed Terpening, acknowledges a rising complexity in the digital ecosystem.

  • Customer remains king in 2016, and adhering to the Customer Experience via an array of platforms can become tricky without the right technology.  There will be an added pressure to social tools that will mandate a cross functionality to a seamless digital experience. Terpening sees a challenge the way “social experience [can] support broader CX goals”.

  • CX demands a heightened level of attention and with it will bring innovative technology that will connect the dots between digital strategies and multi channel platforms.

Today’s business world is not static and your digital strategies must address not only volume of data but recency based on the specific role and need of the ‘consumer’ of that data. That is why our FirstRain Business Web Graph continually scans the structure of the living Web and the topics, triggers and business lines continually change over time, evolving and expanding based on system input and customer feedback.

FirstRain is an enterprise leader in providing a competitive analysis of target market analysis that will help optimize your business strategy this year.

Feel free to contact us for a free demo, and show you how actionable insights can empower your digital strategy this year.

Buyer Personal Series

Market Trends: Chief Strategy Officer the “Strategy Orchestrator”

Dec 2015/in , , , /by

 This is part of the FirstRain Persona Series.

Many may not recognize the title, “Chief Strategy Officer,” as part of the C-Suite, as the role has recently become popular, but will recognize a CSO’s duties. People have come to know the CSO as the “enforcer”, or a “mini-CEO” because of their main focus: to implement the vision of the CEO and company.

No one likes to be the “tough guy”, but many companies have already recognized a need for a Chief Strategy Officer such as Deloitte, IBM, Citrix, Intuit, Cloudera, Oracle and Cisco. CSO’s are usually recruited from veteran roles in management where they have a proven track record of successfully leading teams. Often their titles are coupled with CTO, Head of Corporate Development, and VP of Strategic Alliances.

Today, the CSO works closely with the CEO and bears the challenge of rapidly implementing a strategy that will drive a company to meet end goals and objectives. They understand the importance of being able to influence and mentor people to meet industry demands.

So what does the chief strategy officer do? Some CSO’s act more like a strategist while others are “doers”, and others, facilitators, but regardless of their implementation style, they must effectively oversee the entire company’s strategic plan.

A top priority for a CSO is bringing cohesiveness across the company and making sure that everyone is on board with the company’s strategic goals. Not everyone is apt for change, but working together is necessary to effectively move a company forward. A lot of a CSO’s time is spent working closely with upper management to communicate clearly the next stages a company must make. Their message must be clear-cut and definitive to create an immediate response from these teams.

Setting concrete plans, and goals are necessary to meet long-term visions.  With a dynamic list of priorities, a CSO must be mindful of change. In today’s hyperactive digital business world, strategies must account for market changes. Successful CSO’s are not reacting to market trends and changes, they are preparing for them.

Acting pre-emptively to threats, competitors and all the other bumps on the road, will be key to the success of the office of the CSO. Today’s CSO must leverage business intelligence tools that are responsive to market trends and changes and, therefore, able to focus on facilitating strategy as the company’s “Strategy Orchestrator”.

For example in the financial industry, a CSO might be responsible for mitigating risk and growth opportunities. They must be aware of mergers and acquisitions, competitors, global economic changes and especially disrupting technologies in FinTech. This can be overwhelming and can deter a CSO away from enabling a strategic plan. Enterprise business intelligence platforms are fulfilling the need of identifying risk within markets. Companies like FirstRain identify market trends and provide their users with actionable insights to better prepare for market changes, competitors and opportunities.

FirstRain Screenshot

In Industrial Manufacturing, for example, a CEO’s plan might require rapid growth to stay afloat, and this will require a Chief Strategy Officer to work closely with Sales and Marketing to implement a strategy that will require sales teams to work more effectively. For a sales team to drive results, they must be supplied with technology that prioritizes clients and presents actionable insights for new opportunities that help fulfill the corporate strategy. CRM intelligence software helps prioritize tasks that meet short-term goals, mid-term goals, and successfully steers a company to growth.

Regardless of the industry, a Chief Strategy Officer plays a key role as a leader who understands the mechanics of getting things done. The role often demands the CSO to drive a company through market change, growth, or disruptions, but at end of the day, the CSO must be influential in facilitating change and bringing a vision to live.

FirstRain Blog Series

Market Trends: Today’s CIO

Dec 2015/in , /by

This is part of the FirstRain Persona Series. 

The role of a CIO has evolved. Now, the responsibilities demand a CIO wear many hats; to be a chameleon and a visionary.

Today’s CIO must be able to lead, adapt quickly, be a pioneer with an innovative and competitive perspective. And let’s not forget, a CIO bears the challenge of finding business technology that embodies all of these traits.

A core challenge for the modern CIO is finding fundamental technology that can be productive, predictive and proactive across the many divisions of a company and accessible through many platforms. She/he is responsible for creating fluidity for internal and external business information.

Chief Strategy Officer of Adjuvi , Dion Hinchlcliffe confirms, “While yesterday’s IT could be somewhat siloed, today’s modern enterprise must have an open architectures, from data to APIs, to search and discovery, that makes it possible for the knowledge that flows within the organization to find its way to wherever it needs to be, and to do it all securely as well.”

CIOs face the challenge of finding enterprise solutions that transmit a cohesive streamline of information throughout a business network. In the past, the role was focused on precision in the implementation of effective IT departments. Now, the role demands much more.

CIOs must pioneer a digital business strategy that will address the needs of transitioning legacy software into Cloud, SaaS platforms. According to CIO.com, many companies are still struggling with software updates with significant IT costs and CIOs are challenged with mitigating the risk of moving too fast or moving too slow.

CIOs are aware of the transition that is taking place. They know that they must implement a digital strategy that meets the demands of day-to-day processes and future enterprise goals.

A CIO must service the key responsibility of providing teams with internal and external access to intelligence technology, both equally important and crucial for business development.

Within the company, internal information management technology must be productive and sensitive to existing legacy software. Business technology companies are addressing these enterprise needs and have built platforms and services that are scalable with easy plug-and-play implementations offering an array of accessible platforms. For example, companies like Salesforce, Oracle and Microsoft, offer their customers enterprise cloud based platforms that meet the needs of today’s CIO.

Today’s CIO must understand the sensitivity in moving legacy software to a digital world, and must also act like a CMO, a sales hustler and must understand the importance of staying competitive as a global business.

Access to external information should not only be predictive it must be actionable to stay competitive. For example, a CIO in the manufacturing sector requires industry analysis that draws meaningful connections between current business relationships, and the global economy.  New technology is doing just this.

Business intelligence software companies are fulfilling the need of identifying the intricacies of products, vendors, markets and the global economy.  They offer market insights and competitive intelligence tools that address risk and opportunity.

For example, FirstRain, an enterprise leader of data analytics, provides access to a dynamic platform, that delivers target market analysis of emerging events, market trends, management changes and strategy developments so a CIO can help his/her teams stay competitive and engaged.

As global business technology becomes hyperactive and continues to evolve, so does the role of a CIO. Today, the CIO must be a CMO, a sales leader, a CFO and successfully sail the enterprise to meet the goals of the CEO and board of advisors. Connecting teams to the right technology can drive results, and this is why the role of a CIO continues to be pivotal.

If you want to learn more about how transformational CIO’s are using the FirstRain platform please visit our website or contact us!

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roadmap

What You Need to Execute A Successful Product Roadmap

Jul 2014/in , /by

Much of a company’s success—whether that’s a driving force behind a complete turn-around or simply a shot in the arm—hinges on new product releases and updates. A product manager’s role, then, is vital to driving revenue. But they have to get it right, and that’s not always an easy task.

An article by Eric Nguyen on ProjectTimes.com lays out the 3 main challenges for product managers. The first is planning an accurate product roadmap. Many of the challenges that come with creating one stem from a lack of information, leading to discord within the team and/or products that don’t drive real value for customers. Having a solution that would allow the PM to track and receive updates on what the customer is saying in the marketplace about a solution like theirs, as well as understanding market trends and competitive activity, will help them understand how the market is trending and what the customer really wants and needs—creating a better product and a more accurate timeline. If their team has the same information as they do, they will have to spend less time dealing with conflict from the different business groups and get down to business.

The second problem is embracing change to speed product development and delivery. Product managers—and other business stakeholders, for that matter—are used to seeing a detailed plan and timeline. But by having insight into the changing market and competition, they can be more agile and take advantage, knowing what to develop and when to release it. They can get ahead of the market and claim innovator status—putting them in front of the competition and driving revenue.

Lastly, the project manager needs to be able to align all of his teams and facilitate communication between them. Giving everyone access to the same information is one thing, but they also need to be able to collaborate and communicate key information they find. Once they can, the process will run much more smoothly, driving innovation in products and a more agile approach to the market.

A product manager has to juggle a lot of different viewpoints and input—from sales to marketing to the customer—in order to develop a product that will move the needle. By having relevant, real-time information, his team will be able to stay ahead of the market and create great value for both his company and his customers. See how Rambus is using FirstRain to identify strategic opportunities in new markets.

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