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This year’s keynote theme: the Continuous Next Strategy

Gartner Symposium, Gartner’s flagship event in Europe, attracted more than 8,000 visitors this year, and met or exceeded expectations, at least mine. The analysts were brilliant, inspiring speakers on stage and great advisors in the one2one meetings.

This was the first time in Europe that Mike Harris delivered the keynote, having taken over from Peter Sondergaard in the summer. It was a hard act to follow: Many attendees knew Sondergaard as an exceptionally gifted and inspiring speaker. Harris was different, of course. His presentation was strong and dynamic – and he came across as being very present, open and humble.

Harris outlined Gartner’s “Continuous Next” concept, referring to how the pace of innovation is accelerating and disrupting business models, and outlining the need for organizations to adapt to be successful. CIOs must adopt the role of business innovator and enabler, he said, and must interact with C-suite leaders to secure the foundation of digital business. In the era of Continuous Next, the CIO assumes responsibility for digital products and therefore controls not only technology and operations, but should also drive cultural change for the benefit of digital or business transformation. CIOs must also consider digital ethics before adopting new technologies.

Harris also noted that traditional enterprise roles, including HR, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Supply Chain will change as they all become digital. Continue Reading →