Look ahead and ignore hype: How to deal with rapid change

‘What’s the next thing?' should be IT’s modern mantra

People rely on the IT leader to handle technology’s rapid pace of change. The answer, says Sagittarius CTO Kingsley Hibbert, is in horizon scanning.

In a world of technology that can change the way you work in a few short months, keeping up with the pace of change can be daunting. But, Kingsley says, that's a good thing.

"For me, it's great that tech can advance more rapidly than the business will at some organisations. It's almost keeping an eye on both in terms of, what's the next thing happening?"

"What's the next thing?" should be IT's mantra in the modern age. Kingsley argues you should always be looking at least 18 months ahead, and positioning yourself to say, "What are the levers we need to pull now to get us ready for whatever may be coming?"

Sometimes, that's hard to predict. The rapid rise of generative AI took the business world by surprise this year and left executives scrambling - which may be why we've seen AI shoehorned into products it's clearly unsuitable for.

Allowing technology to dictate your business direction is short-term thinking. Instead, you should use it to shape your approach.

"How can you shape your business so it can leverage whatever the world of ChatGPT and AI is going to bring you - so you can harness it rather than, ‘We need that thing now'?"

Unfortunately, executives have a habit of getting caught up in hype - whether it's AI, cloud computing or quantum - and decide that X technology simply must be part of their business. That leads to [fill in technology here]-washing, which damages trust.

Tech-washing doesn't lead to healthy long-term decision-making. Kingsley warns, "[Technology] changes so frequently, whatever people are writing about now is going to change by next week."

Instead, you should take a "sieve" approach to find "the nuggets that you need to make an informed decision."

Those nuggets won't help you find a silver bullet for your problems - that doesn't exist, says Kingsley - but can help you build a tech strategy that works for you and your business.