IDC North Africa CIO Summit Accelerating Your Journey to a Digital-First World

"Whilst working across many different industries and types of organizations in our advisory practice, there are some questions that come up regularly. Many companies are looking for ways to become more 'data driven', and by this they mean that they want good data to shape their decisions and their processes so they can provide more effective and profitable services to their customers.

This is an easy thing to say, but not so easy to do. At IDC, we have identified several components that combine to provide the conditions for this change. They can be grouped into six key areas — People, Attitudes, Values, Goals, Social, and Technology.

Whenever we see this change occurring in a sustainable way, these are the common factors that came together to make it happen. While technology is a key underpinning factor that cannot be ignored, the real change happens in the culture of the organization — employees learn to value the data they provide because it translates into the information they then use to make daily decisions.

The cultural change that must be apparent in any organization that aspires to this state is to embrace genuine transparency in the decision-making process. There must be a desire to learn from mistakes or unsatisfactory outcomes rather than to hide and/or forget them. This requires wise, mature leadership with an eye on strategic outcomes in the long term.

I'll be speaking at the IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2022 about how you can enact this cultural change in your own organization. So, join me on February 22nd at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre to hear more."

Connected worlds and connected experiences have become the reality of today. We thrive on change that is powered by digital thought leadership — an intelligent symphony of technology and humans designing meaningful and sustainable experiences. Consumer "experiences" are driving and disrupting industries like never before. In this new reality, businesses must build seamless yet simple enterprises that collaborate, synergize, and drive change. Delivering experiences that span across the digital and physical worlds is the need of the decade. Tech Mahindra looks forward to showcasing these experiences at the IDC Middle East CIO Summit, the region's foremost gathering of business thought leaders, technology experts, and digital partners.

The pandemic has spurred a rapid acceleration of digital transformation, with over 70% of CIOs in the Middle East saying they have brought forward their digital roadmaps by at least one year, and one in seven bringing them forward by over two years.

As organizations battled to navigate the headwinds caused by the pandemic, there was an increased focus on business resiliency. This is the ability of an organization to rapidly respond to business disruptions and restore business operations in a timely fashion. However, this alone is not sufficient - organizations need to be digitally resilient as well.

This is different from being simply resilient. Digital resiliency is the ability of an organization to rapidly adapt to business disruptions by leveraging digital capabilities to not only restore business operations, but also capitalize on the changed conditions. While business resiliency tends to focus on anticipating the crisis and preparing for it, digital resiliency is focused on rapidly adapting to any business disruption.

Being digitally resilient requires resiliency across many parts of the organization, all working together. Organizations need to develop digital resiliency across all dimensions of the business – leadership and organization, financials, workforce, operations, brand and reputation, and customers and ecosystems – as they look to thrive in the post-pandemic, digital-first world.

"Technology is reshaping all industries and it is critical for CIOs and decision makers to keep informed about the latest trends disrupting technologies. The IDC Middle East CIO Summit has been an important platform for the past 15 years, providing an exclusive look at the very latest developments in technological innovation. I'm delighted to announce that I've joined the Advisory Board for the 2022 edition of the IDC Middle East CIO Summit, and I'm looking forward to another successful and informative event."