Dive Brief:
- Exxon Mobil Corp’s IT chief says he’s spending less on traditional suppliers and investing more to evaluate new technologies, CIO reported.
- Spending on new technology evaluation and proof of concept is up by a factor of six, he said, while technology that is successfully deployed is up by a factor of nine.
- The company said it regularly sends people out to evaluate new technology and spot emerging trends.
Dive Insight:
Mike Brown, vice president of global information technology at Exxon, said “My percent spend with traditional suppliers is going down significantly, and my supplier base is diversifying.”
Brown spoke during a talk at the Technology Business Management Council conference on Tuesday.
Brown called Exxon a “technology company that happens to be in the energy business.”
Several companies in a variety of industries are now traveling to Silicon Valley and elsewhere to experiment with new technologies and to examine how to make them part of the core business. Brown said Exxon regularly sends people out to evaluate new technology and spot emerging trends.
“What I can’t do is predict over the next 20 years what technology is going to come along and have that big a disruption,” Brown said. “But I do know that if we’re out there looking all the time, questioning ourselves all the time, we’re going to drive creativity and innovation in a different way.”
Other companies such as Walmart, Target and Bank of America are increasingly seeking out cutting edge technologies, and if they can’t find the solution they need, some are simply hiring new talent or making strategic purchases that enable them to invent their own solutions.
