Tech-savvy businesses more likely to expect growth, survey finds

Dive Brief:

More than eight in 10 self-described "technologically advanced" companies expect their business to grow over the next six months, according to ThoughtWorks data released Thursday.
By contrast, just 39% of companies that say they're held back by their technology are projecting growth over the same time frame. The software consultancy surveyed 969 C-suite leaders in February.
At nearly two-thirds of tech-proficient businesses, tech issues are discussed at the board level at least once a month, compared to just 22% of companies struggling with technology.

Dive Insight:

To outpace competition in the digital age, company leadership can benefit from more than an awareness of latest technologies.

Among the C-suite, CIOs and CTOs are the executives that most frequently infuse company leadership with tech-savviness, according to MIT research. They help steer company strategy, and often drive the connecting threads between technology and business strategies, elevating their sphere of influence within the company.

Company leadership grapples with a disconnect between the technology areas where directors are most proficient and the technology areas that are a business priority, according to ThoughtWorks data.

Digital plays a starring role in CEO recovery strategies, whether the catch-all term refers to data analytics, e-commerce or customer experience. And it's up to battle-tested leadership to crystallize technologies in a single, cohesive approach.

Investing resources into data strategies, particularly when applied to decision-making, have clear performance implications. Data-driven companies are 58% more likely to exceed their revenue goals when compared to their non-data driven peers, according to a Forrester Consulting study.

The connection between digital strategies and business outcomes opens up a path for tech leaders to become CEOs, according to Stephanie Woerner, research scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research. It also means other C-suite executives will be more open to partnering with the CIO on projects and strategies.

Aligning strategies between the CIO and the CFO, Woener said, "means the CIO has a partner that knows what technology can do for the firm and, rather than acting as a gatekeeper on the finances, is actually thinking about, how do we use our investment dollars wisely? How do we prioritize so that we think about capturing more value? How do we prioritize so that we change the organization?"