7-Eleven is undergoing what its leadership describes as a ‘full stack digital transformation,’ but the effort starts with a focus on what the consumer wants rather than what technology can deliver. – Image credit: 7-Eleven
By Eric Rosenbaum – CNBC
- Worldwide IT spending is projected to near $4 trillion in 2019. 7043 Enterprise software is the fastest-growing area of tech investment.
- Cybersecurity threats will lead to spending of $125 billion.
- CNBC’s Technology Executive Council represents a wide range of industries and companies with a combined market capitalization of approximately $3 trillion, as well as technology stakeholders in the government and nonprofit sectors.
7-Eleven is undergoing what its leadership describes as a ‘full stack digital transformation,’ but the effort starts with a focus on what the consumer wants rather than what technology can deliver. – Image credit: 7-Eleven
April 08, 2019 – Ask Ken Goldman, president of former Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt’s family office, Hillspire, which industry is being disrupted by technology today and his answer might surprise you.
“Construction is being totally disrupted — the entire industry,” he said.
The former chief financial officer of Yahoo, Fortinet and Siebel Systems, Goldman said companies cannot afford to make the mistake of thinking technology disruption is greatest in the tech sector itself, or limited to certain sectors of the economy.
“Every single industry in the world,” said Goldman, who serves on the advisory board of the new CNBC Technology Executive Council (TEC).
A decade ago oil and gas companies were the stocks with the highest market capitalization. Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco is still more profitable than the iPhone maker, but the top of the market cap table has tilted. Now Goldman notes that all of the biggest market cap companies are tech (the top four U.S. publicly traded companies, to be exact). His warning: Disruption comes from the bottom up.
“The thing I’ve seen happen with companies inside and outside of tech is they get complacent and assume the newest will only take a small share. By the time it mushrooms, it’s too late,” he said.
$4 trillion to be spent globally on IT in 2019
Worldwide spending on information technology is expected to reach near-$4 trillion this year, according to Gartner, with the fastest growth rates in enterprise software, IT services and data-center spending, as the cloud still booms and greater cyberthreats loom.
Gartner forecasts $125 billion on cybersecurity spending alone in 2019.
“This threat is the same for all industries,” said Jim Routh, chief security officer for CVS Health and member of the CNBC TEC Council. “Logistics and shipping brought to their knees. Pharmas brought to their knees. And health-care providers brought to their knees. Nation-state threat actors are more prevalent than ever before. Ask Marriott, ” he said.
The flip side is the opportunity. Take Otis Elevator, which built the original lifts for the Eiffel Tower.
Neil Green, chief digital officer at the United Technologies subsidiary and also a member of the council, said moving from his former employer Intel to a 165-year-old company “where you press a button and arrive at a floor” isn’t as unlikely as techies might think.
“People may think of an elevator business as being an old, boring industry,” said Green, but with construction cranes dominating cities around the globe and skyscrapers of the last century being surpassed by new super-skyscrapers as high as 2.700 feet (more than double the Empire State Building), the creation of a digital industrial company is a requirement to keep up with three trends he sees shaping life for decades to come: urbanization, middle-class growth and connected and smart cities.
His view echoes a point many tech executives make to leadership teams, even though it may seem counterintuitive:
“I spend lots of time talking to C-suites and telling them, ‘It doesn’t start with tech,’” said 7-Eleven’s chief digital, information and marketing officer Gurmeet Singh, a member of the TEC Council. “Do I say things like, We want to be a tech company. We want to be an AI company. Yes, but it is all related, all in service, to the customer.”
Here are four key themes and leadership principles provided by members of CNBC’s new TEC Council initiative.
- Customer obsession comes before digital transformation
- Cybersecurity spend can’t slow as threats continue to grow
- Many companies need a rethink from top to bottom
- Tech needs more seats at the boardroom table
