The Executive’s Guide to Navigating Digital Disruption

The ACS CXO Challenge has provided extraordinary insight into how ASX 200 tech leaders have embraced digital disruption to enhance their business models and develop new revenue streams.

Wisdom from the iTnews ACS CXO Challenge 

What a difference a little over a year can make.

When the CXO Challenge kicked off in June 2014, the Australian dollar was at US94c. Fast forward to August 2015 and our currency is at US74c – yet a mini-economic boom hasn’t eventuated.

Most notably, iron ore was over $90 USD/tonne twelve months ago and now is just over $50 USD/ tonne. The cycle of capital investment in the resources sector is drawing to an end, moving to production.

This is a perfect storm for our technology leaders. Necessity is the mother of invention, and Australia has some challenges to overcome in terms of revenue generation and tax receipts in order to maintain our historically high standards of living. 

Industries were already experiencing digital disruption, however over the last six months the political and economic landscapes have caught up and recognised the importance of this disruption.

We are seeing a focus on entrepreneurism to create new jobs. New Australian tech companies showing promise are stimulated to grow. Technological innovation is being encouraged so these new kids on the block will compete on the global market.

As the professional body for ICT in Australia, the ACS exists to advance professional excellence. We are passionate about technology and the ICT profession being recognised as a driver of productivity, innovation and business – able to deliver real, tangible outcomes.

With this focus comes a responsibility to showcase excellence and inspire others, believing that as the ecosystem develops, momentum will grow and ultimately benefit all Australians, both within business and our communities. 

The CXO Challenge has been an invaluable research piece, providing extraordinary insight into technology leaders from across the ASX 200 and how they have embraced digital disruption to enhance their business models and develop new revenue streams.

Highlighting that value creation is an individual journey, approaches vary throughout the Challenge such as TabCorp bringing digital back in-house, Telstra’s focus on ecosystem development, how ANZ considers analytics and automation will deliver a digital edge in the provision of advice as a service and tracking systems being deployed by Domino’s to empower their customers.

Some themes are constant however such as seeking ways to deliver best of breed digital user experiences so that customers self-manage, providing content customised for different channels so that customers may consume content via their preferred channel, and focus on talent and workforce culture where people do the disrupting and technology is the enabler.

The production of this resource in partnership with iTnews will provide executives with a strong independent platform to challenge their own teams, to contest ideas, and consider how best to embrace the disruptive power of technology to deliver greater value for their customers.