Lead transformation or become irrelevant

Businesses have no space to mature unless they embrace digital transformation today to thrive tomorrow, says Peter Muendo, General Manager, Hitachi Data Systems.

According to Muendo who delivered the firsy keynote speech during the premier Africa IoT Summit organized by CIO East Africa in Nairobi, digital transformation remains highly significant in both social and business set ups since technologies fundamentally impact all aspects of business and society.

“To succeed, business and technology leaders have to completely re-think traditional approaches. With the rapid pace of change in today’s business landscape, the inability to transform and to do so ahead of the competition, can put the entire business at risk,” Mr. Muendo said.

Digital transformation requires changes in process, people, skills, and technology, a major business initiative.

He noted that in this digital era, the CEOs should be more focused on three things to propel their businesses; among them being:

Innovate faster than the competition, whether old or new.
Make money from more of their business assets and resources.
Manage risk to maintain their reputation and viability

“IT has never been so essential to delivering on these CEO imperatives. CIOs now have a strategic seat at the table – and will maintain it as long as they master the balance between overseeing operations and empowering innovation. To support the business, CIOs must become knowledge advisors, data brokers and business innovators,” Muendo added.

Peter Muendo also spoke of three types of data; structured data, unstructured data and IoT data that is helping in driving agility within the business.