IT leaders need to take risks in the post modern age of business

Welcome to the post modern age of business where IT leaders need to re-imagine their role and lead from the front by taking more calculated risks.

To thrive in this environments IT leaders need to create a virtual and fluid business that changes as quickly as their clients.

Outlining this new business landscape, Gartner's managing vice president, Daryl Plummer, said the challenge for CIOs is capturing the interest of clients whose attention span is shorter than ever.

World where the average company only lasts 10 years

"In a world where the average company only lasts 10 years, every added point of customer satisfaction alone could add one year to the life of your business," Plummer said.

"Post modern businesses don't spend all their money just on customer loyalty programs. They invest in company loyalty to the customer." With worldwide IT spending set to reach $2.7 trillion in 2012, the role and significance of IT in business has never been greater.

The days of IT being a passive observer are long gone

Gartner's Sonderguard said the days of IT being a passive observer are long gone, instead IT is a primary driver for business growth.

"This year 350 companies will each invest more than $1 billion in IT," Sonderguard said. "They are doing this because IT impacts their business performance.

"This new era brings with it urgent and compelling forces. They include the cloud, social computing, mobility and an explosion in information."

The cloud computing age

To survive in the cloud computing age, Sonderguard said three out of 10 IT organisations will become cloud brokers for their business.

Another trend shaping IT is mobility. By 2015, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber PC projects by four to one.

When it comes to mobile computing, he said no single platform, form factor or innovation will dominate and companies should expect to manage a diverse environment with two to four intelligent customers through 2015.

"IT leaders need a managed diversity program to address multiple form factors, as then as employees bringing their own smartphones and tablet devices into the workplace," he said.