Digital business incompetence will cause 25% of companies to lose ground

One-in-four businesses will lose their current market position in the coming years due to a failure to capitalise on new technological opportunities, according to research released by industry analysis firm Gartner last week.

The research predicts by 2017 60% of the world’s 1000 largest organisations will attempt at least one business transformation that is not possible with current technologies.

It also predicts by 2023, four out of five industry leaders will either reposition their existing brands or build new ones to take advantage of new digital business capabilities.

In a statement, Gartner recommends businesses adopt what it calls a “bimodal” IT strategy in order to adapt to new opportunities.

“To maintain competitiveness in a world of digital business, chief information officers need to deal with speed, innovation and uncertainty,” it states.

“This requires operating two modes of enterprise IT: conventional, industrial-strength, slow-to-change and highly controlled versus experimental, iterative and fast evolving.”