CIO
opinion
CIO
OPINION
All these challenges come naturally as a
tech company expands, and cannot be
completely eliminated. The best way to deal
with them is to understand the advantages
that the organisation’s greater size brings,
and try to magnify those advantages to
compensate for the headwinds faced.
For instance, larger tech firms typically have
more resources. They can magnify this
advantage by putting in place competent
leaders to manage those resources. That
way, the company will be able to fully
capitalise on the resources to journey
towards their desired objective for a
longer period of time. This gives them an
advantage over smaller firms which have
shorter runways and slimmer margins of
error for their products to take off.
“
THERE IS THE
CHALLENGE OF
MAINTAINING
OUR PACE OF
WORK AS THE
COMPANY GROWS.
www.intelligentcio.com
big’ tech companies must do is to update
its management mind-set. Leaders of larger
firms need to adopt a genuinely open mind
and objectively bring in the best expertise to
promote growth within the organisation.
Management has to be flexible and be
able to learn how to adapt to changes by
changing their own processes or mentality
to make things scale in a larger environment.
Recognising where to apply process, when
to formalise structures, and how to create
operational efficiencies is key to sustained
success. This was how Fortinet managed to
stay agile over the years and respond quickly
to market and customer demands.
As Charles Darwin astutely pointed out,
the most survivable species is the one that
A big company’s war chest can also be used
to build its brand. A stronger brand increases
a company’s appeal to customers, prospects,
investors and potential employees, serving as
a magnet for business and talent. is most adaptable. The same advice goes
for tech businesses. A company that is able
to adapt to change, including change that
comes with its own growth, perceive market
demand and execute well will succeed.
Additionally in the business world, size
matters, and large firms are able to attract
bigger and more strategic partners to its
ecosystem, thus enhancing its overall value
proposition to the industry. Beyond amplifying
the advantages that come with greater
operational scale, another vital thing ‘newly Growing up is an evolutionary process and
as with evolution, some aspects of the
process become dead-ends. Recognising
those evolutionary cul-de-sacs swiftly is
vital to continued success. The unicorn does
exist; it’s just that it has adapted itself into
a rhinoceros. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
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