Future State 2025

Chapter 1Technology Leadership Is Indispensable and Essential

Now is undoubtedly the best time to be a transformational technology leader. We face challenges, but we also have unprecedented opportunities for leading and facilitating innovation, disruption, and growth in core, parallel, and new markets.

That's why it's absolutely essential for technology executives to choose the right technologies and make the wisest investments. The future of their organizations depends largely on the choices they make today.

I predict the technology industry will continue to prosper and grow. Today everyone is a technology consumer, and that trend shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, every reliable indication points upward. IDC anticipates $7 trillion in IT-related spending in the 2019 to 2022 time frame.¹

In their anxiety over future earnings, investors often make poor choices. Sometimes fear of the unknown overcomes rational instincts. As technology leaders, we simply cannot afford to make decisions based on momentary events and temporary setbacks. We must think in strategic terms. That is both our role and our responsibility.

The economy itself is strong, and tech remains a driving force for growth in markets all over the world. Though there are signs on the horizon of an economic slowdown, a major recession appears unlikely.

Long-range forecasts are notoriously inaccurate, and it seems like a waste of energy to fret about events that might or might not happen 12 months down the road. ...