The Chief Information Officer's Body of Knowledge: People, Process, and Technology

Chapter 10

Competitive Applications of Technology

Michael Skaff

Achieve a competitive advantage. Understand your audience. Innovate or die. Everyone has heard this advice, but what does it actually mean? Everyone knows that innovation contributes to success, but what sort of innovation is the most important? There is a sense that consumers and audiences have changed and will continue to do so at an increasingly rapid rate. How do you simultaneously meet your customers' needs and stay ahead your competition, even as the fundamental nature of the marketplace shifts? How do we maintain our relevance in this new world? Today's innovation ever more rapidly becomes yesterday's news.

These questions strike at the heart of a growing problem in business. More than ever before, businesses require novel means of achieving a competitive advantage as margins become increasingly slim, product release cycles diminish, and what was previously highly specialized knowledge becomes ubiquitous in a few clicks from a search engine. As one of the primary catalysts in the acceleration of business evolution, technology remains one of the most effective means of achieving a competitive advantage. In this chapter, I discuss some of the ways that technology can be used to achieve a competitive advantage and some of the external factors that influence its success and examine the example of technology applied by the San Francisco Symphony to extend its competitive positioning in the marketplace.

Businesses ...