Matthew Guarini

A Better Mousetrap Is Always Around The Corner The world saw cracks in the armor of Google this week when Alphabet’s earnings reported below analyst estimates. It looks like Amazon and others have found weaknesses in the search-based advertising model — golden geese are mortal, after all. So if Google is vulnerable to disruption, we all […]

We put ourselves to the test: Did our 2019 predictions for CIOs hit the mark?

A Tech-Driven Transformation Payoff In The Face Of Food Quality Issues Chipotle is in the midst of a food quality turnaround and a digital business transformation payoff. The company has invested in technology-driven innovation and an adaptive model leveraging point-of-service store systems, mobile ordering, food delivery (via DoorDash), and loyalty (a few months old and […]

Crisis Management Is Changing  Boeing’s having a tough run. The company is under intense scrutiny after two crashes involving its 737 MAX jets, with governments grounding planes globally. This isn’t the first time Boeing planes have crashed — but PR-wise, it’s the worst. What’s different serves as caution for all leaders, regardless of industry. The […]

Is There A Resurgence For The CIO Role? For years, the CIO role looked like it had been moving toward “chief infrastructure officer,” with many executives feeling like the transformative part of their job had been carved out and handed to chief digital officers. We have always been dubious that CDOs without deep technology expertise […]

Tech Sells, And Everyone Is Buying What do McDonald’s, Honda Motor Co., and Nike all have in common? These 50-year-old-plus global giants have all acquired small tech startups within the last year. McDonald’s just bought Dynamic Yield, an Israeli-based, AI-powered personalization tech company. Last month, Honda acquired a major stake in Ubitricity, a German-based maker […]

In less than seven weeks, we will descend on Chicago for Forrester’s Digital Transformation & Innovation 2019 Forum. Your competitors are delivering new products and services that continually raise the bar, so your imperative to transform is stronger than ever. But getting transformation right is essentially just table stakes; innovation really is the new imperative. […]

It’s Time To Start Talking About Professional Licensing For Software Engineers It wasn’t until enough boilers blew up that mechanical engineers had to get licensed. It wasn’t until bridges and buildings started collapsing that civil engineers and architects had to get licensed. Now that airplanes are falling out of the sky due to automation (AKA, […]

There Is A Tech Talent Gap . . . No Wait, There Isn’t  Tech talent continues to be one of the most common debates in the industry today. Conventional wisdom says that there is a critical imbalance in supply/demand, and data showing that there could be more than 1 million computer programming jobs unfilled by […]

Innovation, Schminnovation The Wall Street Journal recently published an op-ed titled “Beers, Bras and Brats.” This is a story about the perils of businesses that rest on their laurels. Brands such as Anheuser-Busch, Kraft Heinz, and Victoria’s Secret have enjoyed decades of success in their respective markets. But all of their stocks have dropped 30% […]

Are We Running Out Of Ideas? As the pace of disruption accelerates, there is an increasingly important focus being put on innovation. Now along comes some work published in the MIT Technology Review by economists from MIT, Harvard, and Boston University, “AI is reinventing the way we invent,” that highlights how the increasing amount of […]

A Road Map To Lose Your Technology Mandate CIOs have historically run technology innovation efforts, but that may be changing. We find CEOs understand that the future of their business depends on technology they don’t have or that hasn’t been invented yet. They recognize a need to spend at least part of their firm’s time […]

Lessons From Toy Land: Digital Strategy Beats Digital Marketing Mattel and Hasbro announced earnings this week. Both saw sales decline from the collapse of Toys”R”Us. But Mattel’s sales declined only 5% while Hasbro’s declined 13%, and Wall Street applauded the difference. Why? Because Mattel has been aggressively pursuing a digital products and channels strategy, extending […]

While playing the role of parent, I find that I trot out old tropes like “apply the rules,” “start with the basics,” and “don’t get ahead of yourself” when helping my kids with their homework. And I find that I get into some of the same conversations when I have the opportunity to engage with […]

Nary a day goes by without someone talking about their efforts to build a platform. We cannot argue: Platforms can contribute massive value to customers, the ecosystem, and the company that creates the platform. More so, as a consumer, I rely on platforms for so much of my working life that I often don’t even […]

The reality is that most Federal IT leaders are under increased scrutiny to deliver increased value and productivity from technology investments at the lowest cost. Simply performing a top-to-bottom technology rationalization effort will no longer make their organization instantly lean and Agile. Let’s level-set the conversation: Most Federal agencies are struggling to create value — namely […]

Outage management is a defining moment for utilities and thus provides a great way to reimagine the relationship between utilities and their customers. Absent an outage, most consumers don’t give a whole lot of thought to their utility company — flip a switch, and the expected happens. The outage — especially prolonged outages — changes everything. No electricity […]

Customer-obsessed businesses recognize how customer experience (CX) strategy can help meet rising client expectations in the Age of the Customer. But few have realized the potential for CX to improve the experience of their “internal” customers: employees. CIOs have the power to drive considerable improvements in employee experience by implementing CX strategy within their tech […]

When I look back at my time as a CIO, I often say it was only half-Dickensian. I bet you can guess which half! Legacy was rampant. Ops models and operating frameworks were based on dated theories. Just as folks felt like they were getting a handle on things, what happens but this thing called […]