Bridging The Divide Between Strategy And R&D Execution

At the most basic level, an organization's technology investments can be divided into two categories: keeping the lights on and growing the business.

The operational role of technology—keeping the lights on—is fairly tactical. Guided by best practices, we work with CIO's to prioritize efficiency over differentiation. We keep the strategic goals of the business in mind, but fundamentally we can rely upon specific turn-crank processes to optimize spending and deliver value.

But growth is a different story. Investing in any technology that is expected to drive value to customers—and increase revenue to the business—is inherently speculative. Whether it entails creating new software or deploying some other digital service, it demands a process of research and development, with uncertain results and outcomes. Executives tend to draw a single line between results. They believe that if you spend money on R&D, you make more money in revenue. If that were