Evolution Not Revolution: Aligning Technology with Corporate Strategy to Increase Market Valuation

John Logan, founder of the highly regarded boutique consulting company, Aberdeen Group, presents Evolution Not Revolution, a strategic call to arms for executives and managers to use their imaginations to envision the evolutionary steps that will make their company a winner and improve its position in comparison to the competition. Every 2-3 years business executives become subject to the latest "revolutionary" information technology overhaul, and many executives feel they need a revolutionary strategy to match. Following this proverbial "Hail Mary" approach to strategy setting (say prayer and then initiate a radically new strategy) is generally as unsuccessful in business as the Hail Mary pass is in American football. Competence in managing the use of advanced technologies to create and execute superior strategies gives an organization a powerful advantage over competitors who still treat information systems as an overhead cost - not a capability with which to profitably grow revenues. Yet while these executives can calmly and rationally deal with such issues as annual budget cycles and personnel problems, they become frazzled and emotional when faced with the questions of how to make technology work for them. This book will be their bible for successfully guiding them through the traumas associated with planning and deploying new information technologies while at the same time profitably growing their business - and increasing the market valuation of their company. For executives to successfully obtain the benefits and objectives of evolutionary planning and management, Logan introduces them to the six competencies: 1) Operational acumen to know how to successfully transform the company's products, services, distribution channels, and resource acquisition methods to meet the changing preferences of its customers; 2) Marketing skills to establish loyalty bonds with current customers, seduce new customers away from traditional competitors, and create new classes of customers that the business has never before attempted to reach; 3) Negotiating and communications talents to build a common vision of the future with the best supplier and distribution-channel business partners to both create the most effective economic ecosystem possible as well as to pre-empt competitors from gaining strong and highly supportive allies; 4) Financial smarts to change in a manner that maximizes the company's economic returns; 5) Management discipline to execute on time and across all organizational boundaries; 6) Information systems management skills to identify and implement the wide range of possible technical components into a stable, secure, flexible, and expandable operational information systems architecture - on time and within budget. By mastering the six competencies, executives can build winner enterprises by claiming the largest share of its target customer base and the highest profitability their industry.