More than 70% of CIOs globally do not believe they have the right skills in their organisations to deliver on future commitments, says Gartner SA CEO Renee Jacobs.
During her welcoming speech today, at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008, in Cape Town, Jacobs said: "This global skills challenge is felt even more keenly in our country, where we are not only battling to produce the correct skills, but emigration continues to deplete the skills we do have."
Addressing this challenge will require a different level of creativity, she noted, such as making IT attractive to the new digital generation and using retired IT leaders. Businesses should also consider sharing staff with similar organisations and getting involved in education - not only IT-focused education, but also business education.
She pointed out that enterprises around the world have been confronted with increasing economic uncertainty and that economic forecasts have been revised downwards. "Growth expectations have declined sharply."
However, Jacobs said, in spite of the economy, IT leaders need to deliver on business expectations, such as efficiency - by radically enhancing business processes; growth - by attracting and retaining new customers through innovation; and agility - by rapidly responding to changing market and customer demands.
Jacobs said IT leaders need to show business leadership, which means taking ownership of the business outcome by being a business leader first and an IT leader second.
She noted that IT leaders must be prepared for change. Such a leader would have to be counterintuitive by planning for the next growth phase, in spite of the current downturn.
"You [IT leaders] need to be innovative, looking beyond existing boundaries and preconceived ideas. You have to evaluate new technologies and approaches, and use them to build agile enterprises."
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