Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 34 | Page 51

CIO opinion CIO OPINION All these challenges come naturally as a tech company expands, and cannot be completely eliminated. The best way to deal with them is to understand the advantages that the organisation’s greater size brings, and try to magnify those advantages to compensate for the headwinds faced. For instance, larger tech firms typically have more resources. They can magnify this advantage by putting in place competent leaders to manage those resources. That way, the company will be able to fully capitalise on the resources to journey towards their desired objective for a longer period of time. This gives them an advantage over smaller firms which have shorter runways and slimmer margins of error for their products to take off. “ THERE IS THE CHALLENGE OF MAINTAINING OUR PACE OF WORK AS THE COMPANY GROWS. www.intelligentcio.com big’ tech companies must do is to update its management mind-set. Leaders of larger firms need to adopt a genuinely open mind and objectively bring in the best expertise to promote growth within the organisation. Management has to be flexible and be able to learn how to adapt to changes by changing their own processes or mentality to make things scale in a larger environment. Recognising where to apply process, when to formalise structures, and how to create operational efficiencies is key to sustained success. This was how Fortinet managed to stay agile over the years and respond quickly to market and customer demands. As Charles Darwin astutely pointed out, the most survivable species is the one that A big company’s war chest can also be used to build its brand. A stronger brand increases a company’s appeal to customers, prospects, investors and potential employees, serving as a magnet for business and talent. is most adaptable. The same advice goes for tech businesses. A company that is able to adapt to change, including change that comes with its own growth, perceive market demand and execute well will succeed. Additionally in the business world, size matters, and large firms are able to attract bigger and more strategic partners to its ecosystem, thus enhancing its overall value proposition to the industry. Beyond amplifying the advantages that come with greater operational scale, another vital thing ‘newly Growing up is an evolutionary process and as with evolution, some aspects of the process become dead-ends. Recognising those evolutionary cul-de-sacs swiftly is vital to continued success. The unicorn does exist; it’s just that it has adapted itself into a rhinoceros. n INTELLIGENTCIO 51