EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Even worse, the lost potential is snowballing: Leaders concentrate not only on technology adoption, but also on its penetration across the enterprise, to In 2018, Laggards had 15% in foregone annual revenue. enable innovation transfer and a nimbler response to If they don’t change, they could miss out on a market conditions. For example, they ensure that cloud staggering 46% of their annual revenue in 2023. And services permeate across the enterprise and treat it’s not just those with legacy systems that are data—across organization silos—as a corporate asset. struggling; not all digital native companies are realizing the full value from technology adoption, either. Finally, Leaders carefully consider how new technologies will interact with the people and processes already in What’s so special about those in the top 10%? Their place in their organization, and they nurture talent in mindset, for starters: Crucially, Leaders think in terms of creative ways. systems and not individual technologies. With a clear vision, they are evolving to what we call Future Systems, or boundaryless, adaptable and radically human While some leaders are born, enterprise systems capable of scaling innovations others are made: Everyone repeatedly and making organizations strategically agile. can emulate the mindset and Their methods are different, too: Leaders adopt earlier, methods of the top 10% to get reinvest more frequently and acquire technology in a more deliberate manner. For instance, they install data the value they expect from streaming platforms, or event hubs, that can process millions of actions in real time before they adopt AI. their significant investments Leaders have directed a greater percentage of their IT in technology. budget toward innovation over the past five years and expect to accelerate investment in innovation faster than Laggards over the next five. Future Systems 4