Duringthepandemic,itbecamestarklyclearthatthere isnoleadershipwithouttechnologyleadership. Just look at the restaurant industry. As lockdown three million new users had downloaded the app, enterprises reported deployment levels between and shelter-in-place mandates around the world andmobileordering anddrive-thru pickup combined 8 and 13 percent and expressed the expectations 5 closed traditional dine-in experiences, major chains accounted for 90 percent of sales. Starbucks used that they wouldreachbetween 30and50percent started to declare bankruptcy.2 In fact, 60 percent technologytoreinventitscustomer experience in three years. Or, as the Gartner analysts put it: of the restaurants listed as “temporarily closed” for a changed world, and when demand surged, “manufacturers hadbeenplanningto move to on Yelp in July were out of business permanently it doubled down.Thecompanypushedoutanew the cloud in three years, for the last five years.”7 3Six months into the pandemic, by September. integrated ticket management system to combine the National Restaurant Association reported that orders from Uber Eats, the Starbucks app, and drive- nearly three million workers remained unemployed, thru customers into a single workflow for baristas, andthefoodserviceindustry wasontracktolose and introduced a new espresso machine laden with 4And yet, through this chaos Starbucks $240 billion. sensors to help staff track how much coffee was emerged asaleader. 6 beingpouredandpredictnecessary maintenance. Starbucks had a digital transformation well Starbucks was prepared to lead when uncertainty 90% underwayby2020,andwhenthepandemichit, hit, but not every company was as fortunate. A year that transformation evolved from a strategic initiative ago, many were content to do ‘just enough’ to keep to a vital airbag. The company’s mobile app, which pacewiththeir competition. Case in point: Every of business and IT executives in our survey allows users to customize orders and pay for drinks year Gartner surveys manufacturers on their current agree that to be agile and resilient, their with their phones, proved invaluable as contactless and planned levels of cloud deployment across organizations need to fast forward their transactions rapidly became the norm. By August, enterprise systems. Andevery year from 2014to 2019 digital transformation with cloud at its core.