New Year's deliberations

Just because it's January 2008 doesn't mean businesses have to be weighing up hot new technologies. Anyhow, most capital budgets were decided ages ago. No, January is a time to be thinking about approach and mindset, argues Martin Atherton of Freeform Dynamics.

January is the month for grand predictions, for forecasting the future and picking out the next big thing. Here is an alternative view for those who don't believe that adding one to two thousand and seven automatically creates a burning desire to dive headlong into investment in new, hot technologies.

Let's start at the top - what are businesses likely to be doing in 2008? Pretty much the same as 2007 - striving to find the optimum balance between revenue, costs and happy customers.

'Balance' might in fact provide the clue to an appropriate theme for this year. Everyone seems to want or expect one but they generally start with a technology topic and work from there. That's a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

If there has to be a theme, I'll offer one based on what I hope will happen, as opposed to what I think might happen. Our research in several areas this year suggests I might be onto something by proposing that 2008 could be a great year for balance.

How does an organisation seek to create and then maintain such a state? First, it involves taking as broad as possible view of everything it does and then deciding how centralised intelligence and guidance can be first conveyed, and second, obeyed.

An appropriate feedback mechanism asks questions of central intelligence and in return is given guidance. The output is that everyone who needs to be is satisfied with the resulting action.

Indeed, Freeform Dynamics research last year suggested strongly that an increasing number of organisations have stopped just talking about shifting towards taking this view of the world and are now being actively guided and influenced by it. And why not?

Good governance, appropriate risk management and the satisfaction of knowing that these two pillars can enable one's organisation to meet whatever compliance mandates it needs to - and that doesn't just mean industry regulations - make perfect sense at any time of the year.

Where does the balance part come in? Well, consider taking a one-sided approach to any of the three areas described. Focusing on governance alone is like creating a new game and getting so caught up in inventing the rules that you never start playing.

An overly intense risk management strategy could stifle a business, and a singular focus on compliance means piecemeal investment that maintains the fragmented corporate and technological capabilities we are trying to get away from.

The balance is gained from the realisation that these three were meant to be together, because they provide the right combination of input, feedback and output, without which any machine doesn't work.

What an organisation does under the bonnet - or hood - well, that's when you can start reading all those top 10 lists - just to make sure you haven't missed anything.

If, after reading this, you feel your organisation still needs a theme with which to meet this new year, try to keep it simple and related to what you want to achieve as a business.

Don't let it be defined by the products and services that compete for your attention. A theme really shouldn't be defined by the tools with which we might achieve it. We really shouldn't pick up those tools until we know what we want to do with them.

Martin Atherton is principal analyst at Freeform Dynamics.