The technology industry continues to create and offer exciting opportunities, but being a tech leader of this era comes with many challenges. As users are becoming more conscious of big issues such as privacy and consumer ethics, their overall expectations are increasing when it comes to technology-based products and services. If tech leaders are centralizing their efforts toward a more consumer-centric strategy, then what exactly are the golden rules they’re living by nowadays?
After the big data scandal involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, there’s more pressure on tech companies, especially the leaders behind them, to deliver innovative products and platforms while not crossing the line of consumer ethics and complex features. From the biggest tech moguls to IT startups, here are the rules they’ve been following:
Tech Leaders Consider Environmental Technology
At this point of time, technology is no longer restricted to innovation and creative concepts. With worsened climate change and natural disasters, tech moguls are becoming more aware of the matter. Some argue that it is technology itself that has been hurting the environment, but thanks to new forms of tech, innovations are becoming more environmentally-friendly: from helping animals to reducing waste and creating energy, the environment is embracing technology. Whether it’s through electric cars, solar pannels, or even biodegradable plastic, businesses are not only saving money on the long run but nature too. No idea is a silly idea, and the biggest tech innovations began with small brainstormed concepts that had potential and mobilized the ideas to support efforts againts climate change.
Attention to Cyber Vulnerability
One of the most critical issues tech leaders are facing. The threats to a company’s systems and private information are increasing as cyberattacks all over the world are being reported. Which is why the main rule would be to offer transparency and provide clear guidelines for users to have full perspective on user security and why it is important to them on the long-run. By working on this point, tech companies are gaining more credibility and trust particularly in centralizing data and using it to create an authoritative source of truth. A perfect example that will help understand this concept is an interview with Apple CEO Tom Cook, where he talks about having an ethical compass in the digital world and shares the three keys to his leadership at Apple: people, strategy, and execution.
Simpler end-user experience
Elon Musk summed up this next rule well. A true user experience goes far beyond a complicated technology. By creating a simpler user experience and a comprehensive data strategy, leaders are answering the what (behavioral data and analytics) and the why (experience data) and successfully reach UX maturity way before starting to promote the technology itself, ultimately leading to its success at very early stages.
Bonus Rule: Be Curious
A sense of curiosity for discovering new talents that will use high tech tools in a new and accessible manner often allows creativity and innovation to meet. This ultimately became a rule many tech leaders are implementing as it integrates IT into the idea and design stages.
If the IT and the conceptual teams engage together early on, the joint workforce will limit potential difficulties in the development phase later. Technology should be the core culture of curiosity; even small changes, discoveries, or improvements can have an outsized impact, and a creative approach to the utilization of technology can help industries level the playing field.
Successful tech leaders are adopting these rules to face the rapid changes in technology and consumer behavior. After all, the bigger they get, the more scaling they must do to protect the users. However, one question remains: will these rules sustain the everchanging technical innovations?
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