Break Out of Your Technological Comfort Zone by Connecting the Dots

Abstract

Accelerating the dynamics of technological change presents business leaders with complex innovation risks, be they manifested as opportunities or threats, and challenges to bridge the widening strategy-technology chasm. We propose a decision-support tool in the form of a new strategic lens to make sense of evolving technologies within the context of a company's strategy by transforming both the company's strategic imperatives and the technological landscape to the same functional domain through the use of corpus linguistics and interpretive text networks. This approach facilitates a strategic conversation in a company by leveling the playing field between leadership and technologists in a transparent and inclusive process. We present a real-world case study to illustrate how business leaders can proactively use this tool to create the future.