TechTrade Asia: Global Managing Director of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Talks About Leveraging Code Halos for Success

“A growing number of businesses are finding new ways to compete with Code Halos,” says Paul Roehrig. “We’ve already seen early winners—for example, Google, Amazon, Pandora, and Netflix—and losers—like Kodak, HMV, and Borders. What’s exciting for business and technology leaders all over the world is that this same shift is starting to impact more traditional firms in banking, insurance, manufacturing, and retail.”

Roehrig, Malcolm Frank, Cognizant’s Executive Vice President of Strategy, and Ben Pring, Director, Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, are the authors of Code Halos: How the Digital Lives of People, Things, and Organizations are Changing the Rules of Business. Excerpts from the conversation:

“Our expectation for a technology experience that is intimate, complete, enjoyable, and natural was initiated by digital native companies, but this shift is now impacting businesses in virtually every sector in many parts of the world.

Code Halos may look similar to big data and analytics, but are a larger concept. It’s true that just about every business is dealing with data large and small. Big Data is certainly a part of the Code Halo story, but it’s not the whole story. For a Code Halo solution to really take off, it needs to have five critical components: a device, the application interface, data, process and finally a compelling business model in order to monetize the meaning that has been extracted.

As personal data is involved, business leaders typically worry about worst-case scenarios spanning data security, privacy, and regulation. Some leaders hope that governments and industry regulators will help balance the risks and rewards of our online lives.

This trend will certainly continue, but legislation has never been able to outrun technology. It’s up to business leaders to get in front of regulatory changes and begin to generate and maintain trust in the irrepressible digital economy. We see five key actions critical to making this work:

- Create an 'Opt-in' moment: Make sharing data an elective 'opt-in' decision for customers.

- Give your customers a delete button: If someone wants to opt out, they should have an easy—and complete—way to stop sharing information.

- Show me how you know me: Give customers a sense of how your meaning-making process works.

- Shine a light on your 'Give-to-Get' equation: Companies must be transparent—internally and externally—about Give-to-Get interaction with customers.

- Strengthen organizational self-control: Proactively answer such questions as: 'What will we do with our conclusions?', 'What are we responsible for if we know?', and 'What is the right thing to do if we know?'

To get started:

- Recognize the value of signal.

- Make design central to your value proposition.

- Compete on trust.

- Make IT your Halo heroes.”

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