IDG CONNECT: Cognizant Thought Leaders Explain How Code Halos Help Digital Leaders Beat the Blues and Win in the Digital Economy

Malcolm Frank, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Cognizant; Paul Roehrig, Global Managing Director, Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, and Ben Pring, Director, Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work

“Code Halos is a well-written book that takes as its leading notion the idea that if organizations make better use of the contextual metadata and other information we all have floating around us, they stand a better chance of competing in a global economy that demands enterprises become smarter and more sophisticated,” writes Martin Veitch, Editorial Director at IDG Connect. “For anybody thinking about which road to take next, Code Halos is a thought-provoking read.”

For more on Code Halos, Veitch also speaks with Paul Roehrig, Global Managing Director, and Ben Pring, Director of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, who, along with Malcolm Frank, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Marketing at Cognizant, have authored the book Code Halos: How the Digital Lives of People, Things, and Organizations are Changing the Rules of Business. Excerpts from the conversation:

Paul Roehrig:

“If you look at the hard data about market change and track the trajectory, there’s often or always an inflexion point where the incumbent is challenged by the newcomer. Often they were overtaken by a better experience. The winners were consistently beaten by the [ability to make use of data] and a richer user experience. The second part of the book is very, very professional and directional. The devil is in the detail and we go into a lot of structural detail and talk about how companies might expand the notion of Code Halos to convert this theory into something meaningful every day.

We spent a lot of time with [Harvard Professor of Internet Law and author of The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It] Jonathan Zittrain to think this through because the pace of technology innovation moves much faster than the law. But our sense is that the law won’t be able to stop [technological progress]. We’re all offering up information because it’s of value [for us]. Companies do need to provide a delete button though and we see this as a positive differentiation.

We talked about industry after industry where there was this inflexion point and some won and some failed. We talked about that sense of loss. We were listening to Robert Johnson’s Cross Road Blues and thinking about these people trying to do their jobs and then we thought that at this sense of failure and alienation there is a crossroads moment. That became the Crossroads model of competition in the book.”

Ben Pring:

“The defining moment of change for the iPhone was when the device was plugged into this ecosystem of data and it was the central organizing pivot. Nokia was focused on the device. Zune was very similar to the iPhone in some ways but Apple did a better job of integrating all the elements of a digital and physical experience.

Enterprises must take seriously the notion of design and they must do so right from the outset of any project. We think it’s extraordinarily important to have design involved. How do you make a beautiful experience? Not every company has to hire a Jonathan Ive [Apple’s iconic designer], but you have to have design built in. We talk a lot about design in B2C terms but we see it also as a B2B phenomenon. I see new roles being injected into organizations. I heard a term the other day, ‘data artist’. It has to be more than just plugging numbers into a system. There will be new products and services and software tools too.

The light-bulb moment for me was the idea of how the Trillion Dollar Club [of very large technology or technology–enabled companies] changed the sales model from ‘always be selling’ to ‘always be suggesting’. That to me was a very powerful moment and opened up a new framework and a new way to look at this.”

IDG CONNECT also features an excerpt from the book. “Think for a moment about the technology in your home—laptops, tablets, mobile devices, gaming consoles, health sensors, and so on. Over time, every click, swipe, “like,” buy, comment, deposit, jog, and search produces information that creates a unique pattern of accumulated data and information that becomes your virtual identity. This is your personal Code Halo. A similar pattern is playing out in the world of business. People, organizations, and things – basically any noun – can now have a Code Halo,” write the authors. Here’s more:

“Far beyond Big Data, the ability to manage information to improve customer relationships, connect devices, and improve business processes is changing how organizations create value. There is no single “right” answer, but our book provides tactical recommendations on how companies can begin to pull value from the invisible.

Decision makers from 300 firms told us they achieved a total economic benefit of roughly $766 billion over the past year from their use of business analytics. Companies that generated the most value from business analytics expect to grow revenue faster and reduce costs more aggressively. Design—and even beauty—needs to be embedded into the end-to-end process and user experience.

The ability to generate, maintain, and ultimately compete on trust will separate winners from losers in the new digital economy. Re-imagine and re-wire corporate IT to build and manage code for competitive differentiation. IT must become your ‘halo heroes’. Sense opportunity, innovate, and pilot your best Code Halo solutions.

For those who want to win in the new “code rush” and lead in a world of digital transformation, it’s time to unlock value with Code Halo thinking and solutions.”