“What are companies looking for in 2020?”

From a CTO Technology Management perspective, companies are looking at ways to change their business to survive and thrive in a dynamic business market and to recover from the effects of COVID 19.

Technological advancements have changed the way we live and work from available devices and products, how we communicate, how business is managed and conducted, the way services are delivered, business structures, and what makes a business competitive, for example.
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Therefore, companies are looking to innovate from within. 

In particular, areas within the business that can be easily adapted to these changes, not once, but continuously, alongside ongoing technology advancements. Business models, service delivery, pricing models, knowledge, culture, technologies, management approaches, are some of the areas within an organisation that can be adapted for stronger competitive advantage. Without adapting in this way a business lags behind others in their sector, the worst case scenario being closure.

Here is the example in action.

The explosion of surveys and reviews companies are asking their customers to fill in over the past few years is collated, analysed, and decisions are made on what to adapt within the business. This is one simple example of how companies are capturing and using internal knowledge to inform their next move, a move that puts them ahead of competitors. As customers evolve and buying habits change, so, too, will the company’s products, service delivery, and product range, etc, because of the knowledge accumulated from these surveys and reviews.

​As Ginni Rometty, ex-CEO of IBM said "You've got to keep reinventing. You'll have new competitors. You'll have new customers all around you." 

Published on Quora