Firms should look to leverage a "pattern-based strategy" to perform in a world where change is a constant, not a variable.
So says Regina Casonato, managing vice president at Gartner Research, who told attendees at the IBM Information on Demand 2010 conference in Rome that businesses need to make decisions faster than they ever have done before.
Linear thinking, where businesses can only see forwards or backwards without looking around for external signals, is "no longer sufficient", Casonato claimed in her keynote speech at the event.
In a pattern-based strategy, firms can spot the signals that will have a significant business impact and then react accordingly, she explained, noting that the approach requires both human and technological capabilities.
Casonato described the "four major disciplines" that make up the pattern-based strategy.
Firstly, businesses need the ability to identify patterns and this relies on the workforce to detect the relevant information. A performance driven culture is also required to determine how a pattern will change the business and to provide a positive outcome from this.
"Operational tempo advantage", meanwhile, will allow firms to speed up or slow down how they respond so they can get best result. "It is about the right time to respond to a pattern", the expert said.
Finally, transparency is needed for the pattern-based strategy to work, Casonato added, so data is shareable across an organisation.
Read on for more news from IBM's IOD 2010.
