Business growth in the 21st century is no longer defined by traditional standards or the 90-day shot clock of Wall Street. In the era of digital disruption, to remain competitive it is necessary that an organization respond to changing markets and evolve quickly. In fact, 31 percent of business leaders are flipping their business strategies based on digital technologies, according to a recent Forrester report. 

“I was one of those CIOs [chief information officer] where the consultants would say, ‘Don’t say what you’re saying, because you’re saying that technology is the driver for the business model, and we’re saying it’s an enabler.’ And I’d say, ‘No, it’s really a driver.’ So I’m really happy that we’ve come into that … it’s the right thing to think about when you’re sitting at a board,” said Virginia Gambale (pictured), managing partner at Azimuth Partners LLC.

In her role as a technology adviser, Gambale works with existing and startup businesses to help them take on the new digital landscape. She joined Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Nutanix .NEXT conference in Washington, D.C., to reveal the thought process for growing any size business through technology. (* Disclosure below.)

This week, theCUBE spotlights Virginia Gambale in our Women in Tech feature.

Business disrupted

Mounting competition, tech-savvy consumers and the need for speed are driving business executives to rethink business models and ramp up technology. Today, many companies are born in or moving to the cloud to increase time-to-market, reduce costs and find new revenue opportunities. Shifting resources from capital expenditure to operating expense is now possible with a lower total cost of ownership provided by cloud and hybrid cloud solutions, according to Gambale.  

“When you’re sitting at a board level, you really want to be allocating your capital efficiently and on the right aspects of your business going forward. … If I can literally take my infrastructure costs down by 60 or more percent and actually redeploy that capital into game-changing technology, then to me it’s a no-brainer,” she said.

Along with pressure to improve efficiency, the C-suite finds itself confronted with a changing customer, who has come to expect a 24/7, always-on experience. A recent Forbes Insights study of 400 top global executives, reported that 70 percent of respondents were “extremely concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about remaining relevant and competitive in two years. Doing business as usual is not going to keep most companies on trend. Gamble believes this is where executives need to shift their mindset and look at the business from a different perspective.

“I think that all the long-term businesses that have existed are standing at the edge of a cliff today, looking down at the abyss. And that is the reality. So, if they listen to Wall Street, they’re just going to perpetuate that getting closer and closer to the end of the cliff before they’re going to fall off,” Gambale said.

Wall Street needs to loosen the 90-day shot clock and allow businesses to be more transparent in the transformative process, according to Gambale. In fact, she said that a company investing in new technology and making inroads to changing the business model should be more appealing to shareholders than someone who claims it is business as usual.

In a shifting business climate, Gambale also sees an enormous amount of opportunity for women in the industry — and not just in development. As the industry advances, there will be more opportunities for women to take on the technology challenges, as well and the business challenges, she explained.

“There’s a lot of organizations about women who code, and I think that’s great. But that’s not all that women need to do to be in the tech world and be successful in the tech world,” Gambale said.

The three Cs of enterprise technology

With the increase of cloud adoption in the enterprise, chief information officers are experiencing a pivotal moment where they can take one of two paths: either become a chief digital officer and drive digital business in terms of product and service or drive day-to-day operations.

The role of the CIO continues to shift, according to IDG Enterprise’s “State of the CIO 2017” report. In a single year, the number of respondents who fit the traditional information technology management role decreased from 27 percent in 2016 to 20 percent in 2017. The rest of the participants found themselves focused on IT strategy, growth and innovation activities.

When it comes to cybersecurity, Gambale believes in a separation of powers. It is critical to have a chief information security officer to provide oversight, governance and education that starts at the top with the Board of Directors, she stated. 

“I think I was one of the early drivers of making sure that the CISO does not report to the CIO. It’s a conflict of interest to me, plain and simple, like any audit principles one would have,” Gambale concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Nutanix .NEXT US 2017 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Nutanix .NEXT US. Neither Nutanix Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE