“Sadin on Digital” episodes explore the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business. Wayne Sadin and I focus in particular on what CEOs and boards must do to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. Today, we talk 2020. Wayne shares his predictions, ideas and recommendations for boards and the C-suite.

Episode 11

In this episode: Wayne and I discuss how he works with a lot of manufacturing companies, logistics companies, and construction companies, and their technology stacks are 30, 40, or 50 years old. He says some of them are coming up to Wayne and saying, “What do we do to get started?”

Wayne says people who define themselves as buggy whip manufacturers were passed by when the auto industry emerged. But people who define themselves as leather manufacturers switched to driving gloves and prospered. Defining your market really matters.

Wayne says the power of AI and IoT is that you can flip a switch and pay a license, and all of a sudden be in the 21st Century. He says the modern ERP vendor says, “Oh yes, we can write that, we can modify that, and we can show you how to customize that.”

He says Microsoft has done a terrific job in two areas: One is Active Directory, which shows your security environment and your management of privacy, and that’s now connected to the cloud. And number two is Azure Stack, which can take the code into your data center, and act as though you’re in the cloud.

Wayne says 2020 is going to be a terrific year. The economy’s doing well, and his clients are pretty optimistic. Their businesses are growing and now it’s the challenge of keeping up with growth and keeping ahead of competitors.

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