CIOs in the Financial Services Industry Series #6, written by Stuart Phillips, M.D. of MagmaTec.

2009 has been an “interesting” year in the life of a CIO. Firstly, the “R” word has become a reality. For a while in 2008, we hoped the world wide economic recession had passed us by in South Africa, but that was wishful thinking. 2009 has seen the economic tsunami hit us in full strength, creating a whole new set of challenges for CIO’s, including unprecedented cost pressures.
Secondly, the recession has driven home the message that has been building up over the last decade or two – that businesses have to continually improve their offerings to remain competitive. The competitive paradigm at play is: “Competitors will ALWAYS be able to find a better / faster / cheaper way of delivering your current products / services to the market”. Standing still means moving backwards relative to your competitors, at an ever increasing rate. Competitive advantage thus results from the rate and scale of ongoing improvements that an organisation can sustain.
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