---
title: "The Holy Grail Of Digital Disruption: Customers Come First"
description: If you want to be an organisation that succeeds in an increasingly disruptive digital world you must put the customers’ needs first.
---

[Crimson Blog ](https://blog.crimson.co.uk)

# [The Holy Grail Of Digital Disruption: Customers Come First](https://blog.crimson.co.uk/the-holy-grail-of-digital-disruption-customers-come-first)

 Written by [Mark Britton](https://blog.crimson.co.uk/author/mark-britton) | Sep 22, 2016 11:00:00 PM

### Digital disruption can be a tricky challenge for CIOs to manage. In most organisations, it is the IT leader’s responsibility to guide the board through the opportunities of digital disruption and the ramifications of falling behind competitors when it comes to new market innovations.

Business models for the disruptions differ due to a number of factors, including;

- The current success of the business (is it a market leader, a new start-up, or an older organisation struggling to compete?).
- The structure of the business (is it rigid or agile?).
- The nature of the CIO (are they conservative, a sceptic, a risk-taker, an innovator?).
- The organisation’s culture (is there good cross-departmental collaboration and do managers encourage their teams to experiment and learn from their mistakes?).

CIOs have differing views of what disruption might mean for their business. Some companies are frightened of disruptions unbalancing their finely balanced equilibriums and others are excited to embrace and champion changes.

Organisations should create an IT infrastructure that can withstand and grow with external disruptions whilst creating a creating a supportive work environment that encourages staff to experiment with new ideas, which could significantly differentiate their organisation in the market place.

If you want to be an organisation that succeeds in an increasingly disruptive digital world you must remember the key ideology of disruptive innovation: ‘put the customers’ needs first’.

The retail sector is one of the most competitive, fast-paced sectors and a pioneer of digital disruption due to the growing impact of technology on consumer expectations. Increasingly, sluggish companies are being left behind because of their inability to react to change or innovate.

It has been more than 15 years since the introduction of e-commerce, which was shortly followed by mobile shopping technology, and thanks to introductions of the likes of PayPal and Apply Pay the pace of technological change continues to escalate.

Michael Klein, Director for Adobe Marketing Cloud, said: “It’s almost a constant testing ground with the consumer of what is available from a technology perspective and how fast we can think: What is the value proposition for the consumer, who is now very much in control of the brand and shopping experience?” (Bowman, ‘How is Digital Disruption Affecting The Retail Industry’, 2016)

CIOs from other industries can learn a lot from game-changing innovations and levels of engagement achieved by the retail sector. Retailers inherently understand that the customer is king and that quality and price are the pillars of success.

What’s more, people are consumers and no matter whether they work for a B2B, a B2C, the public sector, or a charity organisation, they judge quality and access to systems by consumer standards.

Here are a list of retail disruptions. Grab a note pad and jot down ideas about how similar disruptions could work for your organisation:

If you would like more insights into digital disruption download Crimson’s latest whitepaper. In it a range of C-level thought leaders share their experiences and views on how to use innovation to enhance an organisation.

*[Crimson](https://www.crimson.co.uk/) is an IT consultancy, an IT solutions provider, an [IT recruitment agency](https://www.crimson.co.uk/Recruitment-i136.html), and a Microsoft Gold Partner with offices in Birmingham and the City of London.*

[View full post](https://blog.crimson.co.uk/the-holy-grail-of-digital-disruption-customers-come-first)

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