How can senior IT leaders chart a path to reinvention and help guide their organisations to success in a time of economic, geopolitical and technological volatility? That was the question at the heart of twin Tech Monitor roundtable discussions – convened in association with AMD – that took place in March.
From artificial intelligence to cloud computing – and much more besides – the intention of both evenings was to explore the technology trends that offer opportunities for transformation while discussing the leadership necessary to make that change possible.
The opening event in London delivered on both fronts.
The evening began with the dozen or more attendees sharing the major obstacles preventing successful project delivery inside their organisation. The barriers cited included a lack of access (to people, technology and data); ever-evolving strategies that are constantly “moving the goalposts”; a reluctance of customers and clients to share their data as part of potentially game-changing AI projects; a tendency to duplicate effort; and a lack of firm decision-making among senior leaders.
The art of leadership
It was another leadership issue that sparked early discussion, described by one attendee as the “ego” problem. Too many leaders operate in “command and control” mode, issuing orders. As a consequence, they fail to take their teams with them. Instead, this attendee recommended the adoption of “servant leadership” which “flips the command and control model on its head. It’s not about being in charge of people but rather that they are in your charge. It is an important distinction.”
Taking up the issue, another attendee compared this philosophy with the motto of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst – “serve to lead”. As in the military where missions are “issued”, projects should be commissioned before allowing talented and experienced teams to deliver. Putting trust in teams – and allowing them a degree of decision-making autonomy – are essential to good leadership.
Managing change
Other attendees took a different view. One, while acknowledging the merits of servant leadership, insisted that effective management “comes down to character”. If those in senior positions fail to understand, or emphasise, with those they lead they are likely to fail regardless of the model they adopt. Another suggested that it is “easy to hide behind servant leadership when you don’t really know what to do.” Another argued that the focus should be on teamwork as a means of shaping leadership. The key to working as a team is to first “learn how to be independent and then learn how to be interdependent”, he said.
Similarly, this attendee noted that the biggest obstacle to success is failing to understand the impact of change across the organisation. When put under pressure, individuals tend to revert to doing their jobs in isolation. To counter this tendency, there’s a need for “phenomenal overcommunication” among leaders. Everyone needs to understand the nature of the change taking place and what is driving it. It is not enough to explain once. Communication is an ongoing requirement.
In AI we trust?
Switching the conversation to the technologies that underpin change, the discussion inevitably turned to AI – its adoption, potential and limitations. A reluctance to share data – a theme that emerged earlier in the evening when attendees were invited to share obstacles – returned in relation to AI. Can the models be trusted? And can the organisations building AI solutions be trusted?
Opinions varied but there was agreement that understanding and explanation are crucial. As one attendee pointed argued, “Every organisation should have a secured version of ChatGPT [or similar GenAI chatbot] because if they don’t, their people will use public ChatGPT.” Another argued that we need to become a lot better at explaining the relative risks of sharing different types of data. There is a big difference between personal data and network data. “It’s about classification,” he said.
Education is key, said some, while others insisted that rather than education (which is “quite transactional”), it is better to demonstrate good faith. If people have confidence in an organisation, they will be more likely to put their trust in that organisation to use their data safely and securely.
The evolving role of cloud
The evening ended with a discussion about the merits of cloud computing. In areas such as algorithmic trading, there is a trend to repatriate workloads. The move from cloud to on-premise is driven by a need for control. AI-infused algorithmic trading requires a huge amount of processing power, often at short notice. When the GPUs are in the hands of the cloud provider organisations lose much-needed control.
Not all attendees are retreating from the cloud, but they are reassessing the merits of the public cloud. As one attendee observed, public cloud is “not cheap any more”. However, it is the perfect environment for experimentation. When the objective of a proof of concept is to demonstrate viability – and to do so at speed – the scalability of the cloud can be very attractive.
For some at the event, the hybrid cloud is emerging as an effective solution. It provides the benefits of the public cloud where appropriate while providing control and security via a private cloud hosted on-premise or on dedicated hardware in a third-party data centre. A mixed cloud economy is now the de facto choice.
‘From operations to innovation: exploring the evolution of IT’ – a Tech Monitor roundtable executive dinner in association with AMD – took place at Scott’s, London on Tuesday 11 March 2025.
