Which Types of Tech Enterprises Will Win, Which Will Fail in 2016

In the age of the customer, those that provide exactly what the customer wants will thrive. Here is a look at who will succeed and who will fail in 2016.

Customers will reward companies that anticipate their individual needs and punish those that have to relearn basic information at each touchpoint.

Companies that transform operations to deliver high-value, personalized experiences will drive a wedge between themselves and laggards that simply execute tactics.

CEOs will need to consider significant changes to their leadership teams to win a customer-led, digital market; CEOs who hang onto leadership structures to simply preserve current power structures will create unnecessary risk.

Enterprises that invest in a culture that fuels change will gain significant speed in the market; those that avoid or defer culture investments will lose ground in the market.

Leaders accept that disruption is now normal and will animate their scale, brand and data while operating at the speed of disruptors; laggards will continue to be surprised and play defense in the market.

Companies that find ways for customers to participate with their brand and in product design will experience new and powerful levels of affinity; companies that try to optimize existing static loyalty programs will see little impact to affinity or revenue.

Leaders will use analytics as a competitive asset to deliver personalized services across human and digital touchpoints; laggards will drown in big data.

Companies that become experts in internal and external digital systems will further differentiate themselves from those that dabble in a set of digital services that merely decorate their traditional business.

Leaders will extend privacy from a risk and legal consideration to a position to win customers; companies that relegate privacy as a niche consideration will play defense and face churn risk.

Companies that shift to customer-obsessed operations will gain sustainable differentiation; those that preserve old ways of doing business will begin the slow process of failing.