NOVEMBER 2017CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM 19over the past 20 years. There's been a complete generational turn over as you would expect, but with it there's been a complete reorienting as well. Not just the role, but the people in it and how they think about the world. CIOs not that long ago were all about minimizing risk. They were not just a cost center, they were a risk center. Now the CIO is driving change, pushing for smart risks, pushing her colleagues to think differently. They are in the middle of innovation as drivers and thought partners, not just order takers. It's really a complete 180. And I think it's great for retail and great for CIOs. Their role and influence is likely to keep growing. How could it not? And I expect that down the road CIOs may feed the retail CEO role in the same way merchant and store organizations have traditionally done.It's All about FocusFocus. Figure out the important stuff, filter by do ability, and then focus on a small number of the highest value things that are achievable for an acceptable amount of time and resource. It's that simple. But so hard to do unless you are really disciplined.IoT in Retail is going to have a lot of distracting "shiny objects." Things that can be done are not the same as the things that should be done. And new technology tends to get populated with a lot of "could" before we finally filter down to the more valuable "should." So with that caution in mind, I think retailers need to be careful and pragmatic. A fridge that can reorder milk is interesting. But is that a pressing unmet consumer need? How does the new milk actually get to the fridge? Does the average consumer use enough detergent and need it so urgently and unexpectedly as to require a button on their washer to summon more? There's a lot of this kind of thing getting a press and hype. But these headlining IoT examples so far strike me as cool but maybe with still a way to go before becoming valuable. Don't get me wrong, there will be value in IoT. But it may be more mundane in places. Maybe the fridge and washer just get to have a say in my shopping list as opposed to being autonomous replenishment agents. Maybe the delivery guy's truck becomes trackable so instead of a 4 hour window I can be home just-in-time. The less cool stuff often is the stuff that wins. More generally, as retailer the "thing" I would watch most closely is the one already in everyone's pocket or purse. The mobile device is where the most relevant and impactful near term innovation is going to lie for retailers. Things like payment, voice, identity and recognition. And it is and probably will remain for some time the hub of any peripheral IoT devices and connections. Rob SchmultsThe mobile device is where the most relevant and impactful near term innovation is going to lie for retailers
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