Recently, Jouni Forsman, who researches telecommunications for Gartner, posted this observation: “I believe that most of future innovations in communications may well come from emerging markets.” He goes on to list his reasons, which include that innovations in communication technology are more desperately needed in the developing world, where existing technologies are extremely expensive. That’s tough to dispute when here in the U.S. suburban kids take wireless for granted (even my second-grader says I’m no fun because there aren’t any games on my mobile phone). What should give CIOs pause, however, is this observation of Forsman’s: there are more people living in emerging markets than in developed ones. The engineers in those countries are going to be thinking hard about what those consumers want. Not only that, but it costs their employers less to fund their imaginings. I had a conversation not long ago with Roy Dunbar, the CIO at MasterCard (a global organization in more ways than one), in which he made the point succintly: “There’s no monopoly on intellectual capital in North America.” We were discussing why IT organizations need to be more agile in order to compete with new products and services offered internationally. Sure, it’s not news that if you’re working in a company of any size, you’re competing globally. A lot of people in the R&D community worry about whether this country is at risk of losing its edge in innovation to low-cost labor markets. But what if the root of our innovation problem is not that we’re outsourcing our intellectual property along with application development? Suppose emerging markets emerge as centers of technology innovation because developed economies can’t generate ideas that are big enough? Suppose we’re too comfortable with our tools and our gadgets and our processes to do anything more than tweak the status quo? What do you think? Are we too happy with ourselves to maintain our edge? Do you think it matters? What do we do about it? Related content feature 10 most popular IT certifications for 2023 Certifications are a great way to show employers you have the right IT skills and specializations for the job. These 10 certs are the ones IT pros are most likely to pursue, according to data from Dice. By Sarah K. White May 26, 2023 8 mins Certifications Careers interview Stepping up to the challenge of a global conglomerate CIO role Dr. Amrut Urkude became CIO of Reliance Polyester after his company was acquired by Reliance Industries. He discusses challenges IT leaders face while transitioning from a small company to a large multinational enterprise, and how to overcome them. By Yashvendra Singh May 26, 2023 7 mins Digital Transformation Careers brandpost With the new financial year looming, now is a good time to review your Microsoft 365 licenses By Veronica Lew May 25, 2023 5 mins Lenovo news Alteryx works in generative AI for speedy analytics results OpenAI integration and AI wizardry for report generation are aimed at making Alteryx’s analytics products more accessible. By Jon Gold May 25, 2023 3 mins Analytics Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe