Gartner says businesses should monitor social trends -- well, no duh

Gartner Inc. has issued a press release with the headline "Gartner Says Enterprises Must Anticipate How Societal Trends Will Impact Their Business and Customers."

Wow, do you think? Hope it didn't take too many analyst meetings to come to that conclusion.

Yes, of course, companies -- including their CIOs -- should be monitoring social, legal and political trends. This is why companies have market research departments. This is why there are trend-watching firms. This why really smart companies listen to futurists. And Computerworld has been covering the social, legal, ethical and political issues of IT for 41 years, in order to keep DP managers, MIS managers and now CIOs abreast of those issues.

The consumerization of IT means CIOs need to be on top of what consumers & employees are doing -- including the gadgets they're buying. IT-based gadgets and social networks are entering the workplace, sometimes through the back door. Consumers are using social networks to make buying decisions. And social networks within companies can be tapped for collaboration, innovation, expertise. This all seems painfully obvious. But what may not be so obvious is that CIOs are in a great position to play a leadership role in helping their CEOs spot new trends and "disruptive technologies."

Gartner urges companies to set up an internal group with the responsibility to monitor societal trends, so the company can exploit the trends and not get blind-sided. Gartner predicts that, by 2010, 15% of U.S. and European businesses will have a formal trend-watching discipline.

To get you started, here are five tips on starting a trend-watching group, based on work by Trendwatching.com.

Specifically, Gartner recommends the following:

• Social factors will become increasingly important in business and commercial systems. Adopt a human-centric design perspective. Watch these factors on an ongoing basis.
• Appoint staff to review systems and working practices to identify legal, ethical and social risks.
• Conduct an opportunity/threat analysis to identify product and service opportunities enabled by the connected society.
• Understand and exploit network effects in products and services.
• Explore the opportunities to use network effects and the connected society to solve business and government problems in new ways.
• Privacy is a way of life and a business strategy decision, not a technical issue. Appoint a privacy officer.

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