Technology never stands still, and nor does the global economy—and tech leaders and their teams are dealing with uncertainties in both areas in 2023. From trimming budgets to tackling ever-changing and growing cybersecurity threats, tech leaders are facing a challenging year ahead.
While every organization will have its own, unique slate of concerns, knowing what others in the industry are bracing for can help tech leaders ensure they’ve considered all possible contingencies to prepare for. Below, 15 members of Forbes Technology Council share some of the new and significant challenges their departments are facing this year and how they are planning to overcome them.
Members pictured from left to right.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Leveraging Technology To Do More With Less
2023 has been the year of tech layoffs, and with an uncertain economy and shrinking budgets, companies may be grappling with the aftershock for months. To survive, businesses need to do more with less and will rely on technology to fill the gaps. One efficient and cost-effective way to do this is to leverage existing capabilities within your IT service management provider to streamline business operations. - John Milburn, Clear Skye
2. Scaling Through Uniformity And Synchronization
Bringing uniformity and synchronization to our website as well as across our products and departments is something that we need to put more effort into, as it will help scale the business. We’re overcoming this challenge by hiring more product managers, each devoted to a certain product or part of the website, to work under the management and supervision of our head of product. - Peter Abualzolof, Mashvisor
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3. Adapting To New Technologies And Ways Of Working
A significant challenge we are facing this year is the need to rapidly adapt to new technologies and ways of working. To overcome this challenge, we’re focusing on clear, honest communication and transparency at all levels of the organization. We’re sharing information on our goals, challenges and progress and encouraging everyone to ask questions, provide feedback and contribute their ideas. - Avani Desai, Schellman
4. Preparing For Increasingly Sophisticated Cyberattacks
A significant challenge financial services companies face is the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks. Attackers are using advanced tactics such as social engineering and ransomware to gain access to sensitive data. To overcome this challenge, companies should implement advanced security technologies and invest in regular cybersecurity training for employees and a robust incident response plan. - Perry Menezes, MorganFranklin Consulting
5. Hiring Onsite Talent
Hiring onsite talent is a major challenge post-Covid. People have become accustomed to the comfort of working from home. We as a company are working to adapt to this change and adjusting to the fact that remote work is here to stay. More polished tools need to be adopted to ensure security and privacy. - Bhavna Juneja, Infinity, a Stamford Technology Company
6. Supporting Collaboration Among Remote Workers
To ensure we maintain a high level of collaboration and communication while supporting telework, we invested in new tools and technologies to facilitate employee interaction, including virtual meetings, instant messaging and project management tools. By addressing these challenges, we aim to maintain high levels of productivity and job satisfaction for our team. - Shelli Brunswick, Space Foundation
7. Fostering A Strong Culture While Maintaining Rapid Growth
A challenge we are facing is fostering a positive company culture that aligns with our mission while maintaining fast growth. To achieve this, we are clarifying our company’s objectives and improving the communication between leadership and contributors. - Paulo Carvalho, Avantsoft
8. Identifying New And Creative Ways To Boost The Bottom Line
With the chances of a recession hitting this year, companies in our industry are tightening their belts. It’s essential to be prudent in terms of financial investment decisions and to identify different and creative ways to add more to the bottom line. This could include identifying new areas where we could cross-sell and being client-obsessed and employee-focused. Customer experience is key for each department. - Shiboo Varughese, CirrusLabs.io
9. Avoiding Layoffs Through Cross-Training
One significant challenge our tech department is facing this year is cross-training. We never want to lay off our employees as many tech companies are doing right now. The best approach is to ensure each team is as well-versed as possible. Our cross-training program allows us to shift employees to other departments when and if things start slowing down. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
10. Taking A Closer Look At Vendors
Economic uncertainty is having a big impact on budgets, including cybersecurity budgets, making it difficult for individuals and organizations to plan for the future. As a result, every team needs to take a hard look at incumbent vendors—particularly those providing overlapping capabilities. More cost-effective alternatives do exist and can be highly leveraged across the organization if you look! - Claude Mandy, Symmetry Systems Inc.
11. Keeping Up With Conversational AI
2023 started with the interesting paradigm of ChatGPT and other AI engines—they will change the entire IT and tech ecosystems. It will be a challenge and opportunity for every IT organization to build and enhance their ecosystems to provide conversation-led, structured responses. We have multiple initiatives with our clients and employees to leverage conversational AI to improve our services and products. - Rishi Agrawal, 3i Infotech
12. Transitioning From An Innovation Mindset To A Protective Mindset
The economy (and people’s reaction to the economy) has changed the game, and this is felt both at the business and departmental levels. As a product leader, my focus is always on anticipating and responding to changes both in the market and the psychology of our users. Transitioning from an innovation-based mindset to a protective mindset requires reframing how you communicate with your users. - Lewis Wynne-Jones, ThinkData Works
13. Bridging The Gap Between Sales And Development Teams
As we scale, expand and grow our customer base, there is an immediate need for more processes to link customer-facing and software development teams to deliver on time and within budget. The challenge is bridging two mindsets: sales and delivery and software development. I am fostering improvement by having customer-facing teams do product specs and a software development team get closer to the customer side. - Fernando Gutierrez, Tachyus Corp.
14. Staying Ahead In Mobile Technology
One of the most significant challenges this year is staying ahead in mobile technology. To overcome this challenge, we are investing heavily in research and development, hiring top talent from around the world and leveraging existing relationships with industry leaders. These strategies will help us continue creating innovative solutions while remaining competitive. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
15. Raising Funds And Managing Debt
In the current high-interest-rate environment, raising funds has become more challenging, and outstanding debt has become more worrisome. Therefore, managing the budget is more important than ever. Evaluate your workforce. Can you transition any full-time resources to contractors? Evaluate your objectives. Which ones are delivering revenue? Which ones are lagging? Cautiously invest for the future. - Nicholas Domnisch, EES Health
