What to tell the board about the blockchain

What to tell the board about the blockchain – Gartner

It’s entirely possible that, in the next few weeks or months, your CEO will pull you into a meeting and ask “What do we tell the board about blockchain?”

News of the next 'game-changing' technology has made its way from casual hallway conversations all the way to the board room.

The Gartner 2016 Board of Directors survey revealed that 91% of board directors have at least heard of blockchain or distributed ledger technology.

However, more detailed understanding of the implications is limited, and respondents are confused, with 36% of them viewing it as an opportunity and 21% as a threat.

It will be up to the CIO to communicate to the CEO or to the board directly what blockchain is and how it could affect the organisation and the industry the firm operates within, said Gartner vice president David Furlonger.

“They will want a high-level explanation about potential issues, risks and implications, including market potential and suggested actions,” he says.

Improve understanding of blockchain and its potential

Blockchain can enable people to create, transfer and store value directly without a traditional central authority.

It creates a global, peer-to-peer, self-regulating, secure, and reliable economic and transaction infrastructure.

It also creates an opportunity for enterprises to exchange value — whether monetary or otherwise — directly with each other.

This means that old Business models and intermediation by large organisations would disappear and create an opportunity for 'instant' Business models created to exploit temporary opportunities with new companies.

The pervasiveness of technology in society is underpinning a revolution in how goods and services are priced, valued and exchanged.

CIOs should establish a framework highlighting for the board the concepts, risks, and opportunities of a new economic model that blockchain technologies will enable.

Ensure the board recognises the multiple phases of blockchain development.

Identify where investments in blockchain R&D can have the most impact, based on current technology maturity, the evolution of commercial ecosystems and society’s proclivity to embrace a programmable economy.

Set the business scene for blockchain evolution, with an explanation of the potential for a frictionless, decentralised and programmable society.

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