# Keynote Case Study: NASSCOM — Global Technology Leadership Meets the Next Wave of Disruption
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At NASSCOM's inaugural C-Summit in New York in June 2017, Jim Carroll delivered the closing keynote to global CIOs and technology executives. NASSCOM represented an important part of India's software and technology-services ecosystem, while the room included leaders from major international companies. Carroll's assignment was to describe how accelerating digital capabilities were changing not only enterprise systems but the industries, customers and business models those systems supported. The presentation was the debut of a new keynote built around Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast. Rather than treating technological progress as a linear sequence of upgrades, Carroll emphasized the convergence of artificial intelligence, robotics, connected devices, analytics and autonomous systems. Powerful change increasingly arose from the interaction among these fields. For global technology leaders, the challenge was to understand emerging capabilities before they became conventional purchasing requirements. Carroll explored the consequences for product development and service delivery. More sophisticated software, data-rich products and digital manufacturing were reducing the time required to prototype, test and launch new offerings. Traditional planning methods could be overtaken by competitors with faster learning cycles. The implications extended beyond IT governance: technology executives were increasingly helping determine the speed at which a business could adapt its commercial model. The keynote also examined industry boundaries. As intelligence and connectivity became embedded in physical products, organizations faced new competitors that did not fit historical categories. Software platforms and focused startups could alter the economics of entire sectors. Technology-services firms therefore needed to help customers reinvent what they did, rather than simply provide more efficient versions of existing processes. Workforce capabilities were central to that transformation. Knowledge was changing rapidly, creating pressure to acquire expertise in emerging systems while retaining the ability to integrate and operate established platforms. Carroll emphasized continuous learning and access to global technical skills. The right response was neither uncritical enthusiasm nor prolonged delay, but practical experimentation that created internal understanding of where a technology could be valuable. The keynote concluded with the need to build what Carroll called experiential capital: the organizational insight gained by actually trying emerging capabilities. Think big enough to challenge established assumptions, begin with manageable experiments and scale what works. For NASSCOM's audience, the durable lesson was that future technology leadership depended on the pace of organizational learning as much as on the technologies an organization purchased. The Challenge: How could global technology leaders guide businesses through converging AI, robotics, connectivity and digital business models while building the skills to implement them effectively? The Keynote: Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast: Innovating in the Era of Disruption. The Message: CIOs and technology-services leaders need to create the organizational capability to move from emerging possibility to practical, scalable innovation. Six Trends Shaping Enterprise Technology: Converging Technologies: AI, analytics, robotics and connectivity combine into new commercial capabilities. Applied AI: Intelligent systems alter workflows, decisions and the design of services. Faster Development: Digital tools reduce the time needed to test and improve new ideas. Platform Competition: Software-enabled business models challenge conventional industry borders. Global Skills Pressure: Talent access and continuous learning become strategic factors in technology leadership. Experiential Innovation: Small practical trials create knowledge that supports effective scaling. THE ADVANTAGE GOES TO THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT LEARN, ADAPT AND ACT THE FASTEST.

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2017/06/keynote-case-study-nasscom-global-technology-leadership-meets-the-next-wave-of-disruption/