I’m consulting in the restaurant space, and I’ll be telling my IT clients to focus first on what most people in the organization want from IT: better service. Get them back up and running as quickly as possible when they have problems, and you’ll have a quick win that earns the support to do other things. I’m also very bullish on analytics and the ability for IT leaders to go much deeper to find ways to improve the bottom line. IT is the first to see the data about what’s happening in the world, so don’t wait for your CEO to tell you to do something with it.

At Friendly’s, we used analytics to understand that our customers cared more about our ice cream during the pandemic than our other food, and developed a way to proactively raise prices when the data suggests they’re willing to pay a little bit more. Such improvements helped a beloved regional brand survive the pandemic.

—Pete Gibson, consultant and former CIO of Friendly’s Restaurants