Businesses will have to reconstruct their core platforms if they are to sustain themselves and compete in the digital economy. The bimodal approach, where a business is able to leverage both experienced, tried and tested functionality/processes - as well as the value of experimentation, cognitive thinking and disruption, is gaining popularity in emerging markets.

This is according to Gartner, where, at its Symposium & ITXPO hosted in Cape Town this week, delegates were told that over 40% of businesses in Africa have adopted a bimodal approach as part of their digital transformation strategies.

80% of global businesses have already experimented with the bimodal approach, mainly through modest-sized projects.

Bimodal leadership speaks to the need for businesses to take advantage of cognitive diversity, different skills and learning from others, said Gartner.

"Experienced hands and a beginners mind" is front-of-mind for today's digital leaders, according to the global research and analysis firm's executives, particularly as they face the task of redesigning and adapting corporate structures.

The time is now said Rene Jacobs, MD, Gartner Africa, and Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President, Gartner International, who warned that in today's market, business leaders have little option but to either build a new type of infrastructure, leverage the 'nexus of forces' (including mobile, cloud and IoT), and exploit the disruptive power of digital technology – or simply be disrupted.

Sondergaard said to compete in this new world, businesses will have to 'design differently' and this development to drive digital to core platforms will spur a change in business leadership.

"Every worker now part of the digital workplace ... CIOs still in control and are leading not by control, but buy influence, driving digital to the core ... you built all that, by being a good steward of resources," he added.

Sondergraad said ecosystem-based and intelligence-driven digital platforms will impact organisational structures, including the actual behaviour of their organisations and their leaders, as well as critical aspects such as budgets and metrics.

"CIOs will participate in the building of a new digital platform with intelligence at the system.. will change society itself, the way people live. You are the builders of the infrastructure of our age, civilisation infrastructure will forever change the way people engage ... through sensors and digital intelligence. The world will cheer when an intelligent machine discovers the medical cure for a dying infant, we will build more infrastructure than we have ever built. Get it right, and our children's children will prosper in a very different world. This will be the most important thing that you will accomplish in the next decade. May the digital force be with you!"