In the services arena, consider health-care and the possibility of a "medi-vest" Rather than checking in for health-care from time to time, people in the future will have health-care services such as real-time diagnostics. Sensors worn by a patient, perhaps via a vest, will continuously check physiological indicators. The sensors will enable remote monitoring by being linked to powerful diagnostic algorithms (made cheaper and more able by Moore's law) through wireless data transmissions (Gilder's law). Packetised in standard formats (using a dialect of XML, for example), data will flow to a network of health-care providers, anxious relatives and even pharmaceutical companies hoping to monitor the efficacy of their latest blockbuster drug (Metcalfe's law). In short, as recognised by our EXP health-care industry members, their industry could be transformed from periodic processes to continuous services.

Strategise: Enterprise processes are needed to harness ideas, "sense and respond", then transfer.

You need some disciplined processes to bring Network-Era opportunities to realisation. You can usually recognise at least three stages which we refer to as generate, develop and transfer.

In the generate stage, Network-Era creativity should include individuals from across an enterprise's entire value network. This is different from conventional group-based creative thinking. The circle now needs to include people from the upstream supply chain, to downstream intermediaries and end customers. Ideally, others should come from unrelated industries outside the value chain.

Sony's PlayStation is an example of sourcing creative ideas away from the mainstream. Ken Kutaragi, the driving force behind the PlayStation, ignored the electronics wizards in Japan and teamed instead with the company's entertainment people in California.

Technologies that will emerge as the Network Era unfolds are another great trigger for creative thinking. The key is to describe them in terms of what they are able to do from a business standpoint.

Take airline freight handling, for instance. Say an incoming freight plane is delayed due to bad weather. Using speech recognition to enter the details, and instant messaging to distribute the message, ground controllers at the plane's destination could inform ground staff and crew contacts of the plane's delay. Following the plane's arrival, embedded computing in the freight containers could notify handlers of any special handling requirements. RFID (radio frequency identification device) tags in the freight containers could update bills of lading and customs records as the containers are being off-loaded.

The develop stage which reduces a large number of ideas to just one or two. This is about exploration and experimentation. Call it trial-and-error, or sense-and-respond. The sense part of the step is an experiment that leads to a small-scale trial or demonstration. Then there's a pause for evaluation, followed by a correction before the cycle begins again.

Refine the business case for an idea with each sense-and-respond step. Formal evaluations in each step determine whether to move the experiment forward to the next step or kill it. They need to be tough and rigorous enough to halt weak opportunities.

The transfer stage takes the winning idea from develop (where it is validated by demonstration) through to sign-off and commercial rollout.

Because the Network Era is about connection, even the largest and most widespread enterprises will be unable to realise these opportunities on their own. Industry - and even multi-industry - partnerships will be crucial to success.

Organise: CIOs need to influence, coax and coach champions, and deal with fluid enterprise boundaries.

If CIOs don't know or can't identify technology-enabled business opportunities, who can or will? Increasingly we find that is what CEOs expect of CIOs - to play a leadership role to avoid missed opportunities.

Leading CIOs are working on five key areas so their enterprises are not blindsided by industry changes that could and should have been anticipated:

• Coaxing and coaching fellow executives about network era implications

• Championing technology-based innovation jointly with a business colleague

• Influencing strategy to encompass external partners

• Acting on the basis of future fluid enterprise boundaries

• Helping their colleagues to nurture external relationships

Executives and managers are going to have to devote more of their time to managing relationships. Most CIOs are experienced in key-relationship management, so they are well placed to share their knowledge with their business colleagues.

Don't let your industry be transformed while your back is turned. During volatile and tough times it is more important than ever to provide leadership to avoid the "missed opportunity" trap.

Dr Marianne Broadbent is group vice president and Gartner Fellow, Gartner's CIO Executive Programs