The short answer: with your eyes wide open.

The long answer:

Like many of my CIO colleagues, I am a big consumer of analyst services.

Silicon Valley Guy put it very well:

IT managers simply do not have the time or energy to systematically gather information including talking to many of their peers, vet blogs for accuracy and synthesize conclusions. So tens of thousands IT organizations outsource market, product and management technique research to analysts just like they outsource PC help desk outsourcing, hardware break/fix and janitorial work. Why do 20 or 40 hours of research when you can read a couple of research notes and do a 30-minute phony inquiry? Yeah, they might be cutting corners, but that’s life.

Still….your analyst (be it Gartner, Forrester, AMR or whatever) report is not the holy book. You can question your analyst conclusions; you can question whether or not they apply to your country or your industry.

Do your own homework: learn about your company, learn about your country and your region, learn about your industry, and talk to your close peers.

Don’t get scared by “the brave new world” and the “unprecedented speed of change”. The ground rules of management still apply!

Read the ARmadgeddon blog from time to time, and join (or start) your local CIO Council.