|
Everyone seems to agree that IT in the future will be changing in size, shape and scope. What they don't agree on is the direction of that change.
In this round of CIO Habitat research, we asked 300 senior IT decision makers to reflect on the next world of IT. Just as we have the red-blue states divide in American politics (with a distribution of approximately 50-50), the technology arena has a similar split, with half believing that IT's role is diminishing (see "Reflecting on the Future Role of IT"). These respondents see outsourcing, skills and devices becoming commoditized, with subordination to the financial or compliance function as the logical next step.
The other half is much more optimistic. One-fourth of our sample believes that IT isn't going to play a smaller role on the world's stage. These decision makers predicted that resources devoted to IT would actually increase, and that IT pros would have an important voice in shaping the future. Yet another 20% believe IT will continue to grow, but at a slower pace than we have seen in the past.
We thus have a situation where about 50% of the IT population thinks things will get better, and 50% believe we are descending into a Hobbesian world of reduced circumstances and impact (opinions do vary as to the speed and depth of this descent, however). If the 17th century author and renowned pessimist Thomas Hobbes were with us today, he might well consider a CIO's career to be, as he once wrote about men's lives in general, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."
But what particularly stood out was how the optimists and the pessimists broke down between large and midmarket enterprises (our sample was evenly split: 150 large companies, 150 midsized).
It would appear that in some IT areas, size does matter.
We noted that all of the "IT-will-dominate-in-the-future" respondents came from A-list, high-performing big companies. No real surprise there. What was surprising was that only 35% of these folks from large enterprises fell on the optimistic side, while 65% at smaller companies were optimistic.
So while half of the IT world consists of technology "Ice-Agers," hunkering down for what they believe will be a long, cold winter, the other half (a majority of which are midsized enterprises) is entering a new era of IT. These "Soon-to-Boom-Upbeaters" are switching from defensive maneuvers (such as cutting costs or eliminating head count) to the offensive (growing the business, adding new competencies).
When we asked the 150 Upbeaters how they thought their future world would be different, we were surprised by their blended pragmatism/optimism and bigger-picture view. These executives saw IT in a broader context than just business or quarter-to-quarter profitability. Yes, in the future IT would help grow and manage the business. But more importantly, Upbeaters saw IT as a force for good in society.
|
