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The End Goal
"If wishes were horses," the old aphorism goes, "then beggars would ride." We wish all IT decisions were made rationally, yet we know that a majority aren't. Many IT decisions take too long, are based on inaccurate or incomplete information, and involve the wrong parties.
IT is entering a new era that requires precision, process and predictability. But the only way to get there is to re-engineer and re-think IT decision making. For your organization to realize the full value of its technology investments, you must pay attention to the decision-making processes underlying those decisions.
Herbert A. Simon, the Nobel prize-winning cognitive scientist, never lost track of the fact that "information consumes the attention of its recipients. ... A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." CIOs today face an abundance of information and infinite choices. When IT decision makers have too many options to consider, they frequently strive to minimize the ordeal by finding a choice that is merely satisfactory. Yet as the CEO at an energy company points out, "Satisfactory decisions are no longer good enough."
SURVEY METHODOLOGY: Researchers contacted 100 companies (50 large firms; 50 midmarket companies) in 17 vertical markets, including banking, construction, consumer electronics, education, entertainment, fashion, food, government, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, philanthropic, publishing, retail, services, technology and telecom.
Thornton May is a respected futurist, adviser and educator whose insights on IT strategy have appeared in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and numerous computer industry publications. To comment on this story, email editor@ciodecisions.com.
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