|
The key variable determining whether your organization will get full value from IT is leadership -- your leadership. We are at a turning point regarding executive accountability. History will recall this as the moment in business history when organizations no longer blamed macroeconomic malaise, vendor misrepresentations, or market research firm wrong-guesses for the underperformance of IT. If the magic does not happen, the blame will fall squarely on the shoulders of the person in charge of IT -- you.
Are you what is keeping us from a golden age of IT?
Vendors -- thanks to billions and billions of dollars of R&D expenditures -- are releasing a stunning variety of high-impact new products and services. Several -- though certainly not the majority -- have actually started talking with their customers, rather than talking at them using ridiculously overwrought PowerPoint slide decks. The IT services ecosystem (i.e., consultancies you can call for help) has never been more robust or ready to make a deal. The IT bench (former senior IT practitioners who have hung out a shingle and are panting for the chance to deliver their time-tested wisdom to those still in the game) is deep and very affordable.
With all this as backdrop, with all the environmentals supporting high value and informed practice of IT, why isn't IT getting better? It's the leadership, stupid!
Many will remember when IT Quisling Nick Carr accused our industry of not mattering ("IT Doesn't Matter"). The question is not whether IT matters. The issue is whether you are a strong enough leader to make IT matter. In the midmarket, the dirty secret of IT is that 22% of IT shops simply aren't good enough, according to IT Leadership Academy research. In fact, our researchers consistently found five dimensions of chronic underperformance:
Management of the IT resource. In underled IT shops, costs go up and flexibility/ability to implement change/deliver new functionality goes down. Geoffrey Moore, in Dealing With Darwin, identified three things IT chiefs must do to prevent this:
1. Centralize.
2. Standardize to reduce variety and variability.
3. Outsource. Focus on core (things that differentiate), subcontract context (things that operate).
There is an extensive body of knowledge and set of resources to help midmarket CIOs make significant progress here. As part of your strategy, you should have a timed roadmap (complete with efficiency improvement forecasts) for centralization, standardization and work-sourcing.
Relationship with the business. Many midmarket CIOs run a deli counter (i.e., the business says, "I want one of these, I want one of those"). Without effective leadership, IT risks morphing into an unmanageable "hairball" of unintegrated legacy systems, one good idea/intention at a time. CIOs need to be responsive to the business without letting a hairball get started.
Relationship with suppliers. Don't waste time with suppliers in contentious, price-reducing negotiations. Have value-producing conversations with trusted partners. Great CIOs have service-level agreements ensuring that the best minds at the vendor are helping the CIO innovate.
Network involvement/development of IT staff. Underled shops are overwhelmed putting out fires. They bunker up, cutting themselves off from contacts with peers in their vertical market and their problem-solving space. Such isolation leads to skill atrophy and career irrelevance. Great CIOs invest in the management development of their people and encourage them to build value-importing personal networks with leading thinkers outside the enterprise.
Strong operations, solid and trust-based business/supplier relationships, an active and extensive personal network and a commitment to staff development -- these are the foundational elements of a better-than-good IT organization.
Let us know what you think about the story; email: Thornton May, columnist.
|
