Leaders Employ Governance
Our 2006 Award winners create structure for business buy-in and IT goals.
Two years ago, Shelly D. Barnes joined Arizona Tile, a family-owned chain whose business was riding high from the home construction boom. Since then, head count has jumped from 600 to 1,000; and this year, the company is opening seven new stores.
As the firm's first vice president of technology and process, Barnes found the IT department at the Tempe, Ariz.-based company in chaos. There was no governing structure. Everything was handled in an ad hoc fashion. Systems crashed daily. Local mom-and-pop contractors came in to glue things back together.
Barnes decided that the first thing she needed to do was shore up the infrastructure and start developing her own staff. Then it was time to institute a governance program. "Governance depends on where you are as a company, whether you're in a growth or stability mode," she says. "At this company, we're in a growth mode and on the immaturity side of best practices."
As Barnes and other CIO Decisions Midmarket Leadership Award winners know, good governance is the hallmark of a well-run IT shop--a sure sign that when it comes to technology, they are managing with the business in mind. Governance encompasses everything from measuring the impact of IT investments to managing executives' expectations to making sound decisions that align with the business. Building these processes was a key component of how our 2006 award winners demonstrated leadership at their companies.
This was first published in July 2006
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