Enterprise IT departments make for very interesting places to work. You often work with incredibly smart and talented people, you can find yourself working with some of the most cutting edge technology available and at times, you can be solving amazing problems while creating radical improvements in the company you work for. Note that I said, “often”, not always.
With Information Technology being such a new field, really only deeply infiltrating businesses in the last twenty years, the area can also at times be magical and misunderstood by senior executives. It is not at all uncommon to find people “from the business” thrust into senior decision making roles within the IT departments of many large companies. I often liken this to pulling a really good accountant our of you finance department and parachuting them into your legal team. That generally doesn’t happen, but within the confines of Enterprise IT, this kind of thing happens all the time. Often times these individuals are well meaning and feel that because they know how to turn on their computer and do some internet banking that they’ve got a firm grip on technology.
This is a sign of the immaturity of the IT industry as a whole. Enterprise IT, more than probably any other major area in most companies lacks the leadership to properly convey the value the function adds to the business. This is compounded by the fact that senior management often has such a poor grip on technology. As a result, senior executives know that they need technology to remain current, but there is often misalignement and misunderstanding.
The solution to this problem lies at the feet of both Senior Business Executives and Senior IT Executives. Senior Business Executives need to take the time to try and learn more about the key technologies that are at their heart of their business. This might be systems or manufacturing processes or whatever, but Senior Managers need to get closer to these things and understand them as well as they might understand the sales process or the customer service approach. Likewise, Senior IT Executives need to learn to stop following vendor scripts filled with three letter acronyms and jargon. You need to be able to find analogies and things to simplify the message, without dumbing it down to the point where Senior Executives are comfortable discussing the key issues.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean,
As someone who often has to span both worlds I whole heartedly agree. However I'm not sure this is enough. Whilst many business execs may not have the specialised knowledge to appreciate the detail of their core technologies I see many examples of IT implementations that miss the mark in terms of direct business value created and and indirect business value enabled. This is not necessarily due to a poor implementation rather a lack of ongoing communication between the business and IT regarding what the critical drivers of value are within the firm's business model. The consequences, (which in my mind can be avoided), of this can be expensive programmes that the business sees as 'IT Lead' which will provide some back of house efficiencies but no real benefit (in the eys of the business) to front of house in achieving their strategic/scorecarded targets.
Angus,
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment…
I believe a large part of it is generational – on both sides. Younger, more technically savvy IT staff struggle to understand that there was office life before computers were on every desk. There are things this group take for granted about simple things that are not so simple for an older generation.
Conversely, if you're the MD of a business and you were wasting 2% of revenue on the "shop floor" through poor execution, you'd take the time to understand that problem, get involved and work it out. Many companies are wasting far more than 2% of revenue on IT yet the MD and Senior Execs just throw their hands up. If you've gotten to a senior position like that, you can learn and understand the basics of technology and how to manage it successfully, failure to do so is an excuse.
Hi Josh,
Thanks for reading and great comments!
As an IT Executive, "back of house" or what we now often call "business as usual" systems worry me. Primarily, these things tend to be complicated, expensive and quite pervasive yet they are often taken for granted. Setting to work on projects that "upgrade" or replace BAU type stuff is fraught with danger. If you're successful it is very hard to measure the success but if you fail, it becomes quite obvious. This is where your communication with senior stakeholders is critical, but also, I think IT needs to be way more marketing savvy with the business in general. If you celebrate your successes, even in these "dog work" projects then you bank some points for when things don't go so well.
Unfortunately the days of IT being outside of the company politics are long gone and now one quiver in your bow as an IT Exec that you must have is the ability to market your success and communicate wins (and setbacks) in an effective way.