Business Executives Fail to See Value of IT

An interesting article in the Wall Street journal tries to outline some reasons as to why most business executives fail to see the value of IT within an organization.

IT has been proven to provide numerous competitive advantages within the business world. Companies like UPS, FedEx, Netflix, Amazon, Google to name a few have differentiated themselves through innovative uses of information technology.

But still to this day many business executives just don't get it. Many view IT as an infrastructure and don't see the potential or, more likely, don't know how to extract the potential from the infrastructure.

It's not just the business executives fault. Equal blame can be placed on the IT folks. Most IT professionals are hard core technophiles. They are only concerned about the technology and know very little about the business world. The reverse is true about the business folks but may not to the same extreme. This polarization makes it difficult to communicate and align the two disciplines.

To be successful in both business and technology we must be able to depolarize these groups and make them work in harmony. I've outlined a three step process that could help bridge the gap most organizations face today:

1) Education. Technology folks should be familiar with business terminology as well as company specific goals. These need to be well articulated and translated so both groups have a clear picture of the business and its objectives.

2) Strong Leadership. Both at the IT and Business units. These leaders should be able to talk each others language and translate the objectives to their respective groups.

3) Build a culture around deploying strategic IT solutions. Anybody can run an email and web server. You need to have your team focused on build cutting edge tools that meet the strategic objectives. This not only helps you stay ahead but motivates and keeps your IT team challenged allowing them to grow professionally.

For businesses to succeed in the current environment they have to be able to move at "Internet speed". IT needs to be viewed as strategic. The need to stay ahead of your competitors will depend on your ability to adapt to change, manage technology, and deploy tools and processes that move your business forward.

SKooliki
--
http://www.outervillage.com

_____________________

If you enjoyed this posting please subscribe to our RSS feed or submit it to your favorite social networks.