How IT Leaders Can Help Their Companies Spend Money More Wisely
CIOs are well-positioned to help companies take better advantage of all investments, not just IT
Wed, October 29, 2008
CIO — Success in exploiting technology is rooted in a company's investment culture. The more mature this culture, the more value everyone will see from investing in change and IT. The opposite is also true. Executives that are unhappy or unsure about the value coming from the changes they are investing in need some cultural leadership. As the old IT strategy evolves into the corporate strategy for investing in change, up steps the CIO.
In response to long-standing concerns about the costs and value of IT, IT service delivery has matured. Supply-side IT culture is now much more mature than that of many of its customers. Ongoing innovations and improvements in the design and delivery of IT tools are often unmatched by the exploitation of those tools once delivered. As an illustration, Gartner recently noted about business intelligence technology: "after years of investment and implementation⬦no more than 20 percent of business users actually use BI proactively." In such instances, the delivery of IT has not been integral to a successful investment in business change.
Now it's time for CIOs and their executive colleagues to switch focus, from culture change in IT to the investment culture of the business as a whole.
For companies that succeed at integrating IT with all business investment decisions, the benefits will extend beyond better IT decision making.
Culturally, many companies still misunderstand deeply the linkages between spending money on IT and creating value by investing in change. Such misunderstandings reach all the way to the top. As the Financial Times astutely observed back in 2005, "Boards have clamped down on IT spending because of dissatisfaction about the results, as investments fail to deliver on their promise." Now, as boards face up to today's economic challenges, there's every indication they are doing the same again. Yet the business changes that mean investments deliver on their promise happen outside of IT, and a clampdown on IT spending does not make those changes any more likely to happen.
Change the Business Culture
A company's culture is powerful, deep-rooted and potentially ruthless. For those who challenge an incumbent culture, the battle scars are many, but the outcome can be worth it. There may be nothing more rewarding for a corporate strategist than seeing people release themselves from cultural constraints and achieve more of their true potential both as individuals and as a business.
