IT Leading the Business
Many CEO’s I talk to hold the view that IT should not lead the business. In principle, I agree - change should always be driven by business outcomes - although the line between ‘business’ and 'IT’ is these days at best an artificial construct. People who say ’I don’t know about that information systems and technology’ might as well admit to be illiterate.
Being a central capability IT is often caught in inter-division cross-fire. This central position affords the IT leaders insights across the organisation. It also means that IT is often left driving the cross-organisation prioritisation activities - there’s only so much IT can deliver in any given period. In fact, there’s only so much change a business can take in a given period. In my experience seldom is capital the real constraint.
So IT leaders get a unique insight into the activities and plans of the entire organisation and play an active part in prioritising the agenda for any given period? Surely that makes them key advisors to the CEO and board?
I think organisations should tap into the latent potential of IT and leverage that potential to support more succinct strategy development and priority setting. Few other divisions in your business are set up as well as IT to play a central role in those activities.