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The not-too-subtle implication is that IT does not contribute to the company's revenue raising activities and consequently the IT team should not participate in bonus structures, should not complain about having to explain to a salesman how to insert section breaks for the umpteenth time and most certainly should acknowledge that if only the company didn't have to spend cash on computers and software it wouldn't.
Obviously, these claims are absurd and to answer each one would take needless oxygen. I typically dismiss it by noting the payroll department has the highest costs and absolutely zero revenue. Can we run the business without payroll?
To my mind, the view that IT is a burden shows a fundamental sickness within the business.
First, what is the IT department doing to counter these views? What real actions are employed to demonstrate the value and solutions possible? Secondly, and what is often not considered, what is wrong with the business mindset that allowed this view to take root?
Gone, I believe, are the days when running a lean and efficient IT infrastructure was the chief goal for IT leaders. The truth is technology is so intertwined in business processes that cost controls, efficiency and robustness now are part of any manager's role.
While the IT head must ultimately take control, line managers and executive members alike must be held accountable for excess and waste of any kind within their departments. Squeezing greater efficiency from internal IT operations ought properly to be a baseline expectation, and not just from the designated IT manager, but from the entire business.
No, where the CIO can thrive and demonstrate higher value is elsewhere. Modern businesses operate in a high change, high risk and highly competitive economy. In this environment CIO's can thrive by continually evolving the organisation's technology platform so it is aligned, and continues to be aligned, with the company's strategy.
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However, it should not be a cost to the business - in that, whether short- or long-term, the business must benefit from the technology. Perhaps the benefit is greater efficiency and productivity, perhaps it is reduced expenditure but this can only go so far. The greatest scope is in exploiting technology to enable the business to adapt rapidly and with agility to new opportunities that further revenue raising activities.
Part of the problem with IT's perception in the business is the mystique and vagueness which surrounds it. Everyone knows what the Engineering Manager does. Everyone knows what the Chief Financial Officer does. Yet, many are still stuck remembering the Chief Information Officer's job title, let alone grasping what he or she does.
Here, the IT leader must be an evangelist. First, IT can determine the value proposition it brings the business by aligning itself with the value proposition that a company has for its customers.
Secondly, the IT leader must educate the business what he or she does. Just as the CFO is the senior person responsible for devising a company's appropriate capital structure, so too the CIO is the senior person responsible for devising the company's appropriate infrastructure and platform.
The good IT leader walks between 'the suits' and 'the techies'. They run a portfolio of projects which convert business objectives and strategies into robust systems that meet these requirements.
Here is an exercise for the reader. What are the goals of your organisation? Not all companies have a formal business plan, but you may glean insights from conversations with senior management. As a CIO or future CIO you must know these business goals, and know them by heart.
The next step is to define a series of strategies to accomplish these goals but we will conclude here with that homework. Come back here to iTWire and see me in The Wired CIO when you've got the answer.
