I was recently reading some of the answers to a question posted on Focus.com and was troubled by a statement within one of them. Keep in mind that the following quote comes from the president of a company. He said, “…And remember that IT is part of the Corporate Axis of Evil, along with Procurement and HR.” …Wow… That’s rather eye-opening coming from the president of the company. The context behind this statement was a discussion about whether a business intelligence initiative should be managed by the business side of the house or by IT.
I think it’s safe to say that given this guy’s obvious dislike for his IT group, there isn’t anything even remotely close to Business/IT alignment going on within his company. I’ll even go another step further and suggest that without collaboration between the business and IT, his BI program isn’t going to be successful regardless of who is eventually put in charge.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
I tend to see the whole Business vs. IT thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuated by people like this (on both sides). Most people I’ve met want to do a good job and want their work to have had a positive impact on their company. Unfortunately, there always seems to be a very small minority (usually very vocal) that is more interested in competing than collaborating. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to sustain any kind of positive momentum towards a collaborative relationship with these people in the way. (Psssst. Here’s a suggestion; just get rid of them. They’ve likely been causing problems for years anyway.)
You Get What You Pay For
In a previous post, titled The Business Alignment Dysfunction, I quote a blog post from Susan Cramm, author of 8 Things We Hate About IT, titled The Four Types of IT Organizations that Leaders Cultivate. Ms. Cramm opens the post with the following statement, “By default or by design, companies get the IT capability they’ve bought and paid for.” She then describes four types of IT organizations: The Butler, The Grinder, The Team Player, and The Entrepreneur. Finally, she closes with the following, “Whichever of these four types of IT that your company has, understand that the current state of the organization reflects many years of conscious or unconscious decisions by senior leadership to cultivate that kind of group.” (you should read Ms. Cramm’s post; it’s very short, but enlightening all the same).
I have no idea which kind of IT organization the company president actually has, but I’d bet that he wants The Butler (a just-do-what-you’re-told type of group) and isn’t getting it. Anyway, the “Axis of Evil” comment very heavily implies that he has absolutely no idea what to do with his technology resources.
Lacking Strategic Guidance
To grow and be successful in this day and age, IT needs to be viewed by the executive leadership team of the company as a strategic resource to be leveraged towards achieving the company’s goals and directives. This resource needs to be properly managed and guided in order to provide the desired value to the company. The management part comes from having a competent and effective leader and partner in the top IT position. The guidance has to come from the executive leadership team itself. The IT group has to be tasked with a mission that is tied to the long-term goals of the company. To say this another way, the company leaders have to know how they want to use their IT resources to achieve their goals, both tactical and strategic. They have to be able to communicate that vision properly to IT, and they have to be able to apply effective governance to it all to keep everybody pointed in the right direction. The only way to get to this Garden of Eden is it to have a meaningful, trusting partnership between the executive leadership team and the IT leadership team.
He Who Lives in Glass Houses…
Perhaps our company president needs to take a step back for a moment and look at the problem from a different angle. It’s obvious that he’s not getting what he wants from IT. I get that. So, here’s a couple of questions back at him. What type of IT group is it that you really want? Are you certain that this really the type of IT group that your company needs to be successful, or is it that you yourself lack vision and purpose with regards to the technology investments of your company? Maybe someone should ask your IT group what they think of the job their company president is doing. I bet you’d be quite surprised at the strength of the no-confidence vote you’d likely receive. It is a two-way street after all.
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