How many IT Organizations have technology “watch towers”? How many have in-house business impact analysis capability? It appears that lessons from the Titanic were lost at sea.
For an organization whose entire reason for existence is technology, it is shameful to ignore, well, technology trends. The most glaring example of this lack of understanding – and believe me there are plenty – of this most fundamental issue is the time it took to harness the internet. Do you remember how long it took organizations to understand what the internet is all about and what that meant for their organization? It was pathetic to see brilliant people with 20/20 vision discovering the elephant in the room one leg at a time.
Is this a CIOs problem?
Reasonable people might disagree but if a CIO wants a seat at the table then they have an excellent opportunity to cease the initiative. Imagine what it would’ve meant for the CIO’s career who was the first in the organizational leadership chain to explain to the CEO the wonders of the internet!!
And whether we like it or not, the organization’s technology “answer man” is expected to provide this “business” leadership.
A CIO’s top five agenda items MUST include this issue and their organization must be able to answer its two underlying questions: What is happening in the technology space? How is it going to impact our business?
So, what are CIOs doing about it? Well, buying seats with technology research firms and then guarding access like hawks. Mission accomplished!!
Gartner et al. are excellent at what they do. However, reading their reports to gain insight is one thing but to run your organization on it without a business impact analysis for YOUR organization is a recipe for disaster. Do you manage your relationships watching Oprah or cure your ailment reading WebMD? When experts say “results may vary” what they are inviting you to do it to assess their product for your circumstance – to see what it might mean to YOU!
So, go ahead, drop “research” references in conversations, copy cute “research” charts and graphs in your presentations, hype this and magic quadrant that but whatever you do, please understand that this excellent opportunity is yours to miss…probably only once.
