Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Memo To The CEO: Why We Need An Annual Report For Technology


The IT organization and the business units should be much more in tune. Here's one way to make that happen.

At last week's executive committee meeting, you made the point that our company's business units and technology organization need to be much more in tune with each other. In this memo, I'd like to explain how we could take a joint step toward making that happen.

No one doubts that our company's success depends on solid technology support. But everyone also believes that we can do a lot more to make technology serve the business units--for example, by deepening our insights into what customers need, integrating channels, speeding the delivery of services and accelerating new-product development. We struggle to realize this potential.

The basic problem is a lack of shared understanding. Our business unit leaders have only a vague sense of the value the technology organization delivers: They just see bits and pieces and don't seem to grasp the interdependencies.

See full Article.