Running Digital IT to Harness Business Competency

A new emerging theme of running digital IT is the split of strategic contribution and service delivery: Traditional IT is good at commoditized IT service delivery (whatever the sourcing model). With fast-paced changes and fierce business competitions, what companies really need from IT though is the strategic role in strengthening and separated from the nuts-and-bolts work. IT and the business are intertwined but must be on the same page. On one side, IT is driven by the business as a strategic enabler; on the other side, a great digital IT organization also has the vision to be a driver for the business to enforce the strategic focus, open the new opportunities for the business to build competency and gain long-term advantages. Whether this has the CIO as de facto Chief Improvement Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, or some other mix - this is where value is generated -IT enables the business to operate effectively and successfully and catalyze it to grow, change and adapt to future needs.
IT provides progressive business solutions with technology as the critical ingredients: CIOs should ask themselves what strategic advantage they can provide to the business and working to have the rest of IT learn the business they're in. Because digital CIOs need to deal with constant ambiguity, they naturally gravitate to a leadership role when things are unknown, things will change, technology is involved, a tough problem has to be solved, etc. Therefore, IT leaders should optimize IT management via the lens of the customers. When IT considers their customer as the entity who buys the company's goods and services, some great things start to happen; IT is no longer an isolated support function or cost center, but as an equal business partner which can brings business value to the top line of the business growth.

IT needs to become a growth engine of the business, the CIO’s ability to build fundamental business competency is now greater than ever. Digital transformation is multidimensional. IT just needs to set the right priorities, adjust to the digital speed, be wired (or wireless) to change, and take a leadership role in driving changes and innovations.
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Published on November 30, 2016 22:35
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