What is IT Strategy?

by

I do realize there are probably thousands of blogs out there that try to answer this, but it is such a fun question I thought I’d give it a try. Business partner Jim and I were off last week on a little writing retreat and this was one of our hiking talks… we talked about how IT strategies need to give organizations/ companies focus related to IT, to help make the best decisions about how to invest in technology.

So I was doing yoga tonight in my living room and apparently not effectively concentrating while in pigeon pose, because a book on the shelf underneath my coffee table caught my eye: The Boston Consulting Group On Strategy. Ah, that ended the yoga practice. I don’t know when BCG gifted this to me, but I haven’t yet read it and after a quick flip through I decided it looked pretty good (especially compared to most strategy books). Anyway, I opened it up wondering if it had a perspective on this “what is strategy?” question. Sure enough, BCG’s founder, Bruce Henderson, starts the book working to answer this question. Here’s what he says: “All competitors who persist over time must maintain a unique advantage by differentiation over all others. Managing that differentiation is the essence of long-term business strategy.”

I like this. But it that mean for IT strategy? Many think of IT strategy as the strategy for the IT organization. And many think of the IT organization as a little mini business within a business. If you follow this logic, that organization has historically been the sole provider, but these days, with outsourcing and cloud computing on the rise, that organization does have competitors. So IT strategy for an organization could be how they differentiate against their “competitors”.

But hold on… I like that if I’m a CIO trying to keep my job, but I’m not sure I like it if I’m a CEO trying to do the best thing for my company. From a CEO’s perspective, an IT strategy should more directly state how IT is applied to maintain that unique advantage referenced above over competitors. And part of that unique advantage may be strategically sourcing some or all of the IT organization and moving more of the technology to the cloud, either for cost savings or some other kind of differentiation. And if I’m a good CIO, I’m probably thinking about IT from the CEO’s perspective…

OK, that’s it for now, but this discussion isn’t over… just getting started … feel free to chime in.

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more