Business Transformation and IT Organization

Interesting Times

In a speech in Cape Town in June 1966, Robert Kennedy said “ There is a Chinese curse which says ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.”

Like 1960s, 2010s are equally interesting times. Internet, social media, and openness of global citizens to new ideas has altered how an organization defines, develops and markets new products and services. To be market leader, organizations don’t need multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, just remarkable products. The development of these market leading products organizations require ability to continuously reinvent their operating model, question their core values, principles and competencies. For that they need to own the ability to systematically and continuously Transform their Business.


Capability to Transform the Enterprise

Most organizations have deep expertise in how to Run the Business. Rarely do they have similar bench strength to continuously Transform the Business (BT). How do you know if your organization have the necessary expertise? Before we start with this question, lets define what is BT capability. The BT capability process starts with generation of innovative ideas and ends with when those ideas translate into market leading products and services. Figure 1.0 below describes – BT Capability, supporting sub capabilities, current performance target, three year goals and how achievement of these goals translate into Enterprise Success.

Figure 1: Business Transformation Capability

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The leading indicators (Target Performance) monitor the effectiveness of change in the enterprise and the lagging indicators (Enterprise Goals) measure the business value realized from investment in BT programs.

How will you know if your current BT Capability is mature enough to support your major BT programs. Take a quick four question survey below , if you answer No to all or any of these question, there might be room for improvement.

• Do you have a formal process to identify, capitalize and share the gains from innovative ideas of your staff? Yes or No
• In past 12 months, did you deliver critical projects on initially baselined timeline, budget and scope? Yes or No
• Do you have an explicit process to measure the net new value generated by the incremental investments? Yes or No
• Are your key stakeholders satisfied with information provided to make timely decisions? Yes or No

Build and Nurture BT Capability

Who should build, nurture and exploit BT Capability as a shared service?

This question has been hotly contested both in management literature and enterprise cultures. QRS BT Artist studied the BT Capability supporting sub capabilities and came to the conclusion that CIO should build and nurture BT Capability and offer it to all business stakeholders as a shared service. For this service to be effective there must be a complete service catalogue which describes:

• What services will be offered and how to staff them ?
• How business stakeholders can procure these services?
• What are the roles, responsibilities and decision rights between BT Artists and other Enterprise Stakeholders?
• What will be the business value and cost?
• How to explicitly measure the contribution of shared service on overall enterprise goals?

Discussion Questions

• Is it necessary for your organization to own BT Capability?
• If not CIO who, in your organization, is best positioned to build and nurture BT Capability?
• What can non profit industry consortiums like The Open Group, ISACA, PMI and ITIL and academic institutions do to help CIO build and nurture BT Capabilities?