The Disconnect Between Management and the Value of IT

DavidHumus writes "According to a Wall St. Journal article top executives at most companies fail to recognize the value of IT, having a tendency to think of information technology as a basic utility, like plumbing or telephone service. The article lists five primary reasons for 'the wall' between IT and business: 'mind-set differences between management staff and IT staff, language differences, social influences, flaws in IT governance (defined as the specification and control of IT decision rights), and the difficulty of managing rapidly changing technology.' Does this fully explain the extreme lack of understanding of IT at high executive levels? The article is even-handed in apportioning blame but touches on a few good points. In particular, how '[m]ost top executives ... think of IT as an expensive headache that they'd rather not deal with.'"

Comments

On the other side of the wall

[jo42]

'[m]ost top executives ... think of IT as an expensive headache that they'd rather not deal with.' "Most top IT people think of 'top' executives as a bunch of lobotomized, management-speak babbling, suit wearing, golf playing, secret handshake boy club members that we'd rather not deal with."

Re:On the other side of the wall

[Anne Thwacks]

Most top IT people think of 'top' executives as a bunch of lobotomized, management-speak babbling, suit wearing, golf playing, secret handshake boy club members that we'd rather not deal with.

We dont just think it, we know it!

Re:On the other side of the wall

[geminidomino]

'[m]ost top executives ... think of IT as an expensive headache that they'd rather not deal with.' "Most top IT people think of 'top' executives as a bunch of lobotomized, management-speak babbling, suit wearing, golf playing, secret handshake boy club members that we'd rather not deal with." And they never seem to disappoint us.

Re:utilities are important

[elrous0]

Depends on how often your staff has "Taco Day" in the lunchroom.

Re:The value of IT to most businesses...

[Spad]

Most businesses don't cease to function when they suffer a toilet outage, however.

Re:utilities are important

[theheadlessrabbit]

and in the case of McDonalds, having hotter water can be a bit of a liability.

Re:Bad comparison

[Overzeetop]

sensitive/urgent/otherwise critical

I'd suggest that there are often times that those can be applied to the needs associated with the toilet.

Re:The Cost Of IT

[Quince alPillan]

You totally failed to include plumbing analogies in your post.

When you originally started the business, you only needed a single restroom with a small sink and a toilet. When you hired a few more women, they started complaining about guys and their aim. To satisfy the demand for more restrooms, you added a second restroom so that you could have a Men's and Women's restroom. As your business takes off, you add more and more people and you add more stalls to the current restrooms. Perhaps a second and third floor with restrooms on each floor. Now, you've got so much water coming into the building that you can't get enough water to flush the toilets on both second and third floors at the same time so you add more pipes. Then, sewage drains can't keep up (and start backing up into the basement), so you add more sewer lines.

Now, you're complaining that you need to upgrade the restrooms every three years and can't understand why plumbing costs so much.

Re:Maintaining the pretence of superiority

[sharkey]

It's not who you know or who you blow.

It's how much you can swallow.

Re:The real problem is that IT is hard

[willllllllllll]

'glittering phalanx' is the Anderson Consulting approach

.

phalanx :- launch a large block of andersons at the problem

glittering :- the andersons are so expensive you'd expect them to be gold-plated

.

An anderson is one of the many faceless employees of Anderson Consulting.