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: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:Maintaining the pretence of superiority

[sharkey]

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

It's how much you can swallow.