By Andy McCue, 23 May 2005 17:50
NEWS Lack of recognition and boardroom credibility top the concerns of IT chiefs aiming to make a strategic impact on the business, according to delegates at this year's IT directors' forum on board the Aurora cruise liner.
One IT director delegate told silicon.com the trend for giving more business control over IT projects had swung too far in favour of the boardroom.
But during a debate on whether IT directors add any value Cathy Holley, partner at headhunting firm Boyden UK, said many IT chiefs simply aren't up to being business leaders.
"The time for gentle evolution has passed. It is transformation and revolution - and boards have never been so IT literate. IT directors I interview on a daily basis are basically data processing managers. They are managers - not leaders," she said.
She joked that the thought of being on the executive board actually "scares the shit" out of many IT bosses.
Robina Chatham, visiting fellow at Cranfield School of Management, said in a session on how to engage the CEO that the onus is on IT directors to be more proactive in getting involved with the business.
"Lunchtimes are for networking. It's far more important than doing email or meeting suppliers or staff," she said.
Mike Branigan, group IT director at TDG, said the challenge is to shift the balance away from just keeping the lights on.
"Around 85 per cent of IT people are keeping the lights running. IT won't be successful unless you change that. It's easy to keep the lights running. We have hired in a new type of individual - the business analyst and business-speak has replaced techno-babble."
But delegate David Tidey, head of Information Systems at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, maintained it is still the IT director who essentially holds an organisation together.
"The only person who has an overview of the whole organisation is the IT director," he said.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
You can be as dismissive as you like of 'techno-babble' but business 'analysts' (fwah-hah-hah) can't keep the lights on (and it IS NOT easy), and the stuff they come out with is just as hard to understand. The only difference is that in their case it hides an almost complete lack of meaning, whilst in our case avoiding jargon would make our conversations impossibly longwinded.
Doesn't anyone else get sick of the 'profound' statements these overpaid idiots make all the time? Most of them don't even have the analytical capacity to properly understand the management information of which they are all so unfeasibly proud.
A Techie.
2. anonymous
Well said anonymous!
Basically, I see the problem from the angle of: business types etc see IT people as geeks and simply can't comprehend the the skills necessary to design networks, software, databases etc. Ignorance insures that IT is just a resource for the cheapest bidder. On the other hand IT people business types as bodgers, yes men and business speak bullshitters. End result the two parties find it hard to get along and understand one another, its nobody's fault really.
Anyway, I'll stop my babbling. Just one last thing, the only way to have prevented the dreadful treatment of IT Pro's during the last few years, and its probably going to get a lot worse is if they are unionised. Perhaps the British Computer Society should have been operating as a union type organisation for IT people to join. Other professions like law, medicine have protection.
3. Kevin Joslin
I deal with both IT Directors/Managers, and finance people, and while I agree that the jargon used by both can be tiresome for an outsider, it is essential for concise communication. The biggest problem is the lack of understanding within IT of the way in which a business operates and an enthusiasm for saying no before bothering to find out if something is actually possible.