If you work in IT within a business, you are the business…

With all due respect John, I am the head of IT and I have it on good authority that if you type “Google” into Google, you can break the Internet.

Jen, the IT Crowd

All functions in a business regard themselves as special, as the engine room. Without us, none of this would work, the whole thing would fall apart. And naturally, all functions hold the other functions somewhat in disdain. If only sales could sell, if only marketing could market, if only finance could look beyond the numbers…

But it is only technology that willfully puts itself outside the business.

Google any combination of “[function] and the business” and IT is streets ahead. This existential crisis is not new — it has been unfolding for years as CIOs and CTOs attempt to gain a seat at the top table and establish a credible voice.

One of the saddest sights I have witnessed was a management board roadshow of a FTSE100 business. Whilst the CFO answered questions like “are we going to buy this or that business?” or “is the strategy to expand in such and such a direction?”, the CIO forlornly fielded questions like “why can’t I use my own laptop?” and “why is wi-fi so bad in this building?”

He so clearly wanted to be discussing business strategy, but instead he was mired in sorting out the mess he had inherited when he joined, following the chronic lack of investment in technology over the years before his tenure started.

The guy didn’t last much more than a year longer, having successfully avoided winning the trust of his peers. There is a whole book in his story, perhaps he’ll write it one day.

Of the many things that didn’t work, it was perhaps communication that was the biggest issue.

Now look at another organisation, a different set of people, but the same dynamic. Mistrust, frustration, a feeling of a lack of progress… and the same old “IT and the business” hand wringing. Again, a new CIO trying to shape the agenda. So far so good, it’s early days, but at similar events, the CIO is able to talk confidently about his role in the strategy, and it’s not about sorting out the wifi.

There are plenty of the same grumbles — desktop computing is an imperfect experience, it takes a long time to get things done. One very interesting difference between the two CIOs — one a technologist, a self-confessed geek, who revels in having written his first RPG in COBOL before he was out of nappies (possibly not an exaggeration). The other an English graduate, who loves what technology can do, but is first and foremost interested in what he can do to drive the business.

There is an interesting difference is the way in which they communicate.

Is it harder for someone so well versed in technology to talk in plain English than someone who essentially only has a conceptual understanding of what’s happening?

It may be. But that’s an obstacle that can be overcome.

Clearly the other big challenge is trust. Pick a variation on a theme: “why is it so expensive, I could just go down to [insert local tech shop] and buy the same thing for half the price,” or “why does it take so long to change a website, it’s just a website”.

People who haven’t live the challenge of building something, particularly in an environment and on foundations they have little or no control of, or having to jump through hoops that you simply don’t have to for other business functions, have little to no understanding of why things can be difficult and expensive.

So you do have to start with being really good at the basics and on top of that you do have to be a trustworthy partner, keeping your promises.

That said, if you are in the position of being part of the technology function and bemoaning the fact that the business “doesn’t understand you”, it’s probably your own fault.

And to come back to my first point, you are the business.