As someone who is very technical, but also a business person to the core, I have had to straddle the two worlds of IT and business my entire career. I have to admit, us technical people, well… we can be cocky, snotty, and righteous, and us business people, well we can be demanding, impatient, inflexible, and righteous as well.
But the reality is that without technology, businesses have no chance of surviving in the fast-paced economy. So how can we keep these cats and dogs happy with each other? Contrary to popular belief, there are tons of “hybrids” – professionals who have embraced and mastered both the worlds of business and technology. Here is a “mash-up” of my personal rules and the best practices I have seen:
For techies:
- Days of mainframes are over! Centralization, High Priests of IT attitude, and absolute control are no longer acceptable. Enterprises need to remain flexible, fluid, and adaptable. Get with it or change professions. Big Blue days are over.
- IT exists for the sole purpose of SERVING the internal and external customers. Technology for the sake of technology is not acceptable.
- Embrace your CTO/CIO, who is a business person first and techie second, and fear any leader who is the other way around.
For business folks:
- In technology, a simple and cheap, custom and fast, custom and cheap, problem free and version 1, do not exist.
- Always look at anything in technology as a “draft”. There is no such thing as a final version, because when your tech teams deliver “stuff” to you, you want new features before you even learned the ones you already have.
- Technology is an investment, not an expense. CIO should NEVER report to CFO. Period! It is the job of the CEO to keep the siblings (CFO and CIO) happy with each other while the mission of the company is being followed.
Technology is the best thing that has happened to business. But technology owes its existence to business looking for ways to make things run faster, cheaper, and quicker.
Hi, my name is Apolinaras Sinkevicius, but most call me Apollo. I am the guy who takes care of the day-to-day business and technology of rapidly growing companies. 12 years in managing the "nuts and bolts" of companies and being a steward of corporate cultures makes me a seasoned operations professional and right hand person to founders and CEOs.
Good points there. Especially this one – “In technology, a simple and cheap, custom and fast, custom and cheap, problem free and version 1, do not exist.” The CIO might finally move from being an IT manager to a strategist. But do you think the technology – business gap is closing?
From my experience and observations, companies that still allow gap between IT and business are the ones that will not last.