Saturday, October 20, 2018

How to Run IT as Enabler, Driver, and Disruptor to Accelerate Digitalization

Either disrupting or being disrupted, IT is at an inflection point to lead the organizational level of digital transformation.

Nowadays, information is permeating into every corner of the business, what technology is expected to do has changed significantly over recent years, although every company has its own circumstances. Many businesses still think their IT organizations are the controller or even the inhibitor to changes due to “risk-avoidance” mentality, Embracing digital is inevitable as that is now part of the reality. How to run IT as an enabler, driver, and disruptor to accelerate digitalization?

IT is an enabler of the high-performance enterprise: In most of the organizations, IT is setting back and waiting for the request, and no wonder often being perceived as the support center only. Collaboration, transparency, respect and clear leadership are the keys to breaking down the realities. IT cannot be seen as an enabler unless IT management clearly understands what their organization does for a living. IT should be integral to and knowledgeable of the business, aligned with enterprise objectives, as an enabler and a facilitator. The role of digital IT is to identify and blend the ways that information and technology can enable and shape business capabilities and capacities by linking all digital aspects such as goals, objectives, actions, etc, together to enforce business competencies, delivers higher-than-expected business results and accelerates the speed of digital transformation. IT needs to gain a better understanding of the business and shows that knowledge by talking business to the business. It’s important to break down old school silos of thought, IT and business are not separate departments. In a digital company, every department needs to work together to be successful.

IT is a driver of digitizing business: The inevitable range, breadth, and pace of uncontrollable factors acting on any organizations mean constant fine-tuning for change circumstances is essential to accelerate digital transformation. Too often IT is not involved at a goal level but instead at a task level. This creates an environment where the IT folks focus less on the objective and more on the processes that are defined for their department.  In leading organizations, CIOs will continue to be put on the front line to run IT for leading changes, manage both opportunities and risks accordingly, to ensuring IT is strategically positioned to be ahead of where the business is moving next, ultimately becoming the change agent. CIOs need to understand how technology affects each area of the enterprise, they should become the confident change leaders, evolving leadership skills to not only match the pace with changes in technology, the pace at which the organization can manage changes effectively but also ride change curve ahead of the rest of the company. IT shouldn’t just work within the IT information system, but often it has to work on the system or within the systems to drive changes and lead the digital transformation. The “Change Agent” IT can orchestrate processes, tools, and people that organizations use to effect the transformation from strategy to deployment. For well-established organizations, IT resources and dynamic capabilities are often the company’s secret sauce and the key to how they deliver value to the business with both quick win and long-term business competency.


IT is a disruptor of the overly rigid silo, hierarchy, outdated rules, processes, and practices: “VUCA” is an acronym used to describe or reflect on volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of general conditions and situation. Information and technology catalyze today's digital businesses, the IT department has more and more to offer, also has a lot of obstacles to overcome. To move up to the next level of digital maturity, IT needs to become a “constructive disruptor” to break down some over-complicated organizational structures or redundant business processes, outdated rules or practices. IT leaders should leverage interdisciplinary management disciplines which involve engineering, design, psychology, philosophy, biology, economy, and sociology, etc, in order to think “out of the box,” and enforce IT innovation. IT should first disrupt itself, IT needs to focus on the fastest speed available - because that is where the main threat to competitiveness. IT should also keep optimizing business processes to ensure seamless IT-business integration, create a rhythm of communication and collaboration that establish clarity around the top priorities of the company, to evolve the digital dynamic and reinvent itself as a strategic business partner and an innovative game changer, with ultimate goals to reach the zenith of digital maturity.

Either disrupting or being disrupted, IT is at an inflection point to lead the organizational level of digital transformation. IT today has many roles to play as a business enabler, innovation engine, digital driver; integrator, customer advocate, or governance champion., etc. It’s simply not sufficient to “keeping the lights on” only, IT should ride above of the change curve ahead of the other parts of the company, to become an enabler, driver, disruptor to accelerate digitalization.

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