Digital Transformation: The Challenge of Company-Wide Alignment
Most company leaders are aligned on WHY they need to transform digitally. Some are aligned on WHAT “digital transformation” really means. But very few are aligned, across the company, on HOW to orchestrate and execute digital transformation. If company leaders had any lingering hesitation about fully committing to the need for fundamental technology-enabled transformation, the […]
The Value of Business Architecture
Align Technology and Business Strategy In the 1960’s and 70’s information technology was perceived as a support organization that minimized cost by automating labor intensive business functions, especially in areas like finance, accounting, and payroll. Today, not only is IT the digital fabric that connects the enterprise together, it also plays a pivotal role in […]
Aligning Business Value: We Need A Common Language
Language is our most important tool as human beings. It is essential to our interactions and has the ability to bridge gaps created by space, time, and culture. Unfortunately, in our organizations, language can be a burden, exacerbating those gaps and even widening the chasms that have formed organically between lines of business, teams, and […]
The Time Is NOW: An Executive Summary For Leaders
During the spring, as the coronavirus spread, changing modern life and work as most of us have known it, we were all required to mobilize and transform at a scale and pace not previously imagined. Enterprises that were in the process of transforming before the pandemic have fared better during this disruption than those that […]
Back To The Future Series: Alignment
Charlie Feld has always stressed the importance of making sure leaders have a shared vision throughout a transformation. 20 years ago, I had the good fortune to work for a company where Charlie Feld was the CIO and I can share first hand the positive impact of maintaining this alignment. Charlie spent much of his […]
Leading the Acceleration of Digital Transformation Part 1: WHY the Time is NOW
Over the course of the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing with CIOs and IT leaders in our community some perspective, principles, and practices. My book, Blind Spot: A Leader’s Guide To IT-Enabled Business Transformation, is written for business leaders to understand the IT transformation journey in very simple business terms. I’ll be using the framework […]
Business Architecture – Linking Strategic Themes To Tactical Demand
In a recent blog post, Aligning Strategy to Business Capabilities, we discussed how vital it is for leaders to agree on what the company needs the ABILITY TO DO in order to achieve a set of defined strategic priorities or themes. In this post, we’ll explore that it is equally important for leaders to have […]
Aligning Strategy to Business Capabilities
IT doesn’t exist as a function for its own sake, IT exists to enable capabilities that a company needs in order to fulfill its business strategy and ultimately deliver returns to investors. But all too often, the linkage between what is being asked of IT, and the value it is intended to deliver to the […]
Alignment Is Critical In Times Of Uncertainty
These unprecedented times of challenges, obstacles, and crises have produced remarkable opportunities for focus, consistency, and cooperation. Discovering innovative ways to navigate the extraordinary shifts created by a worldwide pandemic, has underscored the need for all of us, as business and IT leaders, to get on the same page. Now, more than ever, we must […]
