CEOs are feeling better about the enabling impact of IT these days; Covid and the light-speed jump to remote/hybrid operations at many organizations raised IT’s profile to levels never before seen. Tech departments which were unprepared for this surge of new challenges have either seen a transition in their leadership, or their funding, or both. IT organizations which were poised to respond to the pandemic challenges saw their profiles and influence grow with the C-suite.
And yet, even with this increased “mindshare” for Information Technology in organization’s top leadership, and despite the fact that the pandemic accelerated digital transformation by years in most industries, true business model impact has been slow to come. Only half of large corporations have fully incorporated tech capabilities into their business models, and the percentage among midsize organizations is far lower. Outside of the tech sector, C-suite leaders still do not see tech capabilities adding to their top-line results or market-share.
There are multiple practical limitations creating this gap. Responsibilities for IT leaders are more wide-ranging than ever – from foundational services like IT infrastructure, support, & cybersecurity to applications, data & analytics. The first priorities accelerated by the pandemic were technical in nature – infrastructure & cybersecurity, among others – and not aimed at business expansion. Obviously, the time commitments required to cover these duties eat into (or in the case of many small & midsize companies, completely eliminate) the time available for innovation on potential business impact.
As tech strategy consultants to small & midsize organizations across all verticals, we see this dynamic played out in a great majority of our clients with a spectrum of severity. Obviously, there are some situations which call for outside leadership of IT and significant transition – and our interim CIO and virtual CIO practices have both grown significantly since the outbreak of COVID-19. But major transitions are not called for in every situation; sometimes an organization’s head of IT is “the right leader”, but simply needs help – an auxiliary brain, if you will – to leverage outside bandwidth & resources to become the “tech intrapreneur” the organization needs.
Our CIO Advisory (“Tech Intrapreneur Advisory“) service is designed just for these situations, to provide outside guidance, solutions, and resources to jumpstart an IT leader’s plans for digital transformation, to research alternatives and to bring solutions from similar use cases to the table. The service can be as simple a few hours per month, or scaled to provide more active support – whatever best meets the needs of each organization.
We make a point of aiming our support and engagement at the IT leader, or possibly the top leadership team. This avoids the disruption, confusion, and unintended messaging to the IT leader and to the entire organization, and focuses the impact of our expert consultants right where they have the most impact.
Imagine what help like this – what an “auxiliary brain – might do for your IT leader(s), and to the impact they’re positioned to bring to the organization: not just in basic capabilities or even efficiencies, but in real enhancements to the company’s business model. Contact us today to explore this this can accelerate your IT.
