Surviving Disruption (aka Using the Storm to Soar)
Even in this day and age where hyper-successful cloud based businesses are the norm, where a simple app can elevate corporate valuation by $11 Billion within days, a vast majority of businesses struggle because the management and IT are barely nodding acquaintances.
Examples like Nintendo's success with Pokemon Go and Apple Computers can be dismissed as Outliers or exceptions but they should not be. Hyper-success has been seen so many times in the past two decades that the common elements are as visible as the nose on your favorite IT manager's face (Welcome to The Unicorn Club).
The key ingredient of success has invariably been the intersection between consumer needs and technology capabilities. In practice, Business (with capital B) contributed its knowledge of consumer needs and IT contributed its knowledge of how to meet that need.
The organizations which were successfully able to fashion products or services which truly met what public wanted were propelled into the rarefied atmosphere of the Unicorn Club.
"How does a California tech startup relate to my tire retail shop on 99th street?"
If we don't want our business to follow the path of Kodak or Encyclopedia Britannica, we have to know what technology is around the corner and embrace it through adaption and adoption in order to survive.
This leads to two conclusions;
1. Your CIO cannot be a pure business grad. They must be hands-on tech with sufficient business background to be able to talk to you
2. The (geeky) CIO must be the best buddy of (The Suite) CEO
If these two are not regularly propping up the local bar (or Salad Bar) then it is time to put in the sell notice for your stock options (or liquidate your tire inventory) because surely, the next disruption will toll for thee.
Carrying this argument further, if your CIO is not respected by your Enterprise Architects, then its time to look for a new CIO. because the worth of the CIO is in knowing the tech capabilities. Those who are not able to gain the respect of their teams either through knowledge or their ability to listen and learn (later being the preferred quality as oriented towards longer terms) then
"Go to Start - Do Not Collect $100".
On the other hand, if the CEO and the (appropriately geekish) CIO are bosom buddies, then the chances are bright that together, they will devise the next alignment of needs and capabilities. In that case, be prepared to soar.
Further Reading: