Why initiatives, stall, drag or fail - People

Fresh back from meetings and private event in Auckland and as we hit the end of another quarter and head into what for many of us is the busiest and most important part of the year -

What do we need to focus on in Q4?

I have hosted > 20 private events over the past 6 months with hundreds of IT and Business leaders from Australia and New Zealand’s leading and largest organisations.

In addition, I and the team have engaged in group discussions and one on ones with over 1500 user and vendor attendees at ADAPT's five national Edge events and many individual members.

Despite the richness and variety of these conversations they invariably come back to a single common and fundamental issue - people.

As we seek to transform and deliver IT enabled business outcomes, we must bring to the top of the list how we do a better job of identifying, managing and demonstrating value to our stakeholders and customers (internal and external).

As our customers’ needs and expectations change, we must change how we engage with and support them.

Our recent survey of >160 ANZ CIOs showed CIO engagement with sales and marketing, for example was very low, while attracting and retaining customers was a top priority, clearly this is a disconnect, that needs to change.

Of greater concern as illustrated in the attached graphic from the May ADAPT Digital Edge event is that most employees are frustrated and do not feel they have the tools to collaborate effectively and get their jobs done. Thus, undermining another key business priority of attracting and retaining talent. CIO Edge in Sydney two weeks ago painted a similar picture

Business leaders need to do a better job of engaging and aligning more effectively with all their stakeholders.

IT vendors need to do a much better job of helping business leaders navigate these challenges.

Increasingly it is not about the product, service or solution, but how vendors can help business leaders meet and exceed stakeholder expectations. IT vendors need to help IT and Business leaders, make it much more about the what’s in it for their customers (internal and external) rather than what’s in it for IT and ultimately the vendor and their products.

If 2020 is the time for Empowering Execution Q4-2019 is the time for making every conversation about people and shaking up and challenging legacy mind sets and legacy selling approaches.