Business-led IT Decisions - How to Survive and Thrive

execs leaves you – as CIO – in a bit of a quandary: How do you deal with these new demands by business managers? How do you give them what they want, and enable them to leverage the tools that meet their needs, without giving up security and control around enterprise data?

To run a successful enterprise, you need to trust the IT department, but you also have to listen to LOB execs, because they're proactively thinking about solutions that might bring business value. Hence, you need to be a strategic partner—or you risk losing relevance in the business.

So, instead of trying to shut the business down, work with business executives to ensure that they value input from the IT department in the strategic purchasing and decision-making processes. Below are some measures (nothing magical or mystical) you can take:

Get regular feedback from LOB managers: To minimize the IT-LOB disconnect, have periodic conversations with business executives to get feedback on how the IT department is working for them. Do they have the tools they need? Are there things that IT needs to do differently? Are there any areas that could be prioritized? By engaging in open communication (even water cooler conversations) with key executives, you'll gain insight into which IT operations are focused on their needs.

Clearly communicate when and how IT needs to be involved: Decision-making could be improved if the IT department and business have a strong working relationship. For instance, if your company recently acquired a smaller enterprise, then data governance requirements need to be timely and correct for information to be secure. In a scenario like this one, you can convey to business managers how they can effectively safeguard business data, but this is also an opportunity to tell them that IT needs to own the processes to ensure the incoming data is safe and made available where and when the business needs it.

Avoid total IT shutdown: Just because you have a full toolbox, don't assume existing technologies meet the needs of the LOB. Most business executives have a very short list of critical capabilities. It's important to understand what those requirements are and be honest about what tools best suit their needs.

In today's modern enterprise, it is essential that the IT department and LOB execs work in harmony to address business challenges. Organizations that thrive and survive have this alignment down pat. By making the right decisions, you can ensure your role of CIO is about enabling business success and not holding it back.