Cambridge Business Association
The IT Value Stack
Book

The IT Value Stack

A Boardroom Guide to IT Leadership

Ade McCormack
Wiley, 2008
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Many business people think their information technology colleagues are geeks who speak a language no one else understands. Conversely, many IT people think they are above their technologically ignorant business colleagues. Ade McCormack, IT advisor and columnist for the Financial Times, is convinced that bridging the gap between IT and business is crucial if you want your company to be able to compete in the future. He says IT will continue to become a more and more important competitive factor. He urges business people to learn more about IT and vice versa. getAbstract recommends this step-by-step plan for integrating your company’s IT functions into its strategic and tactical business operations. In every chapter, McCormack analyzes the status quo, the obstacles and the steps you need to take and includes contributions from leading players in the end user, technology and advisory arenas. Meanwhile, he sets a good example by writing in a style – including some tongue-in-cheek asides – that IT and non-IT people will find equally accessible.

Summary

The Business Versus IT Conflict

Information technology has a poor reputation in most boardrooms. Many executives believe that it sucks up money and that IT people use funny words and look down on the business that pays them. If your IT people are socially awkward, love technology for its own sake and think that they are above mere business concerns, then they deserve their poor reputation. Like most firms, your company probably has spent a significant amount of money and time on IT projects that yielded nothing. IT management suffers from a lack of metrics. How do you assign numbers to its accomplishments? Many companies end up measuring IT by how much it costs and how many problems they need IT to fix.

The “IT Value Stack”

The IT value stack can help you mesh IT more closely with your business strategy, and make your key executives both business- and IT-literate. It allows you to leverage your IT function and begin to measure it as part of your business metrics. To start to bridge the gap, take seven steps:

  1. “Strategy entwinement” – Involve IT experts in strategy design.
  2. “Process entwinement”

About the Author

Ade McCormack founded and runs Auridian, which helps organizations make the most of their IT investments. He is also a public speaker and author. His column for the Financial Times helps businesses leaders with IT issues.

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