Business Technology: Love Hate Relationship. Business needs
technology and technology needs business. Yet, many business
decisions are made with a level of distrust for the recommendations of
the people representing technology. These decisions often cost the business
heavily in terms of maintenance costs, reduced return on investment, lower
customer satisfaction, and lower market share, etc., but for some reason the
same mistakes are made over and over. What is the real problem? Read on…
Some might rush to the conclusion that the recommendations
put forth by technology didn’t really take into
consideration everything that was or will be going on with the
business. Most likely, this would be an accurate statement. It is the business
people after all, that are in charge of knowing these things. As a
result, they spend a great amount of their time staying on top of them. It
isn’t common practice for the business to share the details of how the business
is doing business. The best companies though, tend to hold quarterly or annual
meetings to give the masses a glimpse into what is going on.
Some, mostly on the technology side, might rush
to the conclusion that the business’ decisions are made without really
understanding and taking into consideration everything that is or will be
going on with technology. Most likely, that would be a true statement as well.
It is the technology people after all, that are in charge of knowing these
things. As a result, they spend a great amount of their time staying on
top of them. It isn’t common practice for technology to be given a seat at the
business table. I mean, sure, you’ve got your CTO and/or CIO sitting
there, but are they really representing the technology side? Or, are they
representing a business side in the name of technology? Nobody really knows and
I’m sure it’s different everywhere you go. But, one thing is common, and that
is that the people that understand technology trends and the cost of the
failure to adopt them, are on the technology side.
The technology side of the business don’t hold
quarterly or annual meetings. They only give the business a glimpse into
their world with the business asks for it. For the most part it is
left to the individual business folks to stay abreast of
technology. The CTO or CIO for instance are not spending the majority of
their time looking at emerging technologies. They may spend some of their time
looking at each of the many aspects of technology that may help or disrupt
them. But, typically they rely on their middle management to sound an
alarm when some technology change is going to cause a disruption. But, this can
be too little and too late to save the business from having to spend time and
money pivoting.
By now you might be thinking you have the answer and reading
the rest of this post is only going to confirm your notion. You may be right,
so I won’t delay for much longer. But, before I point out the problem, I want
to talk about the ideal solution. What would a relationship between the
business side and the technology side look like? Should the business have the
final say in decisions regarding technology? Should technology have any say in
business decisions? Should the relationship be one involving a committee of
representatives from different business units?
The ideal relationship between areas of any business
involves cooperation, understanding, teamwork, and the pursuit of a common
goal. Right? The relationship between business and technology must be the
same. It must involve a distinct understanding of the other’s needs and
concerns. It must take into consideration the ideas on both sides of the
problem and find the common solution.
Why doesn’t this critical communication happen? Is it
because technologist don’t speak business? That’s probably some of it. It it that business
only speaks buzzwords, and rarely understands the details? That’s probably
some of it. The real answer is that they just don’t take the time.
As an example, 3 months ago I spoke to a lady about moving
her highly valued photos and files to a cloud drive. She quickly said, “No”
explaining she didn’t know anything about it and didn’t want to take the time
to learn. Her dog pulled her laptop off her desk yesterday and I spent 5 hours
explaining the benefits of using a cloud drive to her. She took the time to
listen and ask questions. She made a good decision to use the cloud drive only
for backing up to, but not for everyday use because she often wants to work
disconnected. That’s a great decision for her. The same is true in business…
Take the time to understand and better decisions are made.
Her files were not lost. Although, she thought they were for a short period.