| In the 1990s I sat in the office of a CFO of what was then a Fortune 100
company. He was not happy about the annual technology bill. Back then –
and for decades before – technology was tactical. He said something about
technology being his last unmanaged expense. I gave him a list of 10 things
we should do to improve the cost-effectiveness of our technology investments.
He told me to come back when there were only three things on the list. There
was no appetite for long discussions about what was wrong – or right – with
technology, and there was an expectation that technology expenses could be
reduced by focusing on the top three problems.
The conversation was anything but strategic. It was about technology as real
estate, or technology as furniture, something we had to have, a necessary evil,
a cost incurred to support the transactions that made us money. The business
itself was never discussed. It was almost as if technology existed independently
of business models and processes.
Is this episode representative of the tension that still exists between “business”
and “technology” in many companies, and the lack of synergism between business
and technology initiatives? Unfortunately, yes. But in order to be as fair
as possible, let’s place such episodes in the context of the evolution of business
technology. The 1970s, 80s and early 90s all constitute the 1st digital
revolution, when enterprise computing and communications technologies were
deployed within countless small, medium and large corporations. But since
the mid-1990s, the capabilities and purpose of technology have evolved from
the back office to the front office, from keeping the books to touching customers.
The transition from “tactics” or “operations” to “strategy” marks the
beginning of the 2nd digital revolution. |
