Articles 1 min read

Why do digital transformation projects always over-resource IT? by Niall McKeown

Digital transformation starts with a change in mindset. How much time and resource should an organisation commit to making that mind shift?

It’s said that “strategy is where we create our competitive advantage”. How much money, how much time and how many people are dedicated to finding a new competitive advantage?

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” according to Peter Drucker. How much of your business resource is invested in changing that culture?

Marketing; the positioning of one’s organisation within the marketplace and in the minds-eye of the customer. How much time and effort is put into repositioning your organisation versus the tactical rollout of more channels and tools?

“In God We Trust, All others must bring data” is a line attributed to statistician William E. Deming and was first uttered almost half a century ago. How many of your leadership decisions are actually data driven and if it’s lots, why aren’t they automated?

I’m not down on IT, it’s the air a business breathes, the invisible oxygen that sustains its vital organs. My observation is that buying apps, infrastructure or cloud services does not transform an organisation on its own, yet it’s where the budget, time and people are invested.

IT appears to be something of a spoilt child compared to the relatively modest spending on leadership developmentstrategy frameworks, creating a ‘digitally innovative’ culture and data-driven decision making. If IT is the lungs then others mentioned are the brain, heart, liver, blood and muscles that are often starved of oxygen, making the lungs have to work even harder for diminishing returns.

This article was originally posted on the Ionology blog and is posted in partnership with The Business Transformation Network

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