The Right Mind Set for Managing IT
From Wikireedia
Article by Bensaou and Earl Typically complaints about IT by company executive cite these problems
- IT investments are unrelated to business strategy.
- Payoff from IT investments is inadequate.
- There's too much "technology for technology's sake."
- Relations between IT users and IT specialists are poor.
- System designers do not consider users' preferences and work habits.
Earl and Bensaou Compare US and Japanese Mindsets towards IT
- 2. Framing - US sees it as a separate function requiring large investment to align it to Business Strategy.
- 3. Japanese see it as more deeply embedded in the organization - part of operations rather than adjunct to it - Strategic Instinct
- 4. US focuses on investments and projects and systems. Japan focuses on appropriate technology and training
- 5 Us Investment in IT is based upon payback Japanese see it in terms of Continuous Improvement.
Consequently, Japanese companies' expenditures on IT are half that of Western companies.
| How Japanese and Western Managers Frame IT Management | ||
|---|---|---|
| Issue | Western Thinking | Japanese Thinking |
| How do we decide what IT to use? | Alignment -Try and align IT with Business Strategy | Intent - Have operational goals drive investments |
| How do we assess payback of IT investments? | Value for money - Capital budgeting | Based on operational performance |
| How does Business Process Improvement fit it with IT? | Assume IT provides the smartest solutions | Identify the appropriate goal and select a solution to achieve it |
| How should IT users and IT specialist communicate? | We train business-savvy CIO's | Integration by rotating managers through the IT function, co-locating specialists and users |
| How can we design systems that improve organizational performance? | Systems design - design elaborate solutions that users adapt to | Human Design- design the system to make use of the tacit and explicit knowledge |
