Mark McDonald

Information technology is hailed as a universal good, benefitting every aspect of the enterprise from back office processing to front line revenue generation.  The pervasive nature of IT and its role in operational and strategic execution places multiple demands on relatively scare resources.

A peanut butter strategy to IT is often the result.  This strategy involves spreading IT resources across the enterprise in order to please everyone a little bit and make no one very angry.  The strategy was mildly effective when IT budgets were growing, particularly at rates above 5% where the overall increase in resources could be allocated across the enterprise.  This strategy is a slow death when resources are tight and declining for the simple reason that in trying to be all things to all people, you are nothing special to everyone.

A peanut butter strategy highlights the weaknesses in IT rather than its strengths.  By spreading out the resources, priorities, attention across the enterprise you lose the ability to create decisive value in the areas where it matters.  The need to please everyone, to get their support underscores gaps in the political and business power of CIOs compared to other business executives. 

Sorry to sound harsh, but what would happen to a business unit president who said, we are pursuing multiple strategies and therefore could not put all our resource behind our top priority or the one that took off in the marketplace.  Chances are that executive would find themselves looking for other gainful employment.

Feeling the need to spread IT out across the enterprise to gain influence or support for the IT budget may be more symptomatic of the strength of your executive relationships than it is of ITs central role in enterprise strategy.  If the only way you can get support for IT is to give everyone a little something, then you have become more of a commodity than you probably realize.

The simple fact is that some things are more important than others.  You need to give those things more resource and attention than other the other things.  A peanut butter strategy says everything is equal in the eyes of IT.  A peanut butter strategy says to the line executives that IT is a staff support function rather than a point of strategic leverage.

Focusing on the most important things, delivering the first things faster is more important than ever in an environment of volatility and uncertainty.  That means looking at your current priorities, where your resources are deployed, what is the most important thing in the company and how you are able to contribute to that highest priority. 

But what if our top priority does not require significant IT investment?  Fine, then what is the next priority, go down the list and show how you are working on the most important things where you can make a contribution.

What about IT intensive initiatives, things that are more infrastructural in nature?  Great question, they are important because the contribution to the enterprises business capacity, operating cost, or operational control.  These can be top priorities.  Focus on them, get them done as quickly as possible with a managed expense.

If I have a peanut butter strategy now how do I move away from it? 

Well first connect the work you do now with the enterprises operating priorities.  What are the things that the CEO/CFO are telling the stakeholders?  What are the things that drive your economic engine? 

Second, get with the senior executive team and show how you will be able to accelerate results by focusing resources – turn the discussion into one of “when” rather than “if” you will get to their priorities. 

Finally, set the expectations for 2010 about the operational and strategic impact of focusing IT on core business performance issues.  What are the big performance metrics you will move in 2010 through focused IT action.

Peanut butter is great, nutritious, tasty and you notice when your fail to fully cover the bread.  IT is not peanut butter; its value comes from focus.  So turn your knife from the flat side to the knife-edge and attack the first problems first rather than smoothing them over.  It will be hard to do, but it is the right thing to do.

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Category: Economy Leadership Strategy     Tags: budgets, financial management, IT Leadership, IT strategy

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