Of course this striking observation was meant to apply to animals and to individual men. With corporations, it’s the reverse that is often the case.
In fact, we fully expect that the corporation, when ‘wounded’ (via competition, extreme pressure to cut costs, hostile takeover bids, etc.), instead of simply conserving its resources and waiting for the end, will kick into frenzied rounds of activity to keep itself alive in some form – via radical reorganizations, mergers, outsourcing or other means.
The corporation goes uphill wounded. If Mr. Moss were looking for a struggling company instead of a dying man, the rock ridge might have been the first place to look.
So what?
Practical executives understand that business operates in an open system in which their organization is likely to be subject to strategic changes, such as acquisitions, divestitures, outsourcing or extreme cost pressures.
The issue is that these decisive moments (or corporate wounds) expose companies to a characteristic modern dilemma. When the life of the company is on the line, no one much cares about IT – yet these changes have huge implications for the way IT service delivery is efficiently managed. To ignore the new evolving requirements means potentially losing millions in wasted spend at a time when people are watching the nickels and waste can’t be tolerated.
The governance structures that were established for the mythical “steady state” often simply no longer apply. Mergers or other corporate realignments create upheaval in an IT department. The moment a company realizes its IT outsourcing or BPO deal has gone sour may present options to the corporation that only involve pain and going backward before they can go forward.
So what is the answer?
If executives can predict that these big changes will disrupt their ability to provide IT services and could cause them to become distracted, inefficient and lose the ability to manage costs as carefully as in periods of stability, then they should realize that waiting until the disaster occurs is waiting too long. Executives need to create governance structures that can survive the inevitable wounds. Structures that allow them to move uphill with the least encumbrance and the fewest distractions -- that don’t assume steady state and that can flex or be modified on the fly – are the ones that can adapt.
Under the new rubric “Technology Business Operations” or TBO, there is a whole portfolio of tools and approaches available that can help CIOs/CFOs design and maintain their organizations to prepare them for orderly service delivery in sickness and in health.
The TBO discipline and portfolio includes a cross-functional organization design that provides roles, functions and tools needed for appropriate financial management of efficient internal or external IT service delivery. It’s implemented by the interaction of a set of defined but flexible roles in accordance with rules of engagement, or IT Business Financial Guidelines.
The IT Business Financial Guidelines define how the business interacts with IT service delivery. The guidelines include an IT Business Service Catalog that fully defines the IT service offerings of the company, including their rates and associated administration.
Through the specific tools, techniques and approaches in the TBO portfolio (IT Business Service Catalog, baseline modeling, best practices due diligence, development of transition service agreements, etc.), executives will be better prepared to manage IT costs in times of stress and transition and to deliver seamless IT services, even in the most complex and multisourced environments.
Watch this space for more about TBO and how this evolving discipline is becoming the ticket to the boardroom for forward-thinking CIOs with a firm grasp of their strategic role.
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