The Transformational CIO: Leadership and Innovation Strategies for IT Executives in a Rapidly Changing World

Elevated Perceptions

The business's response to the IT transformation at BSC has been clear. “We went from tackling a handful of major projects in a year to completing 20 to 25 major projects annually,” says Rich. “We went from being a company where nobody knew how to get what they needed from IT to being a company where we had a clearly defined process for getting IT projects started and finished. Most importantly, we went from being a team that only made it into the spotlight when things were broken to one that was proactive, well regarded, and had the opportunity to really make a difference.”

Before this cultural transformation, almost all of the decisions related to IT were made by IT people, with little input from other people in the company. “In the past, a few IT folks would get together in a room and decide what they were going to do, and then they would tell the rest of the company what was going to happen,” says Rich.

As a result, the business really felt powerless to get attention on the issues they most needed help resolving.

Today, we really want the business to make most of those decisions. The business should decide what they need from IT. We've tried hard to make the decision-making processes very transparent, so the business can see the costs and understand the priorities. This means as IT folks, we have to accept that sometimes the business will need less of our help and we will have to be flexible and confident enough to adapt as demand for our services increases ...