POV: Ventures at risk mean C-level IT role must change
Milt Capps Consultant Dave Chapman, who commutes between his 200-acre ranch in the Nashville area from another home in his native Massachusetts, began his career as an IBM engineer fifty years ago. He's seen his share of economic disruptions.Chapman (at left) believes that chief information officers can help lead businesses and other institutions out of the current economic morass, if they redefine their missions. Chapman says in a whitepaper provided to VNC that by filling knowledge gaps the CIO can lead top management to "reset the enterprise strategy based on the new intelligence." His implication is that companies will suffer self-inflicted wounds if they don't immediately review and change their strategy, shore-up their brands and customer relationships and -- most important in Chapman's IT framework -- immediately change the mission of information-technology organizations to "take leadership in identifying missing knowledge..." Whether or not Chapman's solutions are universally applicable, his outline of the damage a sharp downturn can wreak between business allies, or customers and vendors is certainly timely. In his whitepaper, Chapman lists some of the wounds he believes are being deepened by the volatile economy. They include lengthened sales cycles; budget cutbacks; increased demand for customer services; downward price pressure imposed by buyers; eroding power and equity in company brands; and, cutbacks in investments in operations, often starting with information technology and services. Picking one's way through Chapman's paper, it's hard not to conclude that a bad economy may heighten irrational corporate behavior, in many ways. For instance, while business relationships are always strained by a downturn, he says Northpoint data suggests company salespersons on average still spend only 3 to 11 percent of their time trying to identify customers' current or emerging needs. This contributes, he says, to customers' belief that vendors have become less relevant to the buyer's needs. Chapman, who is founder, chairman and CEO of 16-year-old Northpoint Software and a member of the board of Nashville Technology Council, insists that he's not merely talking about CIOs working well with others to align the company's technologies with business processes. Chapman argues the sheer "pain" and battering of the current economy can help guide the entire C-level platoon toward survival and success.
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