Waltzing with the Elephant
Chris Gillies Launch Speech - 14 September 2009
Waltzing with
the Elephant: it brings to mind many pictures doesn’t it?
I’m sure there are many board members and business executives who
feel they are being trampled by the elephant when they are dealing with IT –
imagine if you really could really
be in tune with IT and waltz with it rather than wonder what in God’s name
is going to go wrong next.
I sit on a
number of boards and chair 2 IT committees and I know that getting
organisations to understand the importance of IT governance is a real
challenge. Getting them to
understand that good IT governance involves both the business and IT is
fundamental to the waltz.
We are
brilliant at financial governance but poor on governance of the other key
area that can bring a company to its knees – Information Technology.
And we could
say – yet another book on IT governance – hasn’t this subject been done to
death? Clearly, the answer is: “no it hasn’t, because we still don’t do it
well”.
So let me make
a few observations about some of the gaps I have found in trying to find
practical and implementable frameworks:
1. The first
observation is that the theory has been done to death but not the practice
and when I say practice, I mean consistent implementation of IT governance
principles, polices and practices from boardroom to basement in business and
IT – frameworks you can rely on in the boardroom;
2.
Most publications and methods deal
with the supply side of the equation - governance of IT by IT, the
criticality of getting business or the demand side of the equation is often
missed;
3.
There are books, methodologies and
publications on the subject which cover very effectively pieces of the
puzzle but I haven’t really come across anything that focuses on putting
together a total framework showing how IT governance works from top to
bottom in business and IT;
4.
With much of the material I have
come across, the difference between management and governance is often very
confused.
And
that brings me to why this book is important:
·
It deals with the subject comprehensively from boardroom to basement dealing
with both Business and IT;
·
It deals very well with getting the reader to understand why IT governance
is critical, but more importantly it sets out the how to do it;
·
It focuses on the part that many publications miss – showing the governance
of the full picture - implementing business change not merely an IT system.
It takes a business
applications view of IT governance
and covers the people, process and change aspects that make up the overall
systems on which the business operates;
·
It highlights well the roles and accountability of the Business leaders –
specifically the CEO and the executive team responsible and accountable for
setting the agenda for use of IT – for deciding how it will be used to
enable the business; for making the hard decisions about priority and
allocation of resources; for
ensuring that the initiatives are successful;
for realising the benefits from
investment in IT; and for effective
ongoing operation of the business when the implementation steps are complete
– the full Boardroom to basement framework.
·
And finally (this is one of my favourites) – it shows how Boards can and
should have effective oversight of IT not by understanding the technological
ins and outs, but by understanding the job that management should be doing
in respect of IT and asking pertinent questions to ensure that management is
doing that job properly.
Those that
feel trampled on by the Elephant should read this book.
The book is in English – it has good stories and examples that bring
the subject to life and you don’t have to be an IT person to understand it.
* Christina (Chris) Gillies
is an independent
non-executive director serving on a number of boards, associations and
charities, and advises boards on establishing IT Governance leadership in
the boardroom. Chris is Chairperson
of the MS Society of Australia and on the Boards of CenITex, Oakton,
Corporate Express, Asgard Wealth Solutions, Emergency Telecommunications
Statutory Authority Victoria and UCMS. Chris
has established and chairs three Board IT committees and advises a number of
others. Prior to her board career,
Chris was Group Executive, Group Services at St George Bank, and a Vice
President of DMR Consulting.
She has in the past specialised in mergers and acquisitions and in designing
and implementing major IT change programs to deliver business results.