Information Technology as a department of mainstream businesses has a very short history. Accounting departments have been around as long as banking. The Marketing department has existed as long as advertisements have existed. Many executives in institutionalized businesses started before their companies even had a server, let alone smartphones, VOIP, or data centers. Businesses don’t bother hiring an IT person until their systems are broken more often than they’re working, and then they’re hired for their ability to fix broken computers and not their ability to lead the company into the future. This has been the status quo for so long that it has become institutionalized.
Most institutions think of Information Technology as a tool: you ask for it when you need it, but you expect it to sit silently in the shed until then.
And you can feel it.
It’s a familiar feeling.
It’s the feeling of being picked last for kickball.
It’s the feeling of getting calls only when someone needs your time, not to offer you theirs.
It’s the feeling of having your stomach sink when you get an email from a C-level executive because you know it’s bad news. Or of having your spirits fly when you get that email, because you haven’t heard from them in weeks.
It’s how IT has operated for 30 years – perceived as just above Facilities, but with Masters degrees.
And it cannot last.
Just as computers are no longer just an upgrade to typewriters, IT professionals can no longer be viewed as an upgrade to electricians.
Information Technology must have an active role in leading the ongoing development and future direction of business. We need to stop waiting for the phone to ring. We need to stop waiting for the emails to arrive. We need to make the phone calls that make the changes we want to see.
And we need to do it ten years ago.
Posted by alexthegraham 