I’m not going to dwell too much on this as it is a challenge that I know is at the forefront of everybody’s mind, but what is crucial, is that we must never lose sight of the fact that our currently challenging economic climate continues to be one of the most important factors in providing a real, substantive need for radical action.
We know we cannot go on as we have in the past. We know we must save money, but equally we know we must find a way of delivering at least equivalent service if not superior.
The challenge I know you all face on a daily basis is about providing “more for less” an overused slightly tired cliché that summarises the situation. I would argue that we need to move beyond that and embrace wherever possible the challenge posed by the economy and use that as the catalyst for some really innovative thinking that can transform the way in which we do business.
To me, saving money is like being told you need to lose weight – as an individual, I have a couple of choices, I can chop off one of my limbs and voila – even the Lighter Life diet will find it hard to match that kind of weight loss to time ratio… Only problem though, I can only do that so many times or worse still, it leaves me weaker, less responsive and bleeding to death.
Alternatively, I could get myself on a proper diet, endure some regular exercise. Sure the savings will take longer but will put me in a far better place to make further savings for the future and are infinitely sustainable.
The economy is the single biggest reason for us to do what we have been talking about for the last 10 years, transform, I’m talking proper transformation, not some mickey mouse “playing round the edges transformation” that basically means the same stuff just slightly better.
But the economic situation alone cannot get you there, you have to understand the other changes if we are to be truly successful. Over the next few posts we’ll look at these and how they combine to provide the single biggest opportunity for real transformative change that we’ll ever see in our lifetimes.
Tags: economy, Hybrid Organisation, transformation
Dave, I had to pass comment on your presentation this past Tuesday, at the CIO event. Although most everything you talked of is familiar to us all, your perspective and ‘wake-up call’ on the realities of what we, as IT professionals face, has, for me at least, brought a realisation that IT organisations have been taking the wrong approach – instead of locking it down, let’s see what we need to do to gain advantage from its wider use. I thoroughly enjoyed the session, and especially your presentation.