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Product Description
Product Description
If you're a general manager or CFO, do you feel you're spending too much on IT or wishing you could get better returns from your IT investments? If so, it's time to examine what's behind this IT-as-cost mind-set.
In The Real Business of IT, Richard Hunter and George Westerman reveal that the cost mind-set stems from IT leaders' inability to communicate about the business value they create-so CIOs get stuck discussing budgets rather than their contributions to the organization.
The authors show how to communicate about these forms of value with non-IT leaders-so they understand how your firm is benefiting and see IT as the strategic powerhouse it truly is.
About the Author
Richard Hunter is Group Vice President and Gartner Fellow in Gartner Executive Programs, a division of Gartner, Inc., the world's largest technology research firm. Since joining Gartner, Inc. in 1995, Hunter has been a leading analyst in Gartner's coverage of applications development methodology, IT architecture, and knowledge management. In his current role, Hunter is nationally renowned for his research and expertise on information security, privacy, and IT risk management.
George Westerman is Research Scientist in the Center for Information Systems Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His research on IT risk management and IT leadership has been warmly praised by IT and Non-IT Executives around the world. He has been quoted in CIO Magazine, The Economist, and other leading publications. His work has appeared in Sloan Management Review, IBM Systems Journal, Harvard Business School cases, and Gartner Group executive reports, as well as academic journals.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book should be on the list of every CIO. A MUST read and a reference book to keep in your briefcase. If you are a CIO and want to add value to your organisation through IT, you have selected the right book. Make notes as you go through the book though as their is so information on how to become a better CIO that you don't want to lose that nugget or nuggets of information.
Format:Hardcover
Business IT is half a century old - 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the software programming language COBOL. If it were easy to fully integrate the rapidly changing value dynamics of IT into the heart of our business organisations, we would have discovered how to do it years ago. However, the subtle management process, structure and culture problems have been hard to diagnose and it has taken several generations of IT leaders to gradually uncover and refine the repeatable formula for true success. The dysfunctional disconnect between IT and other parts of the business, is an ever increasing performance drain, but there is a way out of the trap.
This book nails the essential formula. It condenses the wisdom of many multi-year CIO journeys and boils the key learning down to a deceptively simple prescription.
Don't expect grand theories, technology quick fixes or a magical organisation chart answer. This is a practical book about substantive management change for people who really must make it happen in complex organisations. Hunter and Westerman offer a four stage value path that brings simple penetrating clarity - shining a light on the root causes of business / IT misunderstanding and mistrust.
If you are a CIO, or you have one reporting to you - this book is a rock. Seasoned managers will find they have already discovered some of the key jigsaw pieces though their own experience. For them the book offers a frame and the remaining parts of the puzzle, and delivers it in crystal clarity. For those who are new, the work provides a huge head-start that does not require prior knowledge or experience.
The authors are both highly experienced writers and it shows. Let's face it, IT management isn't a crime thriller genre - but their experience and hard work makes this a smooth and effortless read, all the way through. The reader is rewarded with more lessons, cases and frameworks as the book proceeds. The `four sources' model is probably worth the cover price on its own.
Maintaining a disciplined approach to their writing, Hunter and Westerman have not allowed themselves to wander off into contemporary themes like the impact of consumerization or social technologies, just to be fashionable. Some may miss an analysis of how those trends affect IT management, however most will just be very grateful the authors stuck to job one. At last here's a clear procedural approach a leader can use to advance the IT function and become an equal member of the business leadship team.
Reviewer: Mark Raskino co author of Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time, HBSP 2008
[Disclosure: This reviewer works at Gartner with one of the authors.]
This book nails the essential formula. It condenses the wisdom of many multi-year CIO journeys and boils the key learning down to a deceptively simple prescription.
Don't expect grand theories, technology quick fixes or a magical organisation chart answer. This is a practical book about substantive management change for people who really must make it happen in complex organisations. Hunter and Westerman offer a four stage value path that brings simple penetrating clarity - shining a light on the root causes of business / IT misunderstanding and mistrust.
If you are a CIO, or you have one reporting to you - this book is a rock. Seasoned managers will find they have already discovered some of the key jigsaw pieces though their own experience. For them the book offers a frame and the remaining parts of the puzzle, and delivers it in crystal clarity. For those who are new, the work provides a huge head-start that does not require prior knowledge or experience.
The authors are both highly experienced writers and it shows. Let's face it, IT management isn't a crime thriller genre - but their experience and hard work makes this a smooth and effortless read, all the way through. The reader is rewarded with more lessons, cases and frameworks as the book proceeds. The `four sources' model is probably worth the cover price on its own.
Maintaining a disciplined approach to their writing, Hunter and Westerman have not allowed themselves to wander off into contemporary themes like the impact of consumerization or social technologies, just to be fashionable. Some may miss an analysis of how those trends affect IT management, however most will just be very grateful the authors stuck to job one. At last here's a clear procedural approach a leader can use to advance the IT function and become an equal member of the business leadship team.
Reviewer: Mark Raskino co author of Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time, HBSP 2008
[Disclosure: This reviewer works at Gartner with one of the authors.]
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
A real value to IT executives
25 Sep 2009
Format:Hardcover
What is the business value of IT? This is a perennial question that dominates executive discussions. Many have sought to answer this question with fancy algorithms, consulting practices, benchmark data and other tools. However, the question is basic to IT so it should have a basic answer - right? Absolutley and fortunately Hunter and Westerman provide much of the answer in this book.
The Real Business of IT is a clear and focused look at the issue of IT value and the approaches to capture, communicate and increase that value. This book is unique in several respects. It is a book written for CIOs largely based on the experience of CIOs.
The book features extended practices from leading companies like McKesson, Intel, Freescale, Deltak and many others. Building on those sources, Hunter and Westerman explain a simple virtuous cycle for driving IT value. They illustrate this cycle with about a dozen concepts that CIOs can use tomorrow to change the way they talk about value.
Hunter and Westerman make good use of these resources creating a book that is filled accessible information. One of the ways they do this is through using analogies from outside of IT. This not only makes the ideas easy to understand but also it gives the CIOs stories that they can use to inform and educate their business peers about IT.
This book helps CIOs avoid common value traps that limit the view of IT's value in the enterprise. It then goes on to build the tools and techniques to demonstrate the value for money in IT, how IT helps run, grow and transform the enterprise, manage IT's unit costs, and other key concepts.
The book is tuned and intended for CIOs and IT executives, rather than business executives. This is not to say business executives should not read this book, its just that it is not written for them. By focusing on CIOs, the authors avoid much of the complexity found in other books. This should be taken as a strength since that focus enables the authors to clearly provide practices and tools that CIOs can use.
The business value of IT sits in the conversations within your enterprise not in compliance with some industry standard. Therefore, I would suggest that CIOs use this book with their teams to build that conversation, in their terms and their situation.
This book is highly recommended for CIOs and IT executives all of whom will face the need to answer questions about the value of IT. In this book, CIOs will learn directly from the authors as well as the insights of leading CIOs and their examples. This is a powerful combination that makes the investment in The Real Business of IT a good value.
Strengths
Anchoring IT value solidly in terms of business performance. This is critical to establishing a clear and unequival way of measuring the value of IT.
Actionable and practical advise that comes directly from CIO experience.
Contains positive and negative examples on the business value of IT
Clearly illustrated tables and tools that CIOs can put into action quickly
References actual performance data and metrics
Uses non-IT analogies and stories that facilitate both understanding IT value issues and CIOs to use these analogies to make their own case in the enterprise.
Challenges
While the book is strong in terms of tools and advice, many of these specfics are generic. This means that CIOs will have to tailor these tools to their own situation. This is not a big weakness, as CIOs should not simply implement solutions blindly.
Business executives often express value in terms of financial measures and terms. While the book advises CIOs to focus on business performance, it could have done with some expanded financial content.
The latter chapters that discuss BPR and organizations change cover them in a traditional way. This reinforces the importance of creating value beyond more than just IT.
The Real Business of IT is a clear and focused look at the issue of IT value and the approaches to capture, communicate and increase that value. This book is unique in several respects. It is a book written for CIOs largely based on the experience of CIOs.
The book features extended practices from leading companies like McKesson, Intel, Freescale, Deltak and many others. Building on those sources, Hunter and Westerman explain a simple virtuous cycle for driving IT value. They illustrate this cycle with about a dozen concepts that CIOs can use tomorrow to change the way they talk about value.
Hunter and Westerman make good use of these resources creating a book that is filled accessible information. One of the ways they do this is through using analogies from outside of IT. This not only makes the ideas easy to understand but also it gives the CIOs stories that they can use to inform and educate their business peers about IT.
This book helps CIOs avoid common value traps that limit the view of IT's value in the enterprise. It then goes on to build the tools and techniques to demonstrate the value for money in IT, how IT helps run, grow and transform the enterprise, manage IT's unit costs, and other key concepts.
The book is tuned and intended for CIOs and IT executives, rather than business executives. This is not to say business executives should not read this book, its just that it is not written for them. By focusing on CIOs, the authors avoid much of the complexity found in other books. This should be taken as a strength since that focus enables the authors to clearly provide practices and tools that CIOs can use.
The business value of IT sits in the conversations within your enterprise not in compliance with some industry standard. Therefore, I would suggest that CIOs use this book with their teams to build that conversation, in their terms and their situation.
This book is highly recommended for CIOs and IT executives all of whom will face the need to answer questions about the value of IT. In this book, CIOs will learn directly from the authors as well as the insights of leading CIOs and their examples. This is a powerful combination that makes the investment in The Real Business of IT a good value.
Strengths
Anchoring IT value solidly in terms of business performance. This is critical to establishing a clear and unequival way of measuring the value of IT.
Actionable and practical advise that comes directly from CIO experience.
Contains positive and negative examples on the business value of IT
Clearly illustrated tables and tools that CIOs can put into action quickly
References actual performance data and metrics
Uses non-IT analogies and stories that facilitate both understanding IT value issues and CIOs to use these analogies to make their own case in the enterprise.
Challenges
While the book is strong in terms of tools and advice, many of these specfics are generic. This means that CIOs will have to tailor these tools to their own situation. This is not a big weakness, as CIOs should not simply implement solutions blindly.
Business executives often express value in terms of financial measures and terms. While the book advises CIOs to focus on business performance, it could have done with some expanded financial content.
The latter chapters that discuss BPR and organizations change cover them in a traditional way. This reinforces the importance of creating value beyond more than just IT.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Best IT book I ever read
10 Jan 2010
Format:Hardcover
How do we fix IT's problems? Well, Hunter and Westerman gave us the answer: pick up more work! Yes, and it actually does make sense. Be responsible for MORE things and your success rate will increase.
This book is about how to really deliver value from IT. It is based on changing IT's mindset. You've probably read much on this topic before, but this book sums it all up and more. And it does have suggestions that can be readily applied.
Every manager in IT should read this book!
This book is about how to really deliver value from IT. It is based on changing IT's mindset. You've probably read much on this topic before, but this book sums it all up and more. And it does have suggestions that can be readily applied.
Every manager in IT should read this book!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A "'Must Read" book
19 Jun 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a book that every IT manager or CIO must read. It discuss and explain the challenges of the relationship IT/Business, give concrete set of priciples and examples with useful recommendations on how to master the challenge and create and communicate value for and to business.It is written in a very clear, easy to read and understand language.
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