Introduction Tiwana Book AJ Raven Amrit Tiwana University
Introduction Tiwana Book AJ Raven Amrit Tiwana University of Georgia 25 October 2021
Overview • A short course on a vast theme • Premise of the course – Cheap + strategic IT is a unicorn only until it meets non-IT managers • Sole purpose: Helping non-IT managers contribute their business acumen to formulating their firms’ corporate IT strategy – Grasp when, where, and how you can contribute …Business penalties of leaving them to your IT unit – Infuses the competitive oomph into IT strategy …Which your IT colleagues simply cannot …Enduring skills to spot IT opportunities invisible to an untrained eye • Firms spend more on IT than anything else ($4 trillion a year) – Yet few grasp its impact and what they can do about it – Often a costly obstacle, not a competitive tool • Within this asymmetry lies your opportunity 1
The Elusive Intersection Business technology IT Unit Technology 2 Non-IT managers Business
Audience and Scope Target audience • Midlevel functional managers—marketing, sales, finance, operations, or accounting – With no IT backgrounds or IT career aspirations • Jargon-free, acronym-light, industry-agnostic Scope • Large firms, small business, nonprofits, and government agencies – Even drug dealers, prostitutes, and food carts compete using IT – USA+: Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, even Canada and Mexico • Connects IT strategy to strategy, corporate finance, accounting, marketing, operations, and statistics 3
Decoded Jargon = Our Common Ground • Jargon decoder: Each session’s 5 -7 central concepts in lay language • “Firm”: Generic term for a corporation, small business, non-profit, or government agency • Archrivals: Your firm’s top three industry competitors today • Market offering: A revenue-generating product or service • IT: The business technology used to run your business – IT unit: Your inhouse department responsible for it • Line functions: Functional areas (e. g. , marketing, finance, etc. ) • Non-IT manager: A mid-manager in a line function other than IT 4
Our Roadmap • Trifecta • Dilemma: Frugal yet strategic • Infusing firepower in IT • Architecture as DNA • Strategic & operational consequences • Surviving today without handicapping tomorrow 2 • How IT affects your firm & industry • What you cannot do about it • What you can do about it 1 • Strategic oomph with frugality • Choices & challenges in sourcing IT • Why IT projects are business flops • Three antidotes from non-IT • Thwarting malice and disaster 5 • Spotting opportunities in emerging IT Architecture Strategy Governance Payoffs 3 4 • Getting your money’s worth • Investing in the right places • Investing under uncertainty
Preview: Five Big Ideas in this Course Grasp industry, firm, and competitive forces unleashed by IT Sync of IT strategy tactical strategy critical to beat archrivals Demands obsessing over this 6 A “trifecta” disrupting most non-IT industries
“Archrivals” • Your top three competitors in your industry today – Your firm’s nemeses – Think of just these three every time you see the word archrivals • Pencil in their names on the first page of your book, now 1. 2. 3. 7
- Slides: 8