Why Some Business Execs Think IT Can Be Replaced

As company culture and existing "organizational context" (attributes in the environment that can influence performance) keep CIOs from being as effective as they could be, many business executives said that IT is either significantly or fully replaceable by third-party services, according to a recent survey from McKinsey and Company. The resulting article, "IT's Future Value Proposition," calls out a wide range of perceived IT shortcomings: The tech department doesn't collaborate with business about digital strategies as much as it should. It's not extremely effective at leading the design of e-commerce and online experiences, or developing analytics use cases. IT also struggles to identify cutting-edge or innovative technologies, according to the findings. To overcome this, CIOs and their teams must work more closely with top organizational leaders to more effectively ensure that their efforts contribute tangible business value. "CIOs will need to increase expectations for themselves and the IT function," according to the article. "They must also work hard to elevate their role within the organization, developing both their leadership and business muscles, while building a more direct reporting line to the CEO. To do so, they will need to write a more ambitious job description that reflects their organization's broader aspirations for growth and innovation. … CIOs will also need to focus on developing both the functional skills (such as digitization and delivery) and the leadership skills necessary to gain credibility as a true business partner, and they must ensure that the IT organizations they lead are meeting—or even surpassing—expectations."