Strategy: Seeking the Execution Edge

In many ways, these are the good old
days again. Most IT executives are
focused on growth and customer acquisition,
instead of cost reduction. Freshly
minted Internet billionaires once again
roam the earth, and strategists such as
Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail,
are revealing new ways to profit from the
Web. Yet the main goal for enterprise IT
isn’t strategic innovation—but business
process improvement. Why? In part it’s
because process improvement serves many
masters. How else could you increase revenue,
reduce costs and improve productivity,
all at the same time? And investments
in IT architecture and infrastructure make
these results possible, sometimes immediately.
But there are signs that IT’s role
in strategy is still too limited. It doesn’t
help that companies continue to struggle
to make information useful and deliver
quality service. For now, the pursuit of
better execution appears more important
than finding new ways to profit from IT.


In this slideshow:

1. Process improvement will be job No. 1
2. IT works on closing the sale
3. Companies make their Web sites more engaging
4. Customer service gets a tune-up
5. Companies put their mounds of data to work
6. Information governance gains momentum
7. CIOs strive to be strategic