Too many IT people bemoan the fact that IT is struggling to be taken seriously as a strategic dimension in their organisation. Well, tough luck guys. IT isn’t “strategic.” Never was, never will be. If King Canute was around today, he’d be first in line to demonstrate the folly of trying to make IT strategic.
Like the importance of IT, the legend of King Canute is often misrepresented; he wasn’t trying to control the tide – he was demonstrating the inability of a man to command forces of nature.
That’s an important lesson for IT advocates to learn: the prevailing business view of IT’s importance [or lack thereof] is a force of nature and should be respected, not fought against.
If IT was inherently strategic, IT would not have to struggle for a place at the top table, IT would be there by right and by consensus.
The simple fact is: IT ain’t strategic, IT’s just an enabling function – not a genuine business driver.
A few years ago Nicholas Carr upset the IT community with his May 2003 Harvard Business Review contribution: “IT doesn’t matter.” Carr’s drift was that IT’s strategic importance was diminishing, due to increasing commoditisation of IT delivery.
Five years on, it’s clear that Carr’s viewpoint is sound – but for the wrong reason - the argument is not about commoditisation; IT should never be considered strategic because IT is merely a subsidiary component of an Information System.
Effective Information Systems may well be truly strategic but IT ain’t.
