Getting Them Up to Speed
To overcome their failings, executives need to "just do it", Erickson says. Top executives and boards need to insist that computer literacy is a key requirement for all senior managers.
Boards must include people who live regularly in the technology world, and who are in strong positions to determine whether or not the glimpses they get into the corporation's technology make sense and are sufficient. Technology needs to figure prominently in the board's agenda - giving these representatives the exposure they need to judge how technology is being used in the firm.
"The board and senior executives should insist upon adequate investment in systems-related education and training, regular audits of systems in use and ongoing executive participation in information technology demand management," she says. "The Field of Dreams formula - 'If you build it, they will come' - seldom works with IT.
"Most companies concentrate on improving the supply of information systems when they should also be concentrating on improving the demand. And I don't mean raising the demand, but improving the ability of business people to use information systems in their work and decision-making, and to work effectively with IT to design, develop and deploy new technology-enabled business capability."
Finally, Erickson says, senior executives and boards need to ask the right questions, continually probing whether technology is working as a force to integrate the firm's operations. According to Erickson, some key questions include:
- Is the company leveraging technology in our most important business initiatives?
- Do we have the platforms necessary for success today and tomorrow?
- Are we capitalizing on the business potential of the Internet?
- Are we managing the resources effectively?
- Is our management and shareholder information of the highest accuracy and integrity?
- Are we leveraging IT to ensure business continuity?
- Are we leveraging technology for business innovation and learning?
If all else fails, and especially if the problems are symptomatic of a wider cultural problem within the organization, it might need to adopt a "new broom approach", says Australian Computer Society (ACS) national president Edward Mandla.
That might mean appointing new board members, a new CEO, or perhaps even a new CIO who can really take a stand on the use of IT to enable growth, and to help the board focus on strategic issues like quality of service delivery, speed to market and innovative product development.
"We certainly feel that board education is very important, and we're concerned about these things," Mandla says. "We're concerned about ICT knowledge of board directors. We don't know why it is, but we don't see any ICT people on boards. And we certainly know that there are no courses to better equip a board to make major ICT decisions, and that's certainly something that we're [the ACS] looking at doing at the moment."
It's a worthy mission. Some hands-on training might convert directors and CEOs from powerful-but-inept users into power users - and see executivus obsoletus replaced by executivus conversari.
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