Customer Reviews

Managing IT as a Business: A Survival Guide for CEOs

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
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This is a fabulous book for experienced or aspiring IT managers whose goal is to prepare for ascension through the ranks, especially to the CIO level. In simple yet rich language, Mark presents a clear picture of the future of the IT organization and the competencies needed in the CIO and senior team heading up this professional services operation. The examples and case studies are rich with insights. In short, this book is pragmatic and weighty, yet also highly readable and I dare say outright enjoyable. I highly recommend it as a must read for anyone who wants to develop an effective IT career roadmap. Thank you Mark Lutchen.

Joe Santana,
Co-author Manage IT

I have only one simple statement - where were you Mark when I started my IT career 17 years ago? Today I would have been a CIO! I highly recommend this book for those starting out their careers in IT as it gives a big picture look to the field. Own it and refer to the clear and relevant graphics in the book.

"Managing IT as a Business" will help senior business management executives understand how to view and manage the Information Technology (IT) organization. How should IT be structured and aligned to support the business vision? What does IT really cost? The author, Mark Lutchen, has developed an IT management "lens" framework to view the critical drivers of IT success. This framework provides an excellent way for business management to think about what IT needs to accomplish.

The book really delivers its value through nine key initiatives for the business and the IT organization to realize the full potential of IT resources. Mr. Lutchen's use of case studies involving considerable business issues and applied IT management solutions, has helped me visualize how these initiatives can dramatically impact a business. The author's coverage of issues such as IT governance, alignment, organization structure, spend, investment cycles, and focus on outcomes are precise and timely, given the mixed success that IT professional management has progressed in corporations today.

I think what is unique about the author's perspective is his experience not only as an IT management consultant, but a Global CIO for one of the big-4 accounting firms. Business and financial management are key underlying themes in this book. You will find this book insightful and thought-provoking, enabling a business leader to establish and leverage a more powerful IT organization.

The title of this book is somewhat misleading. I feel that a better title would be something along the lines of "Making It Relevant to the Business." A recurring theme throughout the book is that IT departments are often considered irrelevant in many companies, being relegated to the role of a support organization with the primary focus on cost reduction. The book argues that by having the CIO as part of the executive team, IT can become more of a partner to the business and thus provide strategic value to the enterprise.
The question of running IT as a business is a current issue and does need to be discussed, however, running IT as a business implies a customer/supplier relationship, which is not the same as what the book is driving towards. In a customer/supplier relationship (even if suppliers want to "partner" with their customers, find a win-win solution, be transparent, and all that) there is always pressure on the part of the supplier to increase profit and revenue (at the expense of the customer) and on the part of the customer to reduce costs. This pressure will always bring with it an underlying atmosphere of distrust, which for an IT department is unproductive. As the book discusses, the CIO does need to be in the executive suite, on the same footing as the other C level managers. The CIO needs to be able to communicate transparently and on the same wavelength as the other CxOs, demonstrating the value of IT and offering solutions to support or even enhance the enterprise's vision.
Of course IT needs to continue to be run as an efficient business unit and will always have a support role (along the lines of HR, Controlling, etc.) component, especially where commodity services are concerned (e.g. PC, servers, networks). Here, process efficiency and standardization are important and need to show other business units that IT is not wasting their hard earned money, not to mention actually hindering the business.
The chapter about building an IT organization had a major weakness... the author forgot the enterprise architecture function (being an architect, this is unforgivable). Earlier in the book, he mentions that the CIO himself should be the chief architect, among other things. This is all well and good, but without an enterprise architecture team to support him and only having the teams described in the chapter on organization, he will have a hard time filling this role.
On aligning the business with the organizational strategy, the author lists a number of ways in which the business generates value. This list is a good starting point for an architect with little background in business to begin to align the architecture. By taking each of the points and describing how your company maps to the value generator, you can begin to understand in which ways IT can support the business. By integrating these points with the Operational Models defined in the book "Enterprise Architecture as Strategy"(Ross, Weill, Robertson), one could build a repeatable model to perform the mapping.
A final comment on the chapter regarding IT maturity. The levels of maturity are fine of those companies where IT provides a support role and where IT is not part of the products and services which are offered (although I think this is becoming increasingly rare, given the Internet's role in enabling businesses of all kinds). I would refer anyone interested to read the book "Enterprise Architecture as Strategy" for a more complete maturity model, which goes beyond the basic standardization of PCs, infrastructure and processes to discuss standardization of data models and the move towards agile, service oriented models of application delivery as two further levels of maturity.

Great help for someone that has just upgraded
from IT Management to a CIO role and needed to
upgrade as well his agenda. Excellent source of inspiration
and perfect guide for a profession that is still
under transformation. Definitely a must have.

The book is focused (and written by) on world class CIO positions,
but I found it equally useful for smaller scale CIOs.
It's exactly there that it lacks some information
on the organization of smaller IT groups (<20 persons).

If you are a CIO then buy it. If you are an IT manager
you need something else.

Managing IT as a Business is a no nonsense guide to making the IT function accountable for what it does and does not deliver. The auhor 'gets it'and provides real examples that demonstrate what gets measured, gets managed; and what gets managed, gets done. The book lays out a framework for looking at IT, making it easy to apply the principles in any IT environment. Overall, it's a great addition to the library. I highly recommend it.

Both Business and IT managers will find useful insights in this book. The collection of case studies along with the presented analytical framework provide a solid foundation for addressing many of the classic technology management issues.

In addition the book helps examine the functional business aspects of running an IT function. How refreshing to finally read book that offers practical information on how to effectively run an IT organization!

I found this book especially helpful in explaining the value of implementing business-oriented performance measurements into my company's IT department. I've always had trouble justifying certain IT expenditures, but linking IT strategy with corporate strategy helps make things a lot clearer. I am thinking of making this book required reading for my leadership committee.

Managing IT as a Business provides a readable, pragmatic approach to the challenges of the IT `black box'. Too often these books attempt to `dumb down' the reader with bromides directing managers to `just do this' or `that' to bring about success. Mark successfully brings the pieces of the process together (using actual cases for added focus). He provides direction to show Managers how to get maximum overall value for the IT dollars invested. An IT `Tour De force' and a must read!

Senior executives should find this book enlightening and motivating because it finally addresses the black hole that has been IT objective setting, spending, and success measurement. Managing IT As a Business nicely aggregates and addresses the shortcomings associated with current IT management and focuses on the importance of tying IT to the overall business objectives of the organization. I also found Lutchen's case-based approach and end of chapter summary points increased the book's readability and usefulness.