Tag: CIO

How the BRM Mindset Prepared Me for C-Suite Leadership

~ Glenn Remoreras ~ 2 Comments

From BRM to CIO

I have been CIO with Mark Anthony Group for barely three months and it’s been an amazing ride already.

My story as CIO is still being written.

In preparation to be a keynote storyteller I asked myself, how has Business Relationship Management (BRM) impacted my journey?

Well, let me tell you…

I began volunteering in 2013, the year BRM Institute was founded. It was my way of giving back and supporting the global BRM community. Little did I know, this experience would transform me as a technology professional, as an individual and as a leader. Through BRM, I found my purpose and built lasting relationships. BRM changed my mindset which ultimately strengthened my leadership capacity. Let’s dive deeper into the themes which have proven most important in shaping my story – purpose, relationship, mindset, and leadership.

Purpose

After an unusual turn of events, I ended up in a technology career and, ultimately became a CIO. However, this was not supposed to be. When I was growing up, my dream was to have a successful career in finance and accountancy working for the biggest conglomerate in my home country, the Philippines. This company is the San Miguel Beer Corporation. As a kid, that was my goal. After high school, I was accepted to one of the best finance and accountancy university programs in my country and I was ready to get started on my dream.

In 1993, my parents went to the university in Manila to enroll me. In those days, you had to physically enroll at the university and my parents were doing this for me. Soon after, I got a call from my mom. She said, “We forgot your birth certificate at home and it’s a mandatory requirement for enrollment.” Long story short, I lost my accountancy slot which was a quota program and was relegated to Information Technology (IT). I went into the program thinking I’d shift to Accountancy the following semester, but here I am in IT 27 years later.

Ironically, my younger brother is a finance manager in San Miguel today. He is very happy, but I can’t imagine doing what he does. I am happily where I’m supposed to be.

Declare Your Dreams

At BRMConnect 2018 in San Diego, I shared a framework used to find purpose which is centered around reflection and actions within three concepts: story, beliefs and aspirations.

Story – is the context of who you are. It’s your personal journey. Your story evolves as you go through life and professional experiences. Your stories shape who you are.
Beliefs – is what you believe in, your ideology will give you the compass you need to remain consistent and likeable over time. It drives your behavior and mindset.
Aspirations – are what you want to be, it is the idealistic view of what you want.

“Aspirations is the ability to dream about the future, while being inspired in the present to reach those dreams.”

Dr. Russell J. Quaglia

​Deep reflection and determined action toward one’s story, beliefs and aspirations are when purpose-finding becomes self-sustaining and powerful. Deep reflection can sustain inspiration for your purpose but without action, it can’t sustain itself; without action, the purpose is just an inspiration.

In San Diego, I called out my aspirations and my dreams to become CIO.
Visualizing your goals and desires solidifies your intention. Solid intention opens your heart and mind to the people, resources, and the help needed to realize them. There is amazing power in visualizing your intention, it is the origin of action! For me personally, discovering purpose is accomplished through reflecting and acting on your stories, beliefs and aspirations. If you get lost, do it again and again.

Relationships

Roughly 11 years ago, I started to venture into some serious blogging. At the time, I was working for CEMEX, a global building materials company, and I remember attending a townhall meeting hosted by CEMEX USA’s EVP, Ira Fialkow. After his talk, Ira came over to me and said, “Hey, I read your blog and I love it.” Ira was the boss of my boss’s boss so, you can just imagine what it was like for me. Our interaction started a mentor-mentee relationship which continues to this day.

Months later, I met Vaughan Merlyn, a sought-after management consultant online and one of the co-founders of BRM Institute. At first, we were just collaborating and engaging with each other through our respective blogs. Simple collaboration led to emailing, and to phone calls. One such call, Vaughan told me, “If you ever need anything or would like advice or talk about IT, you can call me anytime.” Through my relationship with Vaughn I found free consulting, a mentor and a friend.

Vaughan invited me to join BRM Institute in 2013 as one of the founding members. A year after, I took on a role at Constellation Brands as VP BRM. The executive recruiter discovered me through BRM Institute with CEO Aaron Barnes’ recommendation.

This year, I found myself in countless calls with many of my mentors to explore the CIO opportunity with Mark Anthony Group. There are many others I learned from in my vast relationship network: Ibrahim Jackson, Sheila Smith, Arnie Weatherall, Roy Youngman, Peter Lijnse, Aaron Monroe, Sergio Zarate, Kip Fanta. The list is seemingly endless.

This is the power and value of my BRM community – which has been so good to me – manifested in the strength of my relationships. This is an example of accessing infinite value through relationships. If I take a moment and think about the best work relationships I’ve ever had and picture them in my mind, I think about these people. In a great relationship, individuals invest in each other. They become partners, mentors, friends.

Leadership

Fortunately, before the pandemic, I was able to travel home to the Philippines to celebrate my father’s 70th birthday. Before my trip, I reached out to the head of my hometown alma mater to pitch an idea. Spending time giving back to my old high school by speaking to upcoming high school graduates was something I desired to do. I spoke in an auditorium full of graduating students for an hour, sharing steps to a purpose-driven career. When the students spontaneously sang a happy birthday song for my father when I introduced him, was my favorite part of the day.

In the past, I’ve viewed leadership mainly as an exercise of power performed by particular individuals in leadership positions. To me, those were the individuals with the leadership traits and behavior.

Maintaining a goal-oriented, driven and focused mindset, I aspired to achieve those leadership positions. I pushed myself every step of the way, which got me to a certain point. Unfortunately, I became stuck for a few years. In fact, in 2009, I strongly considered investing time and money to attend a premium MBA program thinking it was a career booster or my way up the leadership chain. I seriously looked at several programs, researched options and did my financial analysis.

I remember consulting with my mentor, Ira. He immediately commented how I could be mortgaging my future by going in that direction. He said, “Knowing you, I believe you can achieve your goals just working out your strengths.” His advice struck me like a bolt of lightning. Immediately, I realized my mindset was wrong. Ultimately, what I needed to do was to expand my network, connect and engage. One way to expand your network is to give your time, to volunteer and to mentor others. By giving back you receive so much in return; you sharpen your knowledge by learning from others and you find mentors.

My renewed resolve to focus on others and add value to them inspired me even more. It eventually increased the energy of those I partnered with and the teams I led.

• I volunteered and led various teams at BRM Institute
• I doubled down on mentoring others which energized me and I learned a lot in the process
• I gave back where and when I could

Look for opportunities to give your time to others and volunteer. In my experience, the return will surprise you.

Instead of an MBA, BRM became my accelerator. I learned the most important shift anyone must make to become a leader is from a soloist to a conductor; from a soloist to an orchestrator; from a soloist to magic-in-the middle. You can be a successful person on your own, but not a successful leader. I aim to be a successful leader.

Now, I see the essence of leadership in a more practical way. I see leadership as a practice rather than residing in the traits or behaviors of particular individuals. I realize the potential in driving leadership that is convergent, collaborative, collective, and compassionate.

Mindset

During my Philippine trip earlier this year, I jumped into the Ulot River, or Monkey River translated from the local dialect. So-called wooden torpedo boats powered by a 16-horsepower engine, cut through rapids at speeds of up to 160 kph. We got to a point where I could jump into the river and get swept away several hundred meters, eventually clinging to a rope which pulled me to safety. I did the jump twice!

You know the feeling when you’re determined to do something and you’re really excited about it, but you’re scared at the same time? You’re ready to act, but you keep finding excuses to delay because of fear.

Maybe it’s because you’re:

  • Telling yourself it might not work
  • Not confident about what you know
  • Afraid of what other people will think or say about you
  • Focusing on your previous failures

Every single one of these thoughts and feelings is driven by fear, or more accurately, your mindset around fear. If you are dedicated to understanding why you feel a certain way at any given time, you have the ability to shift your mindset for the better.

When I jumped into the Ulot River, I was scared. But I was also determined to jump.  When I talk about breaking through fear, I don’t mean the absence of uncertainty. As a result, I’m able to (and you can, too) embrace the fear and break through it.

BRM taught me two ways to break through fear by changing your mindset.

1. Community – surround yourself with the right people
2. Language – Cultivate the right mindset

Surrounding yourself with the right people on your journey makes all the difference.

For me, it all began with a declaration in 2018 at BRMConnect, San Diego. There, I shared how I aspired to become a CIO. I believe visualizing your goals and desires solidifies your intention. Solid intention opens your heart and mind to the people, resources, and the help needed to realize them.

Having support is unparalleled, because when you feel like you can’t take that next step – when you doubt your capabilities and fear what you have to say won’t matter – my BRM community has been there in those moments to help me move forward and break through.

The language you use when you talk to yourself and others can shift how you think, feel and perform. It can be something so simple people often overlook it. For language is a lens into one’s behavior. Meaning, the words you use to communicate are a precursor to your actions. Through the process of advancing BRM capabilities and philosophies, BRM changed the way I “speak IT”. This internal shift in language usage began a mindset cultivation process which then caused my approach to life, business and leadership to change.

Relationship-Centered Organizations are Equipped to Face any Challenge

When the collective knowledge on BRM was first assembled for the first Body of Knowledge in 2013, it centered around frameworks, processes and competencies to support BRM as a role and organizational capability. Looking back, I am in awe of how much those team efforts accomplished. The effort did not end there as BRM continues to evolve with the contributions and experiences from the single, global BRM community. The great thing about this community and its leaders is its openness and boldness to evolve.

As I reflect on the topic of my keynote, “how my CIO journey began with BRM”, it resulted in a realization which eventually became the theme: Through BRM, I found my purpose and built lasting relationships. BRM changed my mindset and strengthened my leadership capacity. I discovered what propelled my journey to become a CIO is embracing and advancing BRM as a philosophy. BRM is a mindset, a value system and a purpose-driver. I came full circle with BRM philosophy.

Business and organizational challenges have intensified due to the major impact of the global pandemic. When such challenges intensify, you may need to redesign strategies, merge or dissolve businesses, find new channels for your products, or reimagine work and go-to-market tactics.  These big challenges have no easy answers.

Perhaps even more difficult, the solutions to challenges like these don’t reside only in the executive suite. Solving them requires the involvement of people throughout your organization accessed by leveraging employees’ collective intelligence and capability. This can be done through strength in relationships.

The year 2020 has been full of obstacles, tragedies and challenges. As we go through these unprecedented times, we find our resilience, our connections and our relationships are the best things we have. I think about medical workers, doctors, nurses and care givers who have been helping humanity face the emerging health concerns in the last several months. What they are doing is caring for their fellow human beings at their moment of greatest vulnerability. To me, it’s powerful and inspiring.

This is the time we need more relationship-centered groups of people, be it families, teams, or organizations. Take a moment and think about the best work relationships you ever had. Picture that person or team in your mind. Think about what you accomplished together, the fun you had, and the creative sharing and mutual growth. Now, imagine the same kind of relationship existed between you and everyone in your immediate team, your partners and peers. What could you accomplish?  Nothing will stop you to evolve culture, build partnerships, drive value; satisfy purpose. This is the purpose of BRM.

Take a look at the full-length recording of Glenn’s keynote presentation given during BRMConnect Virtual 2020.

Start with Why! Personal and Business Approach to Inspiring Others

~ Glenn Remoreras ~ Leave a comment
“Your Why is your purpose, cause or belief that inspires you to do what you do. When you think, act and communicate starting with Why, you can inspire others.” – Simon Sinek

A couple of weeks ago, our office had a team building event at iFly. Most of us signed up to experience our first indoor skydiving and I did so with hesitation. At iFly, we had a short 30-minute instruction session and then, we put on safety gears. I made my dream of flight a reality! It was so amazing that I thought of bringing my 6-year old twin boys to experience it the following day.

It was Friday so I went to pick up my sons from school. I told them we were going to iFly so they can experience indoor skydiving. They were not interested at all and both said no emphatically. I showed them how iFly does it through a video. They saw kids flying upward the wind tunnel. I said, “Isn’t this fun?” They looked somewhat convinced but a bit frightened. They responded no again with hesitation.

At such a young age, my boys like to read and learn astronomy. They know their solar systems, galaxies and black holes. Very often, I hear them talk to each other about becoming an astronaut. They went to NASA summer camp together last year. I wanted to convince them to do iFly, so I told them that one other way astronauts train with weightlessness besides being under water is indoor skydiving. Their eyes lit up and we jumped into the car. They experienced iFly and went to tell friends about it with their hand upwards as if in flying motion.

Why didn’t I communicate with WHY (to be an astronaut) from the very beginning? Instead, like most people, I started with WHAT (indoor skydiving) and the HOW (video). Simon Sinek’s TED talk How Great Leaders Inspire Action is about the idea that most people communicate by starting with the WHAT. By explaining his Golden Circle, Simon spoke about how transcendent leaders like Martin Luther King and innovative companies like Apple begin instead with WHY.

iFly

At the BRMCONNECT Forum hosted by BRM Institute at the PepsiCo headquarters in Dallas, this was my story. I was asked by Aaron Barnes, CEO and Co-Founder of the institute to tell other BRMs the story of how I formed my team and what we do. I started my storytelling by sharing the Why. The vision and purpose of my team: To Be Strategic Leaders Driving Competitive Advantage. This is a shared vision with the rest of our IT organization. In the beginning, this seemed a lofty goal. To me personally, this Why is the reason why I get up in the morning fulfilled to go to work!

We started with the Why but if we are going to be strategic partners with the business, our next challenge was the HOW. How are we going to put ourselves in the middle of business conversations and drive more strategic engagements? We turn to Business Process Management (BPM) as a means to foster business relationship. We created our Business Process Architecture (BPA) Framework and Process Assessment Methodology (PAM). We equip ourselves with an effective How.

Now when business partners come to us with a seemingly tactical request to deploy a specific application system, we have the means to ask “what business problem are you trying to solve?” and “what strategy are you enabling?” And then the invitation, let’s partner and do a Process Assessment. With three phases of PAM– Align, Discovery and Solution, we end up proposing a business initiative or technology project or both.

According to Simon Sinek every organization has a Why. “Your Why is your purpose, cause or belief that inspires you to do what you do. When you think, act and communicate starting with Why you can inspire others.” I realize there are effective use of this approach or concept in everyday — both in our personal lives and in business. Start with Why!

BRMConnect

Let’s Talk Business Process First! – How to Calibrate Business Relationship Maturity through Business Process Culture

~ Glenn Remoreras ~ Leave a comment

Use of information technology. Is it creating value? Is it improving business processes and capabilities? Or merely creating new wants? Is it important, or only urgent? What is it for? Every Business and IT engagement around business requirements revolves around these questions but managing it isn’t always easy.

First, let’s talk about IT organization’s critical role in the company’s business processes. One of the consequences of Business Process Management is a large majority of these programs are initiated in the IT organization.  There are very good motives for this.  One of the most common: the IT organization is responsible for providing the technology that enables business processes. Take for example, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems like SAP, Oracle, etc.  This ERP solution is a suite of integrated applications that a company can use for many business processes. Most ERP systems incorporate best practices reflecting the vendor’s interpretation of the most effective way to perform each business process. Systems vary on how conveniently the customer can modify these practices. Talking about best practices, it is advisable not to over-customize because doing so will keep you from taking advantage of the expected improvements and innovations from the purchased ERP package.

How do you characterize the nature of your engagement with your business partners? Is it functional orientated? If it is, there is more tendency for having more solution-based discussion versus process- and value-based. Even worse, it could be possible that your internal customer is engaging you at the tail end of their decision cycle–when they have already determined what they want or need. There is lack of business-IT alignment and strategic partnership.

How do you then improve the level of your business relationship with the business? There are numerous paths towards that elusive business-IT strategic partnership. In this post, I will talk about Business Process Maturity as a path— so I would say – Let’s Talk Process First! This has worked for me in the past. One of the most effective ways to change the orientation and focus of business IT interactions is to start with business process. Calibrate  your organization’s business process maturity and you will take along with it to a great degree IT-business relationship maturity. What you need are experienced business process managers with business relationship management competencies. Below I will walk you through these 3 stages of Business Process and Business Relationship maturity and describe what it means.

Business Process and Business Relationship Maturity

Process Maturity

Level 1: Support

Business Process Maturity = Diverse and Business Relationship Maturity= Adhoc / Order Taker

When your organizational approach to business process is diverse, more often business-IT initiatives are managed with lack of integration. At this stage, most of the organization’s process knowledge is known only to a few individuals. For business process engagement facilitation, there is dependency on external consultancy. There is no standard process management discipline that leads to more functional orientation of IT requirements discussion. Consequently, IT as a provider organization is hardly seen as a strategic partner–at most, a service provider. In terms of business relationship maturity level, most of the time, IT is treated as an order taker. This type of business relationship is characterized by loudest in – first out tendency causing reactive course of actions. My advice is to embark on a business process maturity journey. Establish a discipline of managing business processes as the means for improving business performance outcomes and operational agility.  Leverage use of technology to improve business processes.

Level 2: Improve

Business Process Maturity = Model Integration and IT-Business Relationship Maturity = Service Provider

You want to become an organization that designs processes first and then goes on to implement the technology enablers. Your organization wants to keep pace with technology and maintain a competitive advantage. Companies at this level adapt a consolidated method to design and implement business models using standard processes and tools. Process ownership ultimately improves as management breaks silos and approaches process and technology implementation equally.  The common tendency is for companies to establish process governance and ownership. IT plays a key role in the process evolution of the company and starts to be seen as a service provider and some cases even a strategic partner.

Level 3: Innovate

Business Process Maturity = Process Culture and IT-Business Relationship Maturity = Strategic Partner

The final step to Process Culture Maturity occurs when innovation and change in business practices through process understanding are consistently promoted within the company. As executives passionately embrace process thinking, they are able to promote innovation more confidently when implementing new technologies. In many cases, companies with mature process culture has End-to-End orientation to process management and IT plays a key role as center of process excellence. IT starts to be regarded as trusted and strategic partner. Business–IT relationship is based on cooperation and mutual trust with shared goals to maximize value from business initiatives.

Technology will not automatically implement itself and run your organization’s processes the way you envision. IT has a unique opportunity to spearhead business process improvements in the company. Start by changing the orientation of your business interactions from functional to business process, from solutions to value. Do not shy away from this opportunity. Use business process management to create greater strategic value and by doing so advance business-IT relationship level to new heights.

The Art of Business Relationship Management: Shaping Business Demand for Your Services

~ Glenn Remoreras ~ Leave a comment

I am delighted to share this article I co-authored with Ibrahim Jackson about the Art of Business Relationship Management. This was published today in the Shared Services and Outsourcing Network Website.

Here is an excerpt of the article:

For many years, IT organizations responsible for deploying technology systems to enable enterprise processes have had one goal in mind – namely, to assure business-IT alignment. Today, however, as IT capabilities become more and more embedded in business capabilities, and given the pace of technological change and the pervasive nature of IT, alignment is no longer sufficient. The goal today, therefore, is “convergence”. This has given momentum to the growing emergence of the Business Relationship Management (BRM) role, which, according to the Business Relationship Management Institute (BRMI), is about “stimulating, surfacing and shaping business demand for a provider’s products and services, ensuring that the potential business value from those products and services is captured, optimized and communicated.”

Let’s examine Business Relationship Management from two perspectives: the functional and the organizational role. The BRM function provides the framework for how the IT organization interacts with peer business functions and departments. The BRM role is made up of an elite leader or group of technology managers that assume accountability for all technology solutions and services end-to-end – whether for a business area, brand, region, channel or division, depending on organizational design and technology capabilities. This role can be facilitated by an existing Chief Information Officer (CIO) in smaller, less complex organizations. For large enterprises, you may see multiple levels of BRM — BRM Lead, BRM Manager or BRM Analyst. Each role may vary in responsibility and all are accountable for the strategic alignment with the enterprise or organization.

BRMs, on a day-to-day basis, deal with technology, people and relationships. As such, Business Relationship Management is more an art than a science, expressing the “art” via application of knowledge, interpersonal skills and creativity. How a BRM best connects to his or her business partners varies, based on the BRM, their client, the business scenario, level of previous engagement and the rapport established with each relationship. Trust through confidence is the secret to success.

BRM Processes and Frameworks should be characterized by flexibility and a high variability of actions performed within the underlying processes. Within the BRM function, there is an inherent value to that variability. The nature of relationship management is fluid, dynamic, genuine and human.

Dr. Aleksandr Zhuk, Co-Founder of the BRM Institute, sums it up: “No one has ever defined a process framework that assures success in relationships. Think of marriage.”

You can read the full article by following this link: http://www.ssonetwork.com/business-partnering-customer-service/articles/the-art-of-business-relationship-management-shapin/

Business Relationship Management Process Context Diagram
Business Relationship Management Process Context Diagram

Does your IT Value Proposition Resonate?

~ Glenn Remoreras ~ 3 Comments

Satisfying internal customers means every employee must be constantly aware that customer service is everyone’s business in IT. That constant awareness generates genuine teamwork among all departments in the IT organization: Operations, Projects Department, Support Groups, IT Infrastructure, Business Applications, Process Management, etc. This challenge emphasizes the importance of internal customer service as an IT organizational accountability. Excellent customer service doesn’t just happen because IT teams and individuals want it to, it has to mandated by IT leaders into a service model that includes specific responsibilities to perform and a standard service level to achieve.  

Revisiting your IT value proposition periodically is an important exercise for IT managers. This will help you understand the tangible and intangible elements that define and differentiate your services portfolio. For internal customers, the IT Value Proposition is the collection of services they receive upon investing in IT capabilities and services. We have to understand that it includes more than just the core IT services (like equipments, applications, and infrastructure), and even more than just good quality— it also involves the softer elements that differentiate the total service offering such as: responsiveness, innovation, collaboration and commitment. 

These are two perspectives representing the two words of the terminology “Value Proposition” — “Value” and “Proposition” – broken down into: 

  • Value (Internal Customer’s Perspective) = The benefits received by the business upon investment on IT capabilities and services.  
  • Proposition (IT’s Perspective as Service Provider) = The total offering to the business in exchange for their investment.  

Defining your IT value proposition is the first step to clearly identify how your IT services portfolio are different and better than your competitors. If you run an IT organization that is purely composed of internal employees and do not think you don’t have competitors, you are wrong. There are many 3rd party IT services providers out there who can offer the same type of service that you have. Some, I could tell you, may even offer the same level of service at a better cost than you. Outsourcing companies that provide IT services have increased and matured over the years. Advancements in technology and development of new operating paradigms have made them more accessible and acceptable. They are your competitors and they are out to get your job. If you can’t define some unique feature or benefit that makes you stand out, your internal customers may default to the other option – lower cost. And believe me, you don’t want to be forced to play the low cost game — even when you win, you lose. 

Photo courtesy of Pakorn.

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Strengthening IT Accountability

~ Glenn Remoreras ~ 9 Comments

Unfortunately, accountability in some IT organizations has become something that happens only when they are dealing with major problems. What you have is a working environment with members taking responsibility only when things go wrong. That is, when someone or some group has to own and be answerable for the consequences that impacted the business operations and later on work on reactive solutions. This kind of accountability seldom works because it is founded on the wrong principles.

Accountability in IT happens when IT team members or teams take responsibility in performing functions and work to achieve objectives. Here they take ownership of the services they provide to the business. This kind of accountability impacts both IT services delivery and ultimately, the company’s results.  This kind of accountability makes things go right and far from being a punishment for failures. This kind of accountability develops the culture that produces people with the right attitude and managers that execute the right IT strategy. Highly accountable IT organizations have that commitment at all levels — from top management to IT operators that manage day-to-day functions.

IT Accountability in Operative Teams

In my current occupation, I am fortunate to lead a team of professionals with a strong sense of pride in what they do and with the goal of contributing to the organization. That sense of pride translates into a positive attitude and best practices that govern how we work to provide the best service to our internal customers. I once told my team that what I admired most about their work is their culture of shared responsibility. I like that each one has a sense of ownership of the team’s overall performance. They have the initiative to perform certain functions within the scope of their responsibility — very mindful that they are accountable for keeping business operations running efficiently. In our team, doing things above and beyond for the sake of customer service is daily routine. To me, that’s accountability in every sense of the word. The way we hold ourselves accountable defines the very nature of our working relationships, how we provide support to the business, how we work in projects, how we respond to problems and how we interact.

IT Accountability in Cost Management

Accountability in cost management practices is one of the most important areas where IT can really impact the business’ bottom-line. IT leaders need to start by responding to the following questions: What are my cost drivers? What business objective is driving spending? Is spending aligned to the business strategy? Is IT cost transparent and does business understand the value? Accountable IT confronts these tough questions together with their business counterparts. The practice of shifting the focus from IT cost to one of business value no longer works, especially during these tough economic times. It has to be a balance of both. IT needs to be accountable for the business cases that go with its project portfolio. I think that the biggest challenges in IT are those that deal with the intersection of both technology and business — how the cost of investment in certain technologies translates to business value. IT management needs to be at the forefront in taking responsibility for cost efficiency and value creation of their products and services. IT management needs to understand what drives IT cost. The basis for effective cost management is understanding cost structure and analyzing the costs flowing through that structure. 

IT Accountability for Improved Service Delivery

Better accountability improves service delivery performance. But how does this work? IT accountability for improving IT services delivery is not simply a question of providing the technology needed to run its business or ensuring service availability. It is also about its service culture as well as better partnership and alignment with the business. In short, the challenge is as much about partnership and customer relationship as it is about providing the right IT business solutions. Service culture is one of the softer elements of the IT organization’s identity but it’s extremely important when you want your organization to have a strong sense of accountability in delivering excellent services. Essential to improving partnership with the business is a deeper understanding of the business strategy, objectives and the service levels that are required. How do we engage business leaders? What is the current and evolving business strategy of the company? How can IT be leveraged to gain competitive advantage? How do we manage ongoing innovation and process improvements? Does the business understand our capabilities to maximize our value? How do we communicate and manage perception about IT services? These are some of the difficult questions and challenges that must be addressed head on by IT leaders. There must be a structure used to allow learning from business engagement about strategies, core elements and innovations to improve service culture.

Although the concept of accountability is often reduced to ‘answerability’ or ‘enforceability’, a more complete understanding includes the actions that take place at every level and every internal customer touch points. Again, accountability does not only happen when things go wrong—accountability is taking ownership from the beginning. It is continuous rather than having an end point.

Photos courtesy of Salvatore Vuono and Michal Marcol.

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How IT Leaders Transmit and Embed Culture

~ Glenn Remoreras ~ 3 Comments

The group’s culture provides structure and meaning to its members—in many ways it controls members’ interactions with one another and with external parties.  In this post, this concept is applied in the Information Technology (IT) group setting. The IT group culture can influence the success of the IT organization. Culture is socially constructed through leaders that embed their beliefs, values and assumptions upon the group that it leads. The culture of any IT organization is formulated and impacted by several variables. The strongest and the most obvious is the influence of its leader. According to E. H. Schein, leader’s primary embedding mechanism is seen in how they pay attention to, measure and control aspects of organization’s operations and decision making. They initiate great conversations that tie cultural norms to the organization’s goals. If the current culture is not aligned with the new realities, leaders need to be the catalyst to create new understanding and help individuals select new behaviors and, eventually, beliefs. Leaders must also define, clarify and reinforce understanding of the actions and beliefs that build the desired culture. 

To examine how IT leaders influence the IT organizational culture and IT branding let’s use some of E. H. Schein primary embedding mechanisms and apply it in the IT perspective. Each one comes with a set of questions you can use to assess the impact of such embedding mechanism in your IT organization right now: 

What Leaders Pay Attention To, Measure, and Control on a Regular Basis  

Although performance measures presented in the leader’s reporting dashboard change from time to time, most of the leaders that I know only pay attention to a small set of key performance indicators. IT leaders rely on a subset of key measures that they believe is the best indicator of the overall performance of the organization. As an IT manager, you know what your CIO is looking at and controlling most of time. Your CIO gets your attention and tracks certain aspects of operations based on these key performance indicators. In some instances, the CIO will try to drill down and find more information about a perceived problem and base his request for action on this. The performance measures that IT leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis dictate the importance given by the organization to a service, a problem or a project. 

It is but a natural tendency for managers, staff and different groups within IT to keep track of the performance measures that IT leaders are more attentive to. More likely, these people discuss these controls in daily IT operations meetings. Some will even set alarms so as to act swiftly on incidents before they become major problems. Performance measures and controls are powerful mechanisms that IT leaders use to forge a working culture based on what they think is important. How current are your departmental metrics? Do they measure against your current organizational objectives? Do they reflect the coming changes and help prepare your team for new ways of working? 

How Leaders React to Critical Incidents and Organizational Crises  

Companies in this day and age rely on an integrated set of digitized platforms and infrastructure to run and manage its business operations. When a critical IT incident occurs, it often impacts mission-critical systems and processes that affect business operations. These days, it is not hard to imagine how something like this can directly impair the ability of the company to serve its customers. These kinds of problems could unfavorably hurt the company’s profits and reputation in the short term. When a major IT incident disrupts most critical processes of the company, the credibility and reputation of the IT organization is heavily dependent on their perceived preparedness and responses during the situation. The CIO is at the forefront of disaster recovery measures and business continuity management and continues to work hand-in-hand with business managers. For mature IT groups, the planning, work and infrastructure that that is used to run disaster and business continuity situations are completed way before major incidents occur. 

Business continuity and disaster recovery is part of an organizational learning process. In the wake of a crisis, IT leaders adopt a learning orientation and use prior experience to develop new routines and behaviors that ultimately change the way the organization prepares and responds to crisis. The best leaders recognize this and are purposeful and skillful in finding the learning opportunities inherent in every crisis situation. Is your organization proactive about problem management, disaster recovery, and business continuity preparedness? What can you do to better build your team’s capabilities to manage critical incidents and crisis situations?   

How Leaders Allocate Resources

IT leaders have control on the allocation of resources in the organization. This applies to operational and projects resource assignments. The CIO controls the budget allocation to key projects, resource assignment to operations areas, and the time IT members spend on certain initiatives. On the other hand, the CIO also controls how and where to slash resources during budget optimization. How leaders allocate the resources of the organization creates a natural signal to its members about their priorities and what they think creates more value to the company. His or her interpretation of the business strategy and the expectations of the company’s shareholders impact the leader’s decision making process. Resources mean money and time. Therefore, when the CIO decides on the operating and capital budget portfolio allotment, this provides managers an indication of where in the organization best efforts and priorities are expected.

Another strong indication of the CIO’s priorities can be observed on how he spends time. To better understand the job of the CIO, Peter Weill, MIT profession and co-author of the book IT Savvy, examined how CIOs allocate their time. CIOs allocate time in four major areas: managing IT Services, working with non-IT colleagues, working with customers, and managing enterprise processes. Time allocation varies a lot because of individual management style but in most cases, where the CIO spends the most time sends a strong message. As an IT leader, examine how you spend your time. How do you think it impacts the desired cultural values of your organization? In what ways should you change your managerial regimens to better present, explain, and reinforce the desired culture?

Deliberate Role Modeling, Teaching, and Coaching

We all naturally know that leading by example is one of the most powerful ways of leadership, but ironically it’s often the most overlooked. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The best way to create culture is to transmit culture. I think the most obvious ways to transmit culture is through teaching and coaching. IT managers and staff look up to their senior leaders for directions.  Leaders should be engaged with IT operations but their engagement in it should not be limited to supervising and running operations but also guiding, teaching and coaching managers.

Information Technology needs future-oriented leaders. Arguably, it is the most unpredictable and fast innovating area of the company. If the CIO is not forward looking, it can’t provide the business with a platform to continue to be competitive and at par with competitors who are relentlessly pursuing innovation. IT leaders are fascinated about the future. They are relentless about change and impatient for progress. CIOs are always looking forward to new technology and practices that are developing, looking for ways of plotting a course of new processes, tools and methodologies and experimenting how it will make sense in business in the future. How many types of developmental conversations occur in your organization? How can you create a culture of learning that goes beyond traditional classroom training? In what ways do your communication tools and practices help build your team’s skills for participating in conversations about goals, changes, and barriers they face? What can you do to better build your team’s capabilities for participating in transformative conversations? Is learning embraced at all levels?

The values and priorities of the IT leader- may it be the CIO, CTO, IT VP or IT Director— are reflected in the culture of the information technology (IT) organization. This is true also for other organizations, big or small, that has its members working together for some time. A positive organizational culture reinforces the core beliefs and behaviors that a leader desires while weakening the values and actions the leader rejects (Kaufman 2002). A negative culture becomes toxic, poisoning the life of the organization and hindering any future potential for growth. Obviously, there is an inevitable bridge joining organizational culture and the level of success it enjoys (Peters and Waterman 1982).

Photo courtesy of Ivy Remoreras Photography.