IT: Support Vs Growth

Support and Growth can be mapped to Present and Future. For long we have lived in the myth that IT is a support function. Anything not comprising core business is always looked upon as  support. In this article my aim is to confront this myth head on.

First, consider the definition of core business. Core business comprises a set of core activities around which the whole business is built. This set of core activities is unique to each organization and acts as a differentiating factor in amongst competitors. The set of core activities could be sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, etc. The support functions (perceived) are IT, HR, Finance. They are support functions because they are used for, well, support.

IT if manifested correctly can act as a growth principle for  strategy. Some important questions to ask and answer are: How can IT enable growth in Sales, Operations or other core areas? Here the emphasis is on growing, or the growth we envisage after 10 years. Once that is answered, next step would be to create capabilities in those areas.

Suppose we found that better customer relationship and efficient processes [in core areas] will increase our customer base and bring in more profit.  We would then try to create capabilities in those areas, getting Business and IT analysts to focus on these. We would then like them to work around the clock to create a better growing business.

Also, as more and more competitors come to market with niche products, survival gets difficult. The reason behind this is the considerable “Time to React” involved. We need capabilities in house, which are agile enough to react in time. If we focus on growth areas and fix our core principles, then the IT principles get fixed too. The core growth principles will seldom change, so would the IT Principles and so would the capabilities. Now if core processes change, which I am sure will do every few years, we will have capabilities to deal with them. I would suggest preparing IT for capabilities, not for Silo Solutions.

For a continuous and competitive growth, IT has to go hand in hand with Business Strategy. If IT is securing you for future markets, then it’s acting as a profit center, and a core group.

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