“We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” That’s what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told shareholders back at the end of April. More recent platform usage stats tell us digital acceleration continues in full force. But a mass scramble to embrace remote work tools doesn’t tell us much about how enterprise is faring 9 months into the continuous disruption of a global pandemic. For that story, you need to listen to business leaders on the ground.
In this season of gratitude (and year-round), Mind Over Machines is grateful for our thriving network of CIOs who tell us what’s really going on – the good, the bad and the ugly. “Most companies are not back to full productivity, and many don’t even know what that means anymore,” our Chief Innovation Officer Tim Kulp reflects. “There’s little talk of strategic initiatives; people barely have the bandwidth for continuity of operations. So our innovation team developed a way we can help.”
Business Lens is our new initiative to help CIOs assess where they are and how to best move forward into an uncertain future.
Getting Tactical About Strategy
These are VUCA times (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), and they show no sign of letting up. Entrepreneur and author Peter Hinssen says this is just the beginning of a series of seismic shocks that cause systemic shifts, The Never Normal.
Companies need tools that increase their resilience and make it easy to stay flexible. Ways to reduce the cognitive load of formulating strategy. That’s where Business Lens comes in. First, low-effort surveys help CIOs determine where they need to focus their energy. Next, Mind Over Machines uses the results of those survey assessments to create effective IT strategy and a step-by-step plan to implement.
Basically, Business Lens tells you what to focus on and how. You know COVID forced you into reactive mode. We’ll assess how your operations have changed and decide what needs to be restored, renewed, refreshed and retired.
Pick Your Assessment(s)
Business Lens offers 4 assessment tools. Each starts with simple surveys, asking the right people the right questions. Our diagnostic engine then analyzes that data, turning it into information our MINDs can use to create strategic action plans. You’ll get a boardroom-ready presentation with reports that illuminate current IT operations and explain the plan to improve them.
Even if you don’t know exactly where your most pressing problems lie, you probably have a gut sense for which of these 4 assessments will turn up the most opportunity for improvement:
- CIO Business Vision: A great place to start, this assessment determines how satisfied your key stakeholders are with IT’s core services. Find out how you can be of most value to the company and plan resources accordingly.
- CIO-CEO Alignment: A lot has changed in the last 9 months. Is your CEO looking to restore or redesign operations? Don’t assume you know his/her vision for the VUCA future. Get the plan right from the horse’s mouth so you can align IT goals with the company’s goals.
- IT Management & Governance: Dive into your department’s processes to understand strengths and weaknesses. Do the right people have ownership of your critical IT functions, and are they being held accountable?
- IT Staffing Assessment: Survey your own IT staff to get an accurate picture of who’s doing what and how they use their time. You’ll get comprehensive scorecards for 20 different IT functions so you can grow and/or redeploy staff as needed.
Build Your Action Plan
Once you’ve chosen which assessments will best serve your company, our business analyst MINDs administer the surveys and collect data. Diagnostic analysis is then powered by Info-Tech. These initial results serve as a crucial benchmark for measuring future progress.
Armed with a clear understanding of the situation and challenges on the ground, Mind Over Machines technology consultants bring 30 years’ experience to devising the best action plan for your IT department. We collaborate with you to ensure consensus on immediate goals and the most effective ways to reach them.
Business Lens is the total package because it both measures current IT performance and provides a customized path forward. It also guarantees continuity of data because you can use the same diagnostic tools at regular intervals to track progress and plan for continuous improvement. Riding the waves of constant disruption is much easier when you have a system in place for understanding and meeting ever-changing needs.