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The New IT: How Technology Leaders Are Enabling Business Strategy in the Digital Age: How Technology Leaders Are Enabling Business Strategy in the Digital Age
Introducing a Powerful New Business Model for Today’s IT
Blogger, speaker, software executive, and bestselling author Jill Dyché has been thinking about leadership a lot lately. Having consulted with business and IT executives with Fortune 500 companies for most of her career, she has heard a common refrain: “What should we do about shadow IT?” She’s decided to address the answer head-on.
With the onslaught of cloud solutions, consumerization of technology, and increasingly tech-savvy business people, it’s time for a manifesto for leaders who recognize—and are nervous about—the demands of the digital age. Whether you’re an executive, department head, or IT manager, The New IT provides an action-ready blueprint for building and strengthening the role of IT in your company—and prescribing IT’s future. Learn how to:
ASSESS your current and future IT profile ALIGN your IT organization with business priorities MAP technology delivery plans according to business priiorities ORGANIZE IT according to your company’s culture and strengths REDEFINE innovation and talent management practices BUILD a stronger and enduring role for IT as a business partnerBy using field-tested techniques to align your IT department with your corporate objectives, you can leverage the power of technology across the entire company. The New IT provides a set of tactical and experienced-based frameworks to help you and your colleagues conceive a new roadmap. It also includes real-world case studies and best practices from successful, technology-enabled companies such as Toyota, Merck, Brooks Brothers, Union Bank, and many others. You’ll hear from major industry pioneers, IT thought leaders, and other change agents who are leading the way in this new frontier. And you’ll learn how to bring your business and IT together in a way that is truly transformative.
The new IT is more than computing power. It balances strategy and delivery. It’s interactive and inclusive. It’s as omnipresent as the smart phone and just as revolutionary. It equips you with the tools you need to succeed in reframing the IT conversation and propelling your business forward.
Praise for The New IT
“Jill has penned a de Toquevillean map of the digital world. Should be a required text for every business leader in the country.”
Thornton May, futurist and author of The New Know
“Enterprise IT has reached an inflection point in how services are delivered and consumed, requiring our profession to undertake a transformation of our own. Jill Dyché describes well the challenges we face, how to assess them, and how to take action to complete the journey toward modern enterprise IT.”
Kimberly Stevenson, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Intel
“Conversational, intuitive, and intelligent, this book goes right to the heart of governance (control), innovation (change), identity (authority), relevance (alignment), and influence (strategy). It’s a timely book that should be read by executives across organizations.”
Peter Marx, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles
“A highly readable, entertaining book that will help CIOs and their executive partners address the ongoing challenge of converting IT from a strategic liability to a strategic asset.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 23, 2015
57 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 2, 2016
I had the opportunity to meet Jill at a SAS conference earlier this year in a session she was presenting. I knew immediately she respresented an industry leader voice for IT especially since she quoted James Dallas a well know successful CIO. This led me to want to read this as her most recent book.
She continued to deliver on that expectation in this book. She covers the breath of all relevant IT strategies today and importance of how they relate to the business. As a fairly new IT executive I found myself highlighting and capturing several notes to leverage to increase my value for my organization.
I would say this is a must-read for any business or IT team leader who wants to make a difference in their business by leveraging IT as a strategic value for their organization.
She continued to deliver on that expectation in this book. She covers the breath of all relevant IT strategies today and importance of how they relate to the business. As a fairly new IT executive I found myself highlighting and capturing several notes to leverage to increase my value for my organization.
I would say this is a must-read for any business or IT team leader who wants to make a difference in their business by leveraging IT as a strategic value for their organization.
May 11, 2019
This book is not a casual read, especially when you follow and want time to ponder. Although published in 2015, still very relevant and one could simply append blockchain to enterprise applications and machine learning to data science, everything still holds together and fresh. Imagine organizations that are still a decade behind in how they envision IT, but are also in midst of transformation and how to the middle management everything starts making sense, and gives them the structural framework to communicate this transformation!
There are half a dozen archetypes described by Jill Dyché that are super useful to assess the maturity of an organization, and half way thru, the author talks about half a dozen service lines that gives a framework to think about IT divisions. There are also 3 self assessments to score your organization and get a measured outlook. Some ideas are arguable especially in the chapter about getting and keeping a seat at the table, but then it's interestingly complex.
Contrary to what other business leaders think of IT, it's not at all like some of the other well established engineering disciplines, such as automotive and civil-infrastructure. Consider the fluid nature of IT, the ease to quickly put a working machine or a machine-tool into production, without even the requirement of a blueprint or even the language to properly describe all it's functions. Needless to say, managing a technology enterprise is too damn hard, and a CIO needs a perfect combo of art and science just like a CEO. I may be slightly biased, but I can't imagine a technology leader not standing on a very broad platform like applied physics or materials engineering that's equally deep, has a flair for architecture and design, has focus on the economic goals, and above all the ability think on her feet.
There are half a dozen archetypes described by Jill Dyché that are super useful to assess the maturity of an organization, and half way thru, the author talks about half a dozen service lines that gives a framework to think about IT divisions. There are also 3 self assessments to score your organization and get a measured outlook. Some ideas are arguable especially in the chapter about getting and keeping a seat at the table, but then it's interestingly complex.
Contrary to what other business leaders think of IT, it's not at all like some of the other well established engineering disciplines, such as automotive and civil-infrastructure. Consider the fluid nature of IT, the ease to quickly put a working machine or a machine-tool into production, without even the requirement of a blueprint or even the language to properly describe all it's functions. Needless to say, managing a technology enterprise is too damn hard, and a CIO needs a perfect combo of art and science just like a CEO. I may be slightly biased, but I can't imagine a technology leader not standing on a very broad platform like applied physics or materials engineering that's equally deep, has a flair for architecture and design, has focus on the economic goals, and above all the ability think on her feet.
Read
June 12, 2017The book gave me a good idea of the dynamics inside modern organizations, and what challenges they face in terms of innovation and changing role of IT. "IT Is not supporting business. It is business." Some observations are really quite obvious but brilliant, e.g. "bright shiny object syndrome". Letters exchange between business and IT would be funny if it wasn't so true: " guess what .. There is no plug and play.." From the case studies I think I appreciated the Checkfree with IT projects portfolio definition, project success metrics, and measurements the best. The IT archetypes breakdown is really illustrative, and many other useful concepts discussed such as holacracy vs. bureaucracy. One thing I found arguable though in the Talent War chapter is the "hire slow and fire fast" suggested approach of acquiring the right talent.
June 7, 2017
This is definately must read book for fresh CIO, IT Directors or those who are seeking how they could structure their knowledge. I wouldn't call it the ultimate encyclopedia for IT Manager, but it definately resonated to me. The book states quite solid framework and guide you on every stage of its understanding, implementation and connects all relevant ins and outs.
December 11, 2017
Very readable book on IT strategy- useful assessments, slightly saturated with "buzzwords".
October 30, 2018
3.5 Stars. Missing self assessment and a little vague. Narration was good.
February 2, 2015
The poor old IT department is still a most misunderstood beast far too often. Despite technology being a critical component for most companies, it is often side-lined or viewed with hostility. How to really get IT on side and make it a critical part of a company? How to make company leaders really understand the demands of the digital age? That is the challenge set by the author.
From assessing current and future IT needs, aligning processes and technologies to tweaking corporate priorities and changing the underlying culture, a complete road map or schedule is offered, backed by case studies and commentary from industry participants. Of course, the hard work still remains but this “go-to book” will give you a lot of support and might keep you sane and focussed whilst you are fighting against your corporate colleagues.
The book’s publicity material succinctly describes matters: “The new IT is more than computing power. It balances strategy and delivery. It’s interactive and inclusive. It’s as omnipresent as the smart phone and just as revolutionary. It equips you with the tools you need to succeed in reframing the IT conversation and propelling your business forward.” This is hard to deny. The book can be a hard, challenging read but your patience may be rewarded. It could have been a little more focussed, reaching out to grab the reader and make them really understand the necessity of a specific task or process, but not at the cost of otherwise watering down the great information within. Yet some humour shined through, such as the author noting “… if I see one more Sun Tzu command in a business book, I'll burn my own armada.”
Joking aside, the author nailed perfectly how some senior executives perform. As noted in the book: “I joke in my conference keynotes that “there's nothing more dangerous than a CEO who's just read an airline magazine.” After all, we've all sat across a conference room table from an impatient executive who's asked about a current trend without understanding the complexity of its implementation. (Cloud, anyone?)”
Anyone who has worked in IT management surely will recognise this. Yet are we as advanced and integrated as we think? The author isn’t so sure. “The new IT organization is hardly the result of a revolution. It's more like a picnic where everyone brings his or her own favourite dish to the table, often blissfully unaware of what's already being served. The result is often many salads and desserts and a dearth of main courses. Guests leave craving some-thing more substantial.” Maybe many guests are still hungry and unsatisfied.
Possibly this book can be the cookbook you’ve always needed but didn’t know existed.
The New IT: How Technology Leaders are Enabling Business Strategy in the Digital Age, written by Jill Dyche and published by McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 9780071846981, 256 pages. YYYY
From assessing current and future IT needs, aligning processes and technologies to tweaking corporate priorities and changing the underlying culture, a complete road map or schedule is offered, backed by case studies and commentary from industry participants. Of course, the hard work still remains but this “go-to book” will give you a lot of support and might keep you sane and focussed whilst you are fighting against your corporate colleagues.
The book’s publicity material succinctly describes matters: “The new IT is more than computing power. It balances strategy and delivery. It’s interactive and inclusive. It’s as omnipresent as the smart phone and just as revolutionary. It equips you with the tools you need to succeed in reframing the IT conversation and propelling your business forward.” This is hard to deny. The book can be a hard, challenging read but your patience may be rewarded. It could have been a little more focussed, reaching out to grab the reader and make them really understand the necessity of a specific task or process, but not at the cost of otherwise watering down the great information within. Yet some humour shined through, such as the author noting “… if I see one more Sun Tzu command in a business book, I'll burn my own armada.”
Joking aside, the author nailed perfectly how some senior executives perform. As noted in the book: “I joke in my conference keynotes that “there's nothing more dangerous than a CEO who's just read an airline magazine.” After all, we've all sat across a conference room table from an impatient executive who's asked about a current trend without understanding the complexity of its implementation. (Cloud, anyone?)”
Anyone who has worked in IT management surely will recognise this. Yet are we as advanced and integrated as we think? The author isn’t so sure. “The new IT organization is hardly the result of a revolution. It's more like a picnic where everyone brings his or her own favourite dish to the table, often blissfully unaware of what's already being served. The result is often many salads and desserts and a dearth of main courses. Guests leave craving some-thing more substantial.” Maybe many guests are still hungry and unsatisfied.
Possibly this book can be the cookbook you’ve always needed but didn’t know existed.
The New IT: How Technology Leaders are Enabling Business Strategy in the Digital Age, written by Jill Dyche and published by McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 9780071846981, 256 pages. YYYY
June 28, 2015
I did the executive summary (audio) version of this book. Overall the content of the book isn't or shouldn't be new. But I think being in IT, these are things which are IT in general tend to miss when working and showing value of IT to the business. It has to be more of a partnership showing and explaining the value of IT in business terms and not just focusing on things like the IT technology portfolio or other IT specific measurements. As the author rightly points out, these are a means to an end. If you don't head the advice, then you end up being relegated in the business as simply another cost which needs to be minimized and not one that is seen as strategic value add.
May 5, 2016
This should be required reading for anyone in, or partner closely with, IT leadership. I've already ordered 5 copies for friends as the book echoes our conversations over the years. As a marketer who relies on data and technology to deliver solutions, this book not only speaks to my partnership with CIO's over the years but also to my own role. Throughout the book I found I could replace "IT" with "Marketing" and the concepts applied 100% to my role and delivery. I highly recommend this book... And, if you're in my friends-list you're probably already getting a copy! ;-)
October 22, 2016
Very good reading for IT leaders
If you are am IT leader, you will identify yourself in this book. it will make you review how you operate today and what you can to change. I took notes in almost every chapter and now I am trying to see concrete actions that I could take.
If you are am IT leader, you will identify yourself in this book. it will make you review how you operate today and what you can to change. I took notes in almost every chapter and now I am trying to see concrete actions that I could take.
Read
January 19, 2016Focused on IT division design
Read
August 1, 2018Great insight into real challenges facing IT in corporate America. The auther uses helpful assessments and meaningful infographs / graphics to illustrate her points.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews