Executive Accountability: Creating the Environment for Business Value from Technology

Because technology reaches across and beyond the entire organization, there is a critical need for executive accountability, leadership, and involvement to achieve measurable business benefits from technology investments. Too often, the absence of strategic thinking, unverified technology benefits, ineffective organizational collaboration, and vague or dispersed managerial accountability seriously undermine the potential results that could otherwise be achieved from critical initiatives. The authors look realistically at how technology is chosen, how to evaluate existing technology, and how to deliver value. To change the typical pattern of failure, organizations must move away from the proliferation of blame. When accountability is not specified or when executives fail to take full ownership, the value technology delivers to the company is at risk. Executives can immediately improve the delivery of value from technology by implementing organization-wide collaboration and decision-making that ensures all voices are heard. A second crucial action to undertake is measurement, and this book describes the limits of only looking at problems from a financial perspective, identifies available tools, and offers new perspectives on measuring technology value. A third action is strategic initiative management, an oversight process that ensures that the consistent delivery of business benefits from technology initiatives is visible to executives while projects are under way.

A practical guide for executives to realize greater business value from past technology investments and to develop the management accountability and processes to derive measurable benefits from future technology strategies and initiatives.

DARLENE BARRIENTOS CRANE is President of PCI Crane Consulting.

MARGERY MAYER is CEO and Senior Management Consultant at Strategy & Process Experts, a consulting firm that bridges the gap between initiatives and results.