Yes
Finally someone speaking the truth.

I can speak first hand.
I grew up IT (many years ago), and then made the choice to move to business. (product mgmt, markteing, bus dev). I have the titles and the experience. I only say that, so say this;

But what does IT hire - people with tech experience.
Not business experence.
They pick - have you worked with X technology OR can you solve this old logic puzzle - over communication, market focus, people expertise, and business view.

I see it over and over.

There is a divide between the business and IT, and it starts with the IT mindset and the hiring process.

(so where does this leave the business person who is also a decent engineer - Services or Marketing - or starting their own company )

-Bruce

I have to agree with your assessment, we do hire geeks... but speaking as an IT professional with a business background I disagree with your reasoning.

We hire geeks because we have to... the businesses don't understand how to use IT, even when we offer.

They don't seem to understand that you can't have 20 unique programs or systems that do the same things (production reporting, inventory control, etc.) without adding significant IT costs and maintenance headaches. Even when they are told about the additional expense their response is "That's what we want and we are the ones that make the money.. you're just an expense. We can get persons from India, Argentina (fill in the current least expensive area of the world for IT) and they will do what we tell them. Oh and your budget is getting reduced next year and you have to continue to maintain all the current systems in addition to building the new system we are asking for ... and yes we know some of these systems are 15 year old now... but we still need them.

In order to keep up with the "new" demands you have hire for IT skills or you have to keep re-training and redeploying your current staff. Not always an option.

I see it everyday. Business doesn't understand how IT HAS to function in order keep the businesses running.

Bill

Good post. Here's the two sentence summary. Some people happen to be great geeks, good businesspeople and decent communicators. Bought any Apple, Google or Adobe stock the last couple years?

When we hire, we are seeking all of the above. Exceptions can be made, but require structure to make the whole result work.

At the C (IO, EO, OO...) level, we better be good at all those skills and more.

The great thing about the younger people you mentioned is that all the non result stuff is being thrown out. Those people are learning the way innovators always have. It will be interesting to see what comes of this institutional approach.

Dana

I read this article a few times to trying to figure out the main message and still don't know if I got it. I think there are two issues here.

First: The Mythical Business/Technology Worker Hybrid -

The big push is for IT to be aligned with the business and the proposed solution is to hire technologists that have solid, or at least some, “business knowledge”. How is this done? Where do you find someone who is happy working day-to-day as a software engineer, network/directory administrator or other IT role and has the business acumen to be able to provide that elusive alignment to business unit needs & objectives? If they exist they are going to lean one way or the other and retaining them would be difficult. A truly knowledgeable and cross functional individual will most likely break the IT budget anyway.

If you truly wish to mix it up then IT must function only as the technology backbone (like skilled trades electricians and pipe-fitters in manufacturing and industrial facilities that provide the necessary circuits and plumbing) and maybe help with standards development, education and testing. Then the business units take responsibility for the technology that enables their productivity (like buying and plugging in a radio or water cooler). IT is then distributed as a business component throughout every area and has to answer to their own business hierarchy for successes and failures.

To govern and keep the wheels from falling off there would need to be a technology lead or liaison position in every business unit. This person would understand the daily business objectives, needs and issues and knows what technology fulfills them. This group would meet regularly as an advisory council and report to change management boards and executives to plan and implement new initiatives.

The key is responsibility and accountability and keeping close to the REAL source of business productivity…the workers in charge of service and product output.

Second: The Educated & Degreed Engineer/Innovator/Creator Conundrum –

In Fran Johansson’s book “The Medici Effect” - he brings out the importance of learning differently and how a broad education coupled with self education is a key factor in creative thinking and innovation. Hiring individuals with a targeted degree will provide some assurance that you have someone who has learned what they’ve been taught – And progressive experience in a discipline will provide some assurance that they know how things are generally and usually done. But if you need innovative thinkers who can create, develop and implement the “next big thing” then you’ll need to reach outside of the norm and look for those who have broad education, training, interests and experiences. And that simply doesn’t fit into the current mindset of HR professionals, hiring managers and executives. They all want to rely on the standard degree credentials and practical relational experience laden resumes. If that’s you, you may feel comfortable, but you end up with the same thing that everyone else has.

To fix it we need to look at how creative businesses staff for innovation. Marketing, design and advertising disciplines and even music, theatre and dance are areas where creative people thrive. In each of these you will find individuals who have broad talents and experiences. The best could have a formal education in their related field but their experiences are varied. To keep on the edge of innovation and creativity they broaden their exposure to new elements and materials. They seek out diversity and are very inquisitive regarding doing things differently. Oh…and they are open to greater risk and fail often. None of this fits well into the mold we’ve forged for IT and business.

So we need to break the mold and break it often! We NEED people that have specific talents in technical areas like virtualization, application development and wireless broadband infrastructure architecture stuff. But we probably shouldn’t shove them into a raised floor cubicle – bull penned with like talented engineers to work day after day under the same constraints and limitations. Place them all over the organization where they can perform their technical roles while they grow in their understanding of the businesses objectives and needs.

Your IT people need to experience the technology from the business end to gain insight and release their creativity. Everyone is full of ideas they just need to be exposed to the many perspectives and needs that exist within your company for them to be inspired and their ideas to surface.

Teach them to dance!

Jeff Williams
Managing Consultant
Wolcott Group LLC