Published in today’s Wall Street Journal is a very provocative article from Marc Andreessen entitled “Why Software is Eating the World”. Marc is well known in the world of technology as one of the founders of Netscape and who subsequently either founded or funded several other successful ventures. The thrust of the article is that software is now so fundamental to the fabric of modern society that many new business will emerge, sweeping away old established ones. He cites various examples from the past 10 years, as well as highlighting the compelling economics that underpin his assertions.
Despite the impact of information technology on modern society, many of the benefits related to information sharing and collaboration have been restricted to the social networking phenomenon – e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Across many industries, the use of technology has remained firmly under the control of the IT department or function. The systems in place are usually very inflexible and customised for the specific departmental operations and processes. Any changes or integration with other systems is via a very cumbersome and rigid process. It is lengthy and there are often large backlogs of requests for changes and they take on a life of their own.
There are many reasons for this. The primary ones, according to the technology professionals, are because they have to manage complexity, diversity, legal and commercial obligations, along with the insidious but no less significant elements of ego and fear. Global multi-nationals, not unreasonably, just want their systems to ‘work’ and IT Directors with their own future in mind, have a vested interest in the same.
The high priests of the technology functions are keen to keep up with the times, but wish that technology would not keep changing so quickly, as it upsets all of their careful planning.Their biggest nightmare is when the Chairman or Chief Executive starts asking for the latest consumer device. The one that can deliver all their information needs into their hand at the touch of a button or the press of an app on a touchscreen. The challenge to respond to such a request creates so much disruption and impacts across so many internal policies, that the initial response is to delay and then explain why it would be unwise from a security viewpoint. If that defence strategy fails, then the ‘Maginot Line‘ is to say that a study has been commissioned to identify the appropriate strategy for a general deployment of such tools across the whole organisation. The hope is that this will take so long that another crisis will erupt in the meantime diverting attention away from the study and it can quietly be dropped.
This is a very cynical view of the way many corporations manage technology, but over recent years it has proven to be reasonably accurate. Which brings me to the point. Is it now impossible for large, mature organisations to successfully accommodate the transformation Andreessen suggests? In order to do so requires a very bold senior management team – supported by an enlightened board of directors – and a cadre of internal managers that can adapt very rapidly. Such combinations are rare.
If it is impossible to change the existing organisation, another approach may be to establish an external company that can be built using the DNA of the existing business, but with none of the impeding bureaucracy and functional boundaries. The goal being the child eats the parent rather than a competitor does so.
Whatever happens, for many organisations the existing situation is unsustainable and it’s fair to say that tomorrow will not be like yesterday, if it ever was!
