Which business unit is best to draw support from to successfully launch a modernization initiative?
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The role of CIO or CTO is not just about being strategic, it’s about being a real people person, trying to be empathic and reaching out to people. You also need to be a good storyteller so that IT is not always pigeonholed as a cost center that’s just turning the wheels and creating widgets.
Promote the fact that IT is more around the business value, customer delight and all the other positive things that are the reason that the company exists in the first place. A lot of people forget that when they’re looking at all their project statuses and spreadsheets. They take away the story and dilute the messaging there.
There are two pieces you need for change management: the top down piece, to get senior leadership on board; and the change agents, to influence from the bottom up. You need to drive both pieces.
Because whilst the people at the top will create the momentum, your modernization project is going to fail unless you've got the influencers at the bottom to help embed it in the culture and change the way things are normally done. Without them, the moment the pressure from the top lessens, things start to revert back. I see that happening all the time.
Sometimes I have found that my cheerleaders are not always at the top. Sometimes they’re way below, a very good influencer who is really able to communicate all the way to the top.
Finance would probably be first. Support without available capital would be counterproductive :)
It really depends on the type of business you're in. For manufacturing I would say global supply chain, and engineering.
For pharmaceutical it might be product marketing.
For insurance it could be sales or channels.