Aligning IT to Organizational Strategy: Not Exactly Rocket Science

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Governance   Program Management   Strategy  

If your IT organization is struggling with how to align IT and keep IT aligned with the organization’s strategic direction, then it could be that the CIO doesn’t know how or even know what alignment would look like. The process isn’t exactly rocket science, or even all that complicated. It does, however, require a top-down approach--and a CIO that thinks more like a business person than a technologist.

I can already feel the groans from readers as they are thinking either “This guy is naïve!” or “This guy doesn’t have a clue!” But what if I’m on to something? What if you might gain a glimmer of insight into achieving, what is for many, an elusive pursuit--aligning IT to organizational strategy?

First, a simple and straightforward definition of alignment is needed, so here is mine:

Organizational alignment is a state that is reached when an organization’s vision, mission, objectives, policies, operational processes and supporting systems consistently deliver value (desired outcomes) to stakeholders (owners, customers, employees, alliances and communities) in a way that is free of contradictions and cultural anomalies.

The “supporting systems” portion of the above definition is where IT comes in. With that focus in mind, I offer this definition of IT alignment:

The ability of IT to…

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