Breakthrough IT

Chapter 5. Milking the Cow

“Tweaking our portfolio should not take too long this year,” explained Marissa, the CIO of Breakthrough Corp. “I think our allocation was just about right last year.”

“The market seems on the cusp of a slowdown, so I don't want to get too aggressive. I think we really need to pull back on our riskiest investments,” observed Jim, Marissa's boss and CEO of the company.

“I've seen the same signs. I've prepared a draft allocation model that I'd like to spend some time on. I'm going to review it with the Program Office next week as we determine which strategic projects to pursue next year.” Marissa pulled out her allocation model—not of a traditional investment portfolio, but rather, detailing the different classes of projects Breakthrough Corp would be investing in, each ranked according to risk, the expected ROI of each, and the timeframe to achieve that ROI. It also spelled out past returns for each project class, carefully tracked since Marissa spearheaded the company's transition to a Breakthrough IT organization.

The preceding chapters laid the foundation for the Breakthrough IT organization, sourcing ongoing operations to reduce their cost and “mindshare,” building support for Breakthrough IT in the C‐suite, and transitioning IT staff from technical experts to process and business experts with a passion for technology. While these changes may have shaken your IT organization to its core, they are just the first step in creating a Breakthrough IT organization, ...