IT Governance: Guidelines for Directors

CHAPTER 1: WHY IT GOVERNANCE MATTERS

In the 21^st Century, IT governance is, within the broader corporate governance context, critical for all organizations. Those without an IT governance strategy face significant risks; those with one perform measurably better.

Governance background

The ‘greed is good’ business philosophy of the 1980s and 1990s seemed to give way, at the end of the 20^th Century, to a ‘looting is good’ approach. Catastrophic financial failure is, of course, a characteristic of the business cycle Looting has happened before: BICC and Maxwell Communications are good examples. Corporate collapse, originating in a failure of internal control, has happened before: Baring is an instance. The spate of collapses and financial failures ...