The Transformational CIO: Leadership and Innovation Strategies for IT Executives in a Rapidly Changing World

Best of Both Worlds

In a very real sense, Harry is trying to blend the power and clout of a highly centralized organization with the speed and agility of a looser, more decentralized organization. It's a balancing act, to be sure, but one that Harry enjoys performing.

This is the best job I've ever had. I've done application development, I've run infrastructure, I've set up networks, and I've managed service operations. Because of my range of experience, I've developed a broader, more horizontal view of the enterprise.

It's still not unusual to find people who've spent 30 years in the network division, or 20 years in applications testing. But it's harder to make good decisions if you view everything from the perspective of your own little technology silo. If you want to be a good IT leader who makes good decisions, it helps to be a generalist.

Sourcing is an area in which the ability to make the right decisions consistently can create or destroy a competitive advantage. “One thing we've discovered is that it's important to let other people do some of the work for you,” says Harry. “For example, we're carving off blocks of our application development. We have managed services in our infrastructure environments. We pay other companies to run our data center operations so we don't have to spend huge amounts of capital building new data centers.”

While some functions can be outsourced with minimal risks, other functions must be kept closer to home. “We're looking at which business ...