Winning The 3-Legged Race: When Business and Technology Run Together

Book description

Like an old-fashioned three-legged race, the business and technology sides of any company are running today with the left leg of one tied to the right leg of the other. Some companies understand that and run well; some don't. The top

executives interviewed in this book (see overflow page for a partial list) know where competitive leaders are headed.

Winning the Three Legged Race is the first major output of the new Business Technology Management (BTM) Institute, reflecting insights from world-class experts in industry and academia. It gives enterprise, line-of-business, and IT leaders a powerful framework for optimizing areas critical to producing sustainable value from technology:

1. Strategy, planning, and management.

2. Technology investment.

3. Strategic enterprise architecture.

4. Governance and organization.

For each area, the authors identify implications for ordered processes, organizational structures, information requirements, and technology. Winning the Three Legged Race introduces the BTM Maturity Model: a breakthrough benchmark for setting priorities and mapping effective change paths. The authors support their framework with up-to-the-minute data, new case studies, executive interviews, and Top 10 Action Lists that empower decision-makers to act--and get results.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. Acknowledgments: Authors
  3. Acknowledgments: Contributing Authors
  4. Acknowledgments: Research and Leadership Insights
  5. Preface: Our Journey So Far
  6. Introduction: The Convergence of Business and Technology
    1. The “whole brain”
    2. Working together
    3. Winning the race
  7. I. Preparing to Run Getting BTM on the Executive Agenda
    1. 1. What Is BTM?
      1. Companies can move beyond alignment
      2. The role of BTM
      3. BTM has four critical dimensions
      4. Governance & Organization
      5. Managing Technology Investments
      6. Strategy & Planning
      7. Strategic Enterprise Architecture
      8. The BTM Maturity Model measures a firm’s progress
      9. BTM can be implemented in five steps
    2. 2. Strategic Positions
      1. Firms engage in two general types of strategic actions
      2. Exploitation: being lean
      3. Exploration: being agile
      4. BTM informs and enables a firm’s strategic investments
      5. Firms can have two types of strategic learning
      6. Business technology investment changes with strategic positioning
        1. Notes
    3. 3. Making the Right Investments
      1. Required business capabilities must be identified
      2. Required business capabilities start with strategic positioning
      3. Exploitative capabilities leverage stable platform resources
      4. Explorative capabilities and the dynamic leverage of options
        1. Notes
    4. 4. Governance: Who’s in Charge?
      1. Boards face significant challenges in overseeing business technology
      2. Business technology shapes business strategy in four ways
      3. Boards need a process for managing technology decisions
        1. Notes
    5. 5. Is Your Organization Ready?
      1. Five principles should guide organization design
        1. Organize to foster coordination between business and technology
        2. Nurture relationship networks for visioning, innovation, and sourcing
        3. Organize to explicitly manage three categories of processes
        4. Develop a modular organizing logic
        5. Develop a strategic sourcing logic
      2. A more sophisticated logic is needed
        1. Notes
  8. II. Leading the Pack Realizing Critical BTM Capabilities
    1. 6. Buy, Hold, or Sell?
      1. PPM elevates decision making
      2. PPM plays a strategic role
      3. The anatomy of a portfolio
      4. PPM involves four activities
        1. Notes
    2. 7. The Age of Process
      1. How firms develop business agility
      2. Agility introduces new challenges
      3. How process perspectives have evolved
      4. Processes enable real-time business networks
      5. Business networks must be managed
        1. Notes
    3. 8. Considering Risk
      1. The nature of risks in technology is broad
      2. The environment for managing project risk is becoming more dynamic
      3. Partnerships increase the risk
      4. Risk mitigation approaches
        1. Notes
    4. 9. Measuring Success
      1. How should executives make sense of the business value of business technology?
      2. How are metrics to assess business value derived?
      3. What are the various roles of business technology?
      4. How do we develop the capability to monitor and use business technology?
      5. How can firms increase the value of business technology investment?
      6. Methods, mechanisms, and tactics to measure business technology’s contribution
      7. Getting the payoff
        1. Notes
    5. Conclusion: Peering Into the Future
      1. Notes
    6. Profiles: About the Authors and Contributors
      1. Contributing Authors

Product information

  • Title: Winning The 3-Legged Race: When Business and Technology Run Together
  • Author(s): Wilson, Sambamurthy, Hoque, Trainer, Zmud
  • Release date: November 2005
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780131877269