The pressure to build revenues is not a new one but charging IT departments with what was once the domain of the sales and product teams, is. Business leaders have made the correlation between solid technology and profit margins, and as the thirst grows, this supply will need to be met. So the savvy IT leader is beginning to wear much more than the traditional cost center driven IT hat. He or she is as brazen about which practices will push their departments up the “value to the business” hierarchy. So the age of the revenue generation is here we see new digital products and services being generated by the very people who are seeing the trends emerge and what is actually entails to make the wish list complete. The future is likely to see a dedicated team within IT tasked with doing just this, call it the rise of the IT developmental producer.
How is the product and IT union embraced in reality? The most basic point is to adopt a product mentality which moves the focus from project management to owning the product life cycle. That means managing all aspects of product development and delivery, including product evolution and adaptation where new capabilities meet changing needs to ensure product longevity and survival. The revenue focused IT leader has to be aware that the their adaptation to a new way of thinking is by no means an ill reflection on their original role as a core tech leader – both business drive and technology are vital at this juncture and this equal footing is what gives the IT leader the edge over his colleagues. This understanding simply serves to deepen relationships with business peers and engenders collaborative working from the top down. This along with and open communication is critical to a bright digital future.
One method might be to simply run with it. Successes usually build on each other and keeping the momentum is key. This might be easier than said than done but it as much about being intelligent about the projects chosen and products created, as well as how and when to disseminate them. Logically if the approach is based on quick wins, it ticks the budget and timeline box in one fell swoop. As confidence and trust grow this inevitably snowballs into the bigger more time and labor intensive projects and an ease with which to get new plans green lighted.
What else is happening inside the head of the revenue conscious IT leader? We have established they do not have an ego about collaboration both with their peers, or in attitude. They have a product mentality, additionally they know the rate of reactions has to be speeded up since advances won’t stop so neither can they, as such development and delivery is accelerated. They know this very well. They also know the value of finding and retaining the best talent, after all as a multifaceted entity there is no longer a blueprint for the IT leader. More increasingly we will see the adaptability of the IT leader being based on how well their added skills fit in elsewhere within the business.