Henry Ford is famously credited as saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” The attribution may not be accurate, but it’s still stirring.

Apple made the iPhone because everyone at Apple universally thought all cell phones stunk. So, they made one that they liked.

I gave conference presentations in 2013 and 2015 postulating that when users ask for an iPad for work, they would be better served by a Windows tablet instead. You may disagree with that conclusion, but stay with me.

The state of enterprise technology

I mention these anecdotes because enterprise IT shops everywhere work on a customer demand and fulfillment basis. The business makes a request. IT fulfills the request and delivers the final product back to the business to utilize. IT often bemoans its “order taker” role in the overall organization, and would rather have an upfront seat at the table.

A few years ago, there was a big buzzword, called the consumerization of IT. It’s fallen out of use in recent years, but it still shapes how we do business. Once upon a time, enterprise technology makers exclusively marketed to IT personnel to bring solutions into the business. Now, they go direct to the consumer in the business, bypassing IT. This has left IT out of the loop, causing not just frustration, but a whole gamut of security and integration challenges.

Given these conditions, IT is at best an order-taker, and at worst, completely uninvolved. Of course, we cannot return to the “good ole days,” so what is the solution? Is business-led IT really a bad thing? Yes and no.

Tech-savvy Business + Visionary Technologists = Digital Transformation

I love it when the business takes a strong interest in technology. Digital transformation isn’t possible without business leaders seeing the opportunity and making investments and commitments accordingly. However, business people are experts in the business, not technology. I want tech-savvy business leaders, but it’s best when they know their limitations and when to partner-up.

IT has the technologists, not the business experts. The best technologists understand the business and the industry. They use that knowledge to curate and research the technology options available, and bring the best and most relevant solutions to the business for investment.

Don’t wait to be asked

I’ve received the strongest recognition in my career for doing things that I was never asked to do in the first place. I saw an opportunity. I went for it. The business loved it.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t invent the Model T or the iPhone, but my team and I have done some pretty cool things over the years. We built cloud apps before they were called cloud apps. We devised a mobile strategy that was effective and efficient. We implemented a secure VPN that was so seamless, no one knew it was even there. We migrated data centers in a non-disruptive way using Agile. Most recently, we fully automated database server provisioning.

Enterprise technology needs more leaders. That’s why I write the blog. We need the vision to see and the wherewithal to act. The business needs us, not only for our ability to crank out widgets, but for our ability to partner, think, strategize, and deliver. It’s called digital business. Let’s make it happen.