CEO’s Key to IT Transformation and Organizational Agility

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the success of companies in today's dynamic landscape hinges on their agility and ability to adapt swiftly. The CEO, being at the helm of an organization, holds a pivotal role in driving change and fostering agility within the company. As a CEO, you understand the imperative of managing change to achieve agility, a concept reinforced through numerous change management trainings and interactions with experts. Despite these efforts, you still find yourself grappling with the challenges posed by change.

Evidently, there is a critical gap in your change management training.

Ironically, while information technology (IT) stands as the foremost catalyst of change in contemporary business environments, conventional change management seminars often overlook the intricacies of managing IT-driven transformations. It may not be obvious, but managing IT-driven change is a very specialized skill needing a paradigm shift in mindset and approach.

Although IT is the primary agent of change and CEOs need to manage IT-Driven transformations , research indicates that the lack of support from CEOs and top management remains the primary contributor to IT project failures. The alarmingly high failure rates of IT and enterprise resource planning (ERP) initiatives should serve as a wake-up call for CEOs to reevaluate their approach to IT-driven change management.

Thankfully, a solution is now available. A new specialized training program introduces a unique novel skill, which the author calls “Behavioral IT” skill, a facet previously overlooked and unaddressed. CEOs now have the opportunity to refine their abilities in navigating resistance to IT-driven change, fostering organizational agility. And the good news is that technical expertise is not a prerequisite for effective leadership. CEOs and managers need not possess intricate IT knowledge – they only need to know Behavioral IT.

Keywords: Information Technology, IT-Driven Change, Behavioral IT, IT, Management, Change Management, Agile Organization, Coping with Change, Computers, Managing Change, CEOs, CXO, Management Training

JEL Classification: M10, M11, M12, M14, M5, M19, M53, L29, M20, M29, M30, M39, M40, Z10, Z19