What's the key to getting the business as excited and passionate about tech as we in IT are?


500 views4 Upvotes5 Comments

CIO in Services (non-Government), 501 - 1,000 employees
These days, I am passionate about cybersecurity and risk management. Those have become really fun challenges to try and tackle. It's changing so quickly that, to some extent, the technology almost doesn't matter. I mean, now there's AI-based automated endpoint protection, for example. That was unheard of 10 years ago. So when I'm communicating with other leaders, I don't worry about the technology. I worry about the concept. I want to make it real. I want to sell them on the fact that I'm making their life more predictable. Take the protection of our assets, for example. We want all of our machines up and running so that people can use them every day. The technology that does that is going to change over time, but the concept remains the same. And if you're always talking about the concept, "We've got to keep our stuff up and stable so that people can use it, and people can continue to do their jobs so that they can serve our customers," that's the conversation. Again, it's actually a conversation about predictability. It's not AI-based endpoint protection, although that's cool.

It's really interesting the way it works. Your CEO, or take it even a level higher, your board, they don't want to hear about the technical stuff. They might ask the question, and that's fair too, "Hey, Allen, are we using AI in any way?" And you can respond, "Actually, yes we are. We use it in lots of ways; for example, it's part of our cybersecurity posture, and we do this with it," but you're talking about it at a stratospheric level. So you've got to be able to do that as a technologist, absolutely.
3
Senior Information Security Manager in Software, 501 - 1,000 employees
To realize that the business will never ever be as excited and passionate about tech as you in IT are.

 

They could care less about they technology. They just want it to run so they don’t have to think about it.
2
Chief Information Officer in Healthcare and Biotech, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Businesspeople and IT people have very different perspectives on technology. Businesspeople most often view technology as an enabler that allows business objectives to be achieved or solves a business problem. Very often, businesspeople also view technology from the lens of competitive advantage, measuring return on technology investment by market share captured or new sources of revenue recognized.

IT people, while often sharing the same enablement view, tend to view technology more from the task-based perspective. For example, technologists may present the cool features of a software product as opposed to how the product can achieve business objectives. The key to getting businesspeople excited about a technology is to speak their language – show them the way a new technology will enable a business initiative, create a competitive advantage, or solve an existing business problem. Excitement can be contagious!
2
Director of Technology Strategy in Services (non-Government), 2 - 10 employees
There's two things here:

1. Accept that there is no "us" and "them", there's just we. You're all trying to achieve the same goal after all, so show how Tech can help achieve the outcomes they need.

2. Talk in a language they understand, even if that means it's not the language we use.
1
Board Member in Healthcare and Biotech, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
Here's what has worked for me always without fail.

1. It's going to add to our revenue and growth
2. Improves our margins and profitability
3. Helps customers connect/engage better
4. Empowers employees
5. Better, faster, cheaper, secure process
6. Required by regulation/law/industry norm
7. Reputation positive/negative impact

If none of the above are answered by the initiative/spend/projects, then why do it ?
2

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