From IT Director to Group CTO through Enterprise Architecture
The Situation
The sponsoring client was an IT director, newly anointed as the innovation director in a rapidly-growing SME – in fact, the next growth spurt is liable to make them a ‘large’ enterprise.
The company had recently embarked on large-scale technology transformation, including replacing their core application and underlying infrastructure. Now that the big and obvious changes have been mode, how could a technology-oriented innovation director continue to demonstrate value?
The Task
The trigger for bringing me in was that the company’s rapid growth meant that it was starting to step on its own feet. The COO recognised that a little more architectural rigour was needed, but not too much please.
The official brief: develop an Enterprise Architecture practice that suits the business.
The softer brief: provide expertise, support, and mentoring to the IT director.
The Action / Approach
This required a blend of technology, systemic, and people-oriented skills. Both my background as former Enterprise Architecture Group Lead at a FTSE100 company and my increasing interest in the human side of change were highly relevant.
We had a lot of conversations about what the board was trying to achieve, what the private equity owners needed, what elements held the imagination and interest of the exec, etc. And so we built models, introduced governance structures, changed what information was presented and how it was displayed. Always following the attention of the organisation, seeking out the points of greatest influence and strategic value.
Together, we changed how the organisation approached change and investments in change, often in ways that became invisibly ingrained as ‘how we do things’.
The Result
End result: my client became Group CTO and was able to negotiate a bigger equity stake during a change of private equity ownership. A success for his career as well as providing clear value to the organisation.
Focus In On: Responsible for Innovation
New Areas of Value:
Enabling positive behavioural change
Effective delivery against financial targets
Successful, timely delivery of evidence based transformative change
Enabling competitive differentiation and increasing market share
More consistent and sustainable profitability and business growth
Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
Improvements around:
Inefficient or misaligned operating model and lack of business agility
Misaligned goals across business and silos
Lack of clarity around the internal business ecosystem
Lack of appropriate capabilities, skills, tools and methods
Lack of exec sponsorship and track record
Unclear or inefficient internal communications
Disconnect between culture and future vision
