C-Level support is critical, but are you using it?

[alexanderwhite]

C-Level Execs are all talking about APIs and Digital and if they aren't then your company may be in trouble. No longer are APIs considered an IT initiative, but business is increasingly depending on IT to use technology to break the handcuffs of data silos and start using data and information to their advantage.

Unfortunately, we still see many companies approaching API programs like they are traditional IT projects. Ask once for funds, manage to the scope you discussed 4 or 5 months ago, follow the same slow processes and ignore real threats and opportunities sitting right in front of them. When its stated this way, it sounds ridiculous but this is how many companies still operate even after reading articles about industries turned upside down by a new competitor they never heard of a few months back.

So why the disconnect between the C-level and the delivery teams? This is a great question that I'd love to get feedback on, as it makes no sense to me. C-Level teams are begging IT to be innovative, ask for what they need, ask again if things change, deliver more quickly and never stop leaning forward. Yet we see conservative approaches for IT delivery that aren't aligned to what is needed to keep companies ahead of their competitors and soon to be competitors.

Do these comments sound familiar;

• I understand we need to move quickly, but you don't understand our culture.
• I tried to get people to change, but they won't.
• My hands are tied. If I could change things, I would.
• It is what it is. We'll try to do our best, but don't expect much.

So back to the original title to this article, "C-Level support is critical, but are you using it?". The very essence of becoming digital is to disrupt the way we operate and relook and challenge everything companies have been doing for decades. People have built their careers on technologies and processes that have evolved over years and years and now we're asking "why?". Disruption is extremely difficult and people that have done this successfully have the battle scars to prove it. You will run into roadblocks, you will run into people that won't want to change, you will run into competing priorities, you will run into the same slow processes.....and you need air cover. If you have C-level support and you haven't leveraged this air cover to move quickly, you aren't doing what's expected. Break barriers, change processes and do whatever is needed to move more quickly. Call your executive today and ask for help with the biggest challenge facing the team. They'll thank you!

Share your stories!!!

[mleppitsch]

To your point, we often see initiatives struggle when there is not enough executive sponsorship for the rest of the enterprise to feel any relevance, or when there is not enough funding to operationalize a strong central API capability that can create the first proof points. This weakness is compounded when the program’s managers are instructed to bootstrap the program by trying to secure funding and resources from other groups or business units, in order to build up a new API competence. Conceptually this internal effort does contribute to the initial education of all the business units; but in reality, the frustrations of poor funding or poor sponsorship almost always undermine the morale of these change agents, and results in delays in the creation of real business value and demonstrable proof. In several enterprises I have seen recently, the change process ends up spanning years; in a few instances, the initially excited teams have become dejected and returned to more traditional jobs in the enterprise, or even moved on to greener pastures. [From a blog series]

So taking your message to the C-Level is critical to sustain funding, goal setting, and endurance until there is enough proof that demonstrates value to the rest of the enterprise.