TransformIT Show
Collaboration as a Business Model

Ray Noonan

CEO of Cogent Ltd

How did you like what Ray had to say about collaboration and the need to focus on business value?

Did it challenge you?

It probably should have. If I can summarize what Ray shared with us, it would be that we need to:

Break down the walls that separate us and keep us apart and to always put the business value above the needs of IT.

I’m quite sure that some of what he said sent shivers down the spines of IT people everywhere. But Ray wasn’t focused on “IT” – only on what IT can do to deliver value to the organization.

He believes that IT is too important to be segregated in a separate function and so he integrated it into the business units directly. He believes that we should all be technologists and so that we need to trust our people with technology decisions. He believes that the sense of “ownership” – to the degree that it inhibits sharing and collaboration – must be eliminated so that our teams can work together rapidly and fluidly. And he believes that the only thing that matters is the value that is generated for the business – so if an IT process or policy is somehow disrupting the delivery of value, then it should be changed.

If you keep your “IT hat” on, these ideas can seem scary and downright heretical. But if you think like a CEO, they make a lot more sense.

About The TransformIT Show

Each episode explores the questions:

What does the future hold for IT organizations?
And what will that mean for their future leaders?

Host Charles Araujo interviews business executives, IT leaders, futurists and industry experts to understand how their career and experiences shed light on what the future holds for business and the IT organizations that power them. Most importantly, our guests share their advice for all future leaders about how to survive and thrive in the Digital Era.