Dayton IT Consulting

Its been un-real the past few weeks.  Most people in the Greater Cincinnati and Dayton areas have been dealing with the big wind storm clean up and the inconvenience of no power.  At the national level, our leaders in Washington have done about everything but lead and now we have a financial crisis.  On a personal level, I’m dealing with an auto accident that my wife had.  Fortunately she was not seriously injured, but we still have to deal with the at fault driver’s insurance and our insurance.  This woman had the state minimum insurance, which is not enough to even pay for our car.  I spent the past weekend dealing with car dealers; you know what a joy that can be. (Not)
 
Given the title and my introduction, you might think I’m writing from the bar; maybe I should be.  Its really about IT Strategy.  I recently met with a prospect that is interested in our IT Wellness Check.  As we were talking about his organization, he said that they tend to be a bottom up organization.  This means that change and initiatives tended to flow from the rank and file up to management rather than from the management down as in a top down approach.  He is looking for us to help him with how do drive an IT strategy in this type of environment.  

What he was really asking, was how do you herd the cats so they all go in the desired direction more or less?   The short answer is influence.  Once he has established his overall IT strategy, one tactic can be to influence the rank in file to go in the general direction he would like to go.  In other words, give them the ideas and let them think it was their original idea.  Then he can use the company culture to his advantage.

Speaking of good ideas, its Miller time, see you at the bar.