Cio, act as a shopping mall owner

GiraudManagement Consulting

13 April 2023 1

Demand-Supply Management:CIO, act as a shopping mall owner!

Olivier GiraudApril 10, 2014

CIO, act as a shopping mall owner!

Chris Brochert, Centerpointe mall. Source: Mlive.com

Point of View


13 April 2023 CIO, act as a shopping mall owner! 2

The story in short

• Business would like to see the CIO act like the owner of a shopping mall• IT has developed complex frameworks to structure IT Management• In spite of all the efforts to professionalise IT, Business and IT still aren’t satisfied• A sense of urgency is required as Business and IT are disrupted by digitization• The shopping mall analogy helps cut to the essence of “Business-IT alignment” • The analogy can also help CIO’s explain why running IT as a business isn’t easy• Our tips to the CIO:

– Attract business-minded executives– Introduce Customer Journey Mapping to develop

and maintain vision– Adopt Agile for innovation– Be adamant about Business getting involved– Select adequate technology partners

Source: inktank.fi



Simply put, Business would like to see CIO act as the owner of a shopping mall

• Business stakeholders want the IT department to treat them like customers, with a directory, shops, qualified personnel…

• A (sales)person should always be available to help, provide tips and advice on how to best use the products

• If one shop isn’t able to satisfy the customer, an alternative is offered at another shop nearby

• The mall boss is on the lookout for what is or isn’t successful, listens to customer suggestions, monitors the marketplacefor new ideas, and offers successful brands a place in the mall

Source: Telegraph.co.uk



Traditionally, IT has developed frameworks to structure IT Management, incl. Demand & Supply

• The IT function excels at producing frameworks with cryptic names (ASL, BiSL, CMMI, COBIT, ITIL, TOGAF...)

• These are useful to structure and professionalize the discipline

• Have these models helped in structuring a gooddialogue and relationshipwith “the Business”?



In spite of the efforts to professionalise IT, Business as well as IT still are not satisfied by the status quo

Thanks to Cloud and Agile developments, Business has high expectations of IT

Yet “even IT executives report declining performance from their own function”

Source: “IT under pressure” McKinsey, March 2014

Importance of IT to the Delivery ofBusiness Strategy and Vision

Source: Global Status Report on the Governance of Enterprise IT – ISACA & ITGI, 2011



A sense of urgency is required as Business and IT are disrupted by the digitization of everything

Cartoon With permission of Tom Fishburne, ©Marketoonist.com

IT must react adequately or it will be bypassed by Business

Source: Gartner (June 2012)

The Nexus of Forces

Your business: open, connected, on demand?



By taking the shopping mall analogy we can cut to the essence of “Business-IT alignment”

• It helps to structure Demand and Supply Management by looking at the Business as customers, IT as a shopping mall and the CIO as the mall boss

• The IT organisation must understand the Demand side very well: what are the motivations, values, behaviours, hierarchy of needs... of the (internal) customers?

• To do that, IT must proactively analyse and anticipate business evolutions• IT also has to manage the Supply side equally well:

– Who can deliver the best solution– As responsively as possible– When and where needed– Against the lowest TCO?

SupplyAdequate, Responsive, Accessible, Affordable…

DemandValues, Motivations, Behaviours, Needs…



The shopping mall analogy is also useful to explain why running IT as a Business isn’t easy

• Keeping Demand and Supply in perfect harmony at the lowest possible cost is no mean feat.

• Business stakeholders understand what it takes and will appreciate the efforts. For instance, in simple words:– Transformation: refurbishing the mall while keeping it attractive looking and retaining a

pristine customer experience will take a lot of effort (money!)– Innovation: yes we can remove some shops to fit a supermarket in, but that takes some

negotiations and reengineering, and it has to fit in the overall architecture– Operations: everything new you want has to be compatible with the existing infrastructure,

or it may take some time (e.g. training) and effort (i.e. investment)– Employee engagement: self-service and e-learning portal for staff can be arranged but access

has to be secured; an à la carte restaurant is expensive– Sustainability: green power can be arranged, but solar panels on the roof tops may not fit,

recycling bins make sense if everyone is disciplined in using them– Costs: yes all of the above may result in improved results, but some investments will be

needed and that budget is limited! What should go first?



Tips to CIOs who want to act as a shopping mall boss

Attract business-minded individuals to become “Marketing & Sales managers” (Demand Managers ++) for each business unit

Introduce Customer Journey Mapping to develop and maintain a high-level vision

Adopt Agile methods to support innovation Be adamant about Business getting involved!

Customer Journey Mapping and Scrum teams won’t work without that engagement

Select supply-side technology partners who are willing and able to support these ways of working

This won’t be an easy road, change management skills will be required



Don’t talk complex IT terminology with Business... Keep those to structure your own organisation

• Customer experience• Speed to market• Requirements, features• Sales, costs, profit

margin, business case• Employee engagement• Compliancy

• How to fit in application landscape?

• Capabilities required?• Which vendor?• Processes impacted?• How to operate?• What to improve?

ASLBiSL CMMI ITIL

TOGAF

Lean ITDevOps



How we can help you

• Introduce and adapt Customer Journey Mapping to your specific needs and situation

• Setup the methodology and train your organisation

• Help you manage change• Run a project or programme• Embed within your Scrum, BPM

or continuous improvement / Voice Of the Customer initiatives

• Team of seasoned consultants, experts in customer experience and business process management

• Partner:

Ask for your free CJM-for-IT readiness and maturity assessment

http://www.orimconsultants.nl/



Additional informationOlivier Giraud

+31 629 094 362

nl.linkedin.com/in/oliviergiraud65

Leadership & Management

Cio, act as a shopping mall owner