The IT Value Stack: A Boardroom Guide to IT Leadership

Citation

Howard, W.R. (2009), "The IT Value Stack: A Boardroom Guide to IT Leadership", Kybernetes, Vol. 38 No. 5, pp. 842-843. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920910962722

This is a book that brings out the very important issue of the relationship between the boardroom of a company and its information technology (IT) strategic advisors be they consultants or its own senior IT executives. Corporate boardrooms have in the past shown great ignorance about IT and often the views expressed by its own IT departments. In the UK and elsewhere, we have seen the results of many such IT initiatives which have been authorised by those who have been ill‐informed about such projects and who fail to take the advice of those with proven records in IT developments. In the same way that scientists are still not present in boardrooms in any great numbers IT managers are being similarly treated. Any book that attempts to influence this situation must be welcomed by both the organisation and by its shareholders.

We are told that Ade McComack, the author, has much experience in advising business leaders on IT matters and so is well placed to offer a guide on IT leadership in a company. His IT stack model provides a means of communicating his ideas to all who will listen. He lays out a strategy that involves help for the business leader to develop IT policies which include the input of the companies senior IT decision makers. The emphasis is on “business value for the IT investment”.

He provides useful advice not only to the IT professional but also to anyone in the business who may become involved in IT matters. It is now becoming more common in modern business to avoid isolating both departments and personnel into specialised groupings but to encourage an integrated approach to organizational structures. McCormack's model aims to assist business leaders to develop strategies for IT which involve personel up to and including those in the boardroom.

This book is well‐presented and readable but it is, of course, as the author indicates “a boardroom guide to IT leadership” but it will be of interest to all who are involved in management and particularly to those who see themselves as “boardroom material”. If sufficient existing boardroom members took the opportunity to read its pages then maybe more ITmanagers will reach board level.