Book Review: IT Value Stack
I have recently finished reading “The IT Value Stack: A Boardroom Guide to IT Leadership” by Ade McCormack. I must say its one of my best read this year.
First of all, the book proposes a IT value stack (duh) and describes each of the component of the model in detail. Each chapter (other than intro and conclusion) starts of with a description of the topic/component that is being discussed, why is it not done in organisation and how can you make it happen. It is then followed by commentary from various business/IT leaders from various organisations. This is a fantastic structure – not only it is clear, and is broken down into bite size components for readers to digest, the commentary ensures that what he is talking about is NOT bullcrap. Many of such books are “blue sky thinking” (i.e. semi baseless discussions) but he has managed to make it relevant by providing insights and comments from various business leaders.
The content of the book gets even better. It provides a great blend of business and IT issues and describes it in detail. Being an IT consultant, I have to be both technically and business focus and this book teaches me many of the different perspective business leaders have and also what the IT department is thinking/doing and the challenges that faces each party. The solutions provided, even though high level, provides an excellent grounding for your endeavor and the rest is up to you.
I highly recommend this book to any one who wishes to understand what the IT department is doing. They are no longer a “black box” department but a team, if properly managed, could deliver competitive advantage.
Ade McCormack said,
Hi Sean,
I appreciate the review and found it very insightful. Thank you. Your blog looks good. I have recommended it to my readership.
BTW Has the economic storm hit Australia yet? The Northern hemisphere is teetering on the brink of meltdown! No doubt people will be paying more attention to the value they receive from their IT investment, amongst other things!
Cheers
Ade
Sean Lew said,
Thanks Ade for recommending!
The storm hasn’t really quite affect Australia. Even though the stock market is in red and everyone is talking about it but it seems as if life is as normal. Big banks here are starting to embark on their large IT transformation projects. Australia is also experiencing one of the lowest unemployment periods in history. In fact, I was on my lunch break yesterday and I saw heaps of people walking out of a shopping centre with bag loads of sale items. Clearly people are still spending.
There is also speculation that the Aussie reserve bank is going to cut interest rate by 0.5% when they meet next week to combat the effects of the crisis.
Aussie’s market is generally more Asia focused than US, possibly due to geographic distance and Asia has been relatively “okay” even after the credit crisis. Australia has a large amount resources trading with China who is constantly building something, almost to an extent that they have no regards to what happens around the world.
I am sure sooner or later, we’ll be affected but I am just not sure to what extent it would be. I just hope that the rescue package will be passed soon enough. That will surely help to increase the confidence of the market.
This is my layman view of the Australia market and I might be wrong.
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