Your Brand is under attack every day not because of what others may be doing to it or fierce competition. It is under attack because of what is being done to it from within…
I know that the above is a pretty blunt statement, however I think that if you continue to read you will at the end of this blog post agree with me, if you don’t please let me know – I do love a good argument!
Today IT runs the business and getting it right the first time is what determines failure or success. IT is designed, created, delivered and tested before a final step into production, and expectations for IT to yield revenue is pivotal, in other words software runs Your Business. And since there is a high dependency on software, there is a Brand Promise about this software to deliver High Quality Business Outcome.
Now, what happens to Your Business if this Brand Promise isn’t meet?
A few years back, during Halftime at the NFL Super Bowl, Victoria’s Secret launched a new on-line shopping site along with their spring lingerie collection.
At halftime, 1 million Women hit the site and took both Business as well as IT down, it took Victoria’s Secret 1 week to get back to Business as usual.
Root cause was, that the IT infrastructure had not been designed to handle the volume as well as being hosted on a shared network. After the event the site was moved to a dedicated network. Could this have been avoided – yes!
The Super Bowl has 111.5 million viewers. Of those 44.6 million are women, which is more than the female audience at the Oscars. The estimated spending from online shopping during half time is $500 mill. The stake is pretty high!
Knowledge of the numbers outlined would have provided input to create the correct infrastructure that would have been able to sustain the load during halftime.
Protecting the Brand is about understanding the Business, its product and Services as well as the behaviour of the client. Once we know this we are in a position to identify the risk and ensure that business continuity is intact through working closely together and the Business taking ownership.
Studies show that 56% of all errors, glitches and breakdowns like the one outlined above stems from decisions made at the highest level in the organisation. Why is that?
The root Cause lies in the decision-making process. As human beings we apply a process that works for us and then monitor what happens. However the ever-evolving fast moving system changes happens in ways that we do not fully understand or anticipate. The world today is a highly interconnected world that constantly takes us out of our comfort zone.
In other words we live in a VUCA world a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous – it is inherently driven by experience based on the past, do we acknowledge that the future may look nothing like the past? Do we truly realise that future decisions will only be effective if they are not based on past experience?
Any change in in any organisation is owned by the business, not IT. It is the business responsibility to ensure that the Brand is being protected. By not applying due diligence your Brand is under attack from within!
Heidi Kristoffersen 