Link Not Found: Why CEOs still see technology as separate from “the business.”

We don’t say, “finance and the business” or “sales and the business” or even “HR and the business.” Why is it that IT alone is treated like an outsider?

If we get out our history books and look at what traditionally causes one group to push another to the margins, we typically find a healthy dose of fear and ignorance. Clearly, there is something about IT that causes uncertainty and confusion among members of the executive committee. CEOs, who have typically done stints in finance, sales, and operations, have never run IT, and they do not understand the function, its tools, its staff, or, most importantly, where all that green money goes. This lack of understanding makes CEOs fairly uncomfortable with IT and predisposes them to separate themselves from it.