Victor Brown

Clearly the economic challenges we’ve been facing over the past 18 months have been almost unprecedented. As business leaders, it’s been very difficult to plan and to know how to best use our scarce resources. But, as always, those who demonstrate creativity, leadership and courage can seize opportunities to focus on developing powerful IT strategies that position them for competitive advantage and growth as the economy continues to recover.

One of my favorite, recent articles in the McKinsey Quarterly is by Professor Richard Rumelt, UCLA, titled “Strategy in a structural break.” Rumelt makes a compelling case that we’re in the midst of a “structural break”, now, and suggests how we might craft strategies for seizing the inevitable opportunities that emerge from the chaos. For more about the implications to those of us who are IT leaders and professionals, see my blog at www.StrategicITArchitecture.com.

At a minimum, it may be possible to develop strategies that allow you to leverage — and maybe re-purpose — under-utilized assets already in place to create a more powerful, effective and agile IT ecosystem; minimum investment for maximum advantage. Cloud Computing – private, public, and hybrid Clouds — offers some interesting and exciting alternatives!