
Does your top table shy away from digital technology discussions? Have you ever heard “I don’t know anything about digital” or “I haven’t a clue about technology” or “I don’t understand technologists, they just talk in jargon all the time”?
Then this service, available for C-suite boards and the governance structures is for you.
Digital technology, and data is fundamentally linked to your business. Almost all businesses benefit in one way or another from digital technology and the people you do business with expect great experiences, accurate data, and clear evidence that you are looking after their (and your own) data.

Often these areas are left to technical teams. Their connections to your governance boards are either not present or poorly understood. The gap between them can be separated both physically as well as by language. I offer several services here for Boards (Exec and Non-Exec):
- Assessment of digital technology readiness of your management structure, including boards and the top two layers of management within your organisation
- Design and development of board structures, both executive and non-executive (Trustee Boards), to ensure that digital technology and data is properly included
- CXO Advisory on managing for digital technology and data

“It should never be a race to the bottom on which business unit is the most annoying, we all know it is either HR or IT anyway”.
CXO, Major UK Charity, 2012
Week 1 as a new CIO and you know you have 90 days (or less) to understand the lay of the land, what hurts and what works. Your boss is telling you, maybe in no so many words, to get ‘issues with IT off her back”, but you don’t yet know what they are. You have a good idea, but detail is missing. As you get to know key stakeholders it may well seem that maybe Service Desk is out of touch and not delivering and needs sorting…. but is it? Is it more likely that you have a cultural issue with infrastructure teams that just hang onto knowledge and don’t ‘shift left’ (it is a common problem). Let me help you work out the wheat from the chaff, the reality from the noise in looking at the team.
Often technology teams are technically very competent but can lack the soft skills and business acumen to make them high performing. The final report will make recommendations on where remedial action can be taken to help create a business focused, high performing team.
Aimed at new technology leaders or executive teams, this service will impartially review digital technology teams, assessing capability, business acumen, culture and capacity. The review will also look at the handling of key technology components e.g., service management, architecture, cyber security, and risk management.
I particularly specialise in assessment of devolved structures where responsibility for delivery of digital technology may be split across a number of business units, possibly referred to as shadow technology but which may be struggling to deliver a cohesive digital technology transformation.

“There is no such thing as Shadow Technology, it is just a technology team that is not yet following agreed standards”

Digital Technology has moved. It has for some time now, no longer been the domain of the central digital technology team. It has become a more devolved structure. In many cases managing devolved technology is a new skill set and its hard. Maybe you haven’t yet set the standards on how you want digital technology (and data) to be managed, maybe, as the central digital technology leader, you don’t yet have the authority to lead other teams not in your line (even though you have the accountability). This service will help you asses your technology structures in your organisation, review your governance including decision rights and help you brief your c-suite on how digital technology should be lead and managed. The service includes:
- Capability assessment of all devolved teams
- Governance review
- Briefing support for you and your leadership team