When Paul Donovan met IT directors from different industries he
found that getting the message of e-commerce across to the board
was on everyone's mind
How do we convince the board of the value of e-commerce as a
channel to market and for making savings within the business? This
was the question everybody was asking at last week's Harvey Nash
Business Breakfast Meeting in London.
The 11 IT directors present - representing construction, the oil
industry, publishing, retail, waste management and the aid sector -
regarded the advent of e-business as a massive opportunity for IT
to increase its status within the business.
"IT has been regarded simply as an overhead cost in the past,
but that attitude is now changing with the possibility of it
becoming a profit centre," said one participant.
But the difficulty of getting this message across to resistant
board members was keenly felt.
A number of participants felt that the culture of the boardroom
often creates reluctance on the part of individuals to admit their
ignorance of the new economy. Presentations and personal initiation
about how e-business works were cited as worthwhile ways to try and
fill this vacuum.
But, the direct approach was seen as best, with practical
introductions to e-business achieving results with resistant board
members.
One participant recounted the example of a company director
introduced to William Hill online betting. "The betting option was
a real winner given the convenience and lack of tax attached to
gambling online," said the participant.
Getting to company directors through their wives was another
method. One company targeted their wives for Internet training as a
way of nudging board members up the learning curve (the majority of
breakfast participants were men).
Beyond the participants' own companies there was a need felt to
spread the virtues of e-commerce to the wider marketplace.
One participant underlined the need to create markets and make
others aware of the options that e-business offers especially in
sectors such as construction.
"We need to create the market and spread the culture that this
is a good way to do business," he said.
Retaining a smaller number of key staff was another major
challenge felt by the IT directors present at the breakfast.
To help overcome the problem one participant ran his own
incentive scheme involving holidays and bonuses run distinctly from
the human resources department of the company.
Maintaining a combination of constant training and incentives
was also seen as a successful way of retaining valuable staff.