Many business leaders will be familiar with the pressure to improve or increase their use of technology in pursuit of efficiency, competitive advantage or bottom-line performance.

Global superstars of 21st century business success – the likes of Amazon, Tesla and Uber – have become disruptive forces in their markets because their use of technology far exceeds that of their traditional rivals.

Success – we are told – depends on transforming the way we do business by building tech into the fabric of everything we do. The way companies are run, how they prioritise investment, even how they describe themselves should be decided by their attitude towards technology.

More often than not, this is a question of mindset. Leaders either view IT as a specialist problem and don’t engage beyond signing off investment, or they view it as an enabler and invest time to ensure solutions solve business problems. All of those successful brands fall into the latter category.

But for most SMEs, what’s getting in the way is that not enough non-IT leaders feel empowered to engage with their technology teams beyond high level strategy. Leaders assume – wrongly – that because they don’t fully understand tech, decisions are best left to the specialists on their team. 

But when business leaders learn how to fully engage with IT, the value it delivers can increase exponentially. This is not about becoming an IT expert, but active engagement from senior stakeholders in any IT project can be transformational. Engaged leaders help drive problem solving, priorities and processes. They cut through the noise to identify precise, focused requirements – technology is then applied to these challenges and businesses benefit hugely as a result.

IJYI has experience, advice and approaches to share – all available in our new white paper, which can be downloaded here.