InformationWeek

The ideal IS executive has one eye focused on the horizon and another sharply focused on today's operations. Many elements have converged to make this an ideal time to focus on the horizon by investing in new IT-driven initiatives that will ultimately redefine the organization, its products and services, and its relationships with business partners. Electronic commerce, agile manufacturing, and the knowledge-based virtual corporation are all ambitious initiatives that require far-sighted, visionary leadership.

Yet efforts that require a tight focus include the systems-development projects associated with the above initiatives, as well as year 2000- and Euro-compliance projects, and more. These efforts require meticulous project planning and management, close monitoring, and swift and effective action when they veer off track. Furthermore, as organizations become heavily reliant on round-the-clock transaction-processing systems for supply-chain management, customer sales and service, and other key business processes, it becomes more important than ever to keep a sharp eye on IT operations.

The CIO of a major teaching hospital in New England has a vision of the health-care horizon. Ask him his views on how IT will transform health care, and he will have you on the edge of your seat as he relates the tale of a physician who used leading-edge IT to save lives when every minute mattered. He will wax poetic about how physicians and nurses can nurture close and caring relationships with their chronic-care patients, supported by the

latest videoconferencing capabilities. He will tell you of the progress his hospital is making toward a fully integrated online patient medical record, coupled with expert systems and other tools that will help the physician of the future provide highly specialized yet cost-effective care.

Ask that same CIO about his organization's year 2000 effort, and he says, "Well, there's not much to tell. It's certainly not rocket science. Our year 2000 project manager is doing a fine job-perhaps you'd like to speak to him?" For this CIO, the year 2000 problem is a distraction as he works toward the IT-enabled transformation of patient care. Yet, the millennium bug will affect nearly every administrative and clinical application in the hospital's IS portfolio, as well as all the medical devices that contain date-sensitive microprocessors.

In aggregate, those "simple" details give rise to a potential liability that is greater than anything this CIO has ever had to face. But because he isn't focused on the details, this CIO sees an apparently wellstructured year 2000 initiative that seems to be under control, especially when compared with the dramatic, transforming potential of the telemedicine initiatives. This CIO can see a bright future, but he has difficulty focusing on present realities.

Many IS execs don't have "bifocal" vision. Take the quiz below to determine if a new "vision prescription" is needed:

Which of today's newest technologies will enable your firm to offer compelling new products and services three years from now?

If you can answer the first two questions, you have a good eye for detail; if you cannot, your focus may be on the horizon, at the expense of the here-and-now. As for the third question, we'll have to wait three years to find out if you are a wild-eyed visionary or a keen observer of IT trends.

Dr. Janis L. Gogan, a professor at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., consults and conducts research on emerging IT issues and management practices. She can be reached at jgogan@bentley.edu.


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