As Published In November 2004

Asking the Right Questions
By Margaret Terry Lindquist

The economic slump is over—so say all the pollsters, at least—and companies are ready to start spending again—on some things. The August CIO Magazine Tech Poll showed encouraging signs for the tech industry and for companies that have put off needed upgrades during the recent economic slump. According to this poll of 300 CIOs from a broad range of industries, the outlook for IT budgets is the strongest it's been in three years. And where is the money going? CIOs are predicting an average of nine percent spending growth from September 2004 to September 2005 with an emphasis on spending in the security software and storage areas. Forty-two percent of respondents indicate plans to increase infrastructure software spending, compared to 28.6 percent at this time last year.

So what does that mean for the person in the corner office? I asked an executive VP of services at a Fortune 500 company how she reacts when money starts flowing into her pocket again, and she sounded a cautious note. What happens, she said, is that she assesses where the company is in the market. Her people do the competitive analysis, the market analysis. "I'm pretty conservative," she told me, "in that I don't just open the spigot wide. I never closed it completely, either, because you do either one and it takes a long time to prime the proverbial pump to get it going." Consistency is the key message here—avoiding dramatic upswings and downswings can help your business function better, keep your people feeling more secure and productive, and ensure that when the next downturn comes, you won't be caught with your pockets empty.

In a way, that's what our feature in this issue is about—consistent, concentrated focus on making your business as lean and responsive as possible. Making your business lean isn't just about just-in-time inventory systems or supply chains. It's about listening to your customers—internal or external—and tailoring your products or services to their exact needs so that as much extraneous effort as possible is eliminated. As budgets open up, and projects that had been sidelined for lack of funds come back into the game, take another look at them and ask yourself—will your customers ever notice if they're not completed? Will they feel that the improvements you make are focused on their needs—or yours?