The Savvy Manager: Add Value to Your Business by Understanding the Business

By Mike Bohlmann

June 1, 2008 —  A key factor for good business-IT alignment is to increase your knowledge of the organization and its industry. There are a number of ways you can do that, and they focus on three areas: business in general, your organization’s industry and your organization. These are ideas that you should use and pass on to your staff to benefit the whole organization.

We have all encountered someone outside of IT who does not understand how computers work. They use the wrong words to describe things, or they might misdiagnose problems. Can someone in business say the same of your business knowledge? Is your business knowledge non-existent or could it use some fine-tuning in a specific area?

If you have never had a business class, you should consider taking one to get a jump-start. A business administration course will teach the basic areas of business management. Accounting might help you better understand subjects like double-entry accounting, accounts receivable, inventory accounting and perhaps some basics of reading financial reports. Business operations could teach you about inventory management, staff scheduling and applications of linear programming. Any of these will help you in talking to the non-IT folks in your company. If a class is out of the question, browsing the business section of a local bookstore might get you started, too.

With your basic understanding of business in general, you can start diving into your organization’s specific industry. For most industries, there is a plethora of information available including Web sites, trade publications and news coverage. To stay informed, you should read two or three pieces per week or as much as your time allows. Print publications are best for this because they tend to only print material on the most important issues. It is a lot easier to peruse a magazine than a Web site when you are trying to find something interesting to read. A query in your favorite search engine should be able to give you a place to start.

Part of knowing the industry is knowing your organization’s position in the industry. Be particularly watchful for industry coverage that mentions your company. You can also take things to a more proactive step and talk to your supervisor about getting involved in industry groups. Most industries have trade shows, special interest groups or other ways for companies to get involved. Getting involved in one of these activities not only gives you insight into the industry and your company, but it can also be a way for your company to gain prestige in the industry and for you to demonstrate leadership skills.

Understanding Your Organization
Now that you have taken some proactive steps to increase your understanding, getting in the door with people in your organization is going to be much simpler. You might have some specific ideas or questions about the company that came from learning about business or discovering the industry. Before you start talking to individual people, you should get a little familiar with what your company does and how it operates so you can ask informed questions. If your company is publicly traded, there are financial reports publicly available that describe the general financial health of the company. You should also be able to find press releases and other information on your organization’s Web site.

From there you want to explore specific processes or strategies that your company uses to accomplish its tasks or reach its goals. While every organization has an accounts payable process, every organization is going to have its own way of doing things. You can find out how these things are done by talking to people that work in that area of the organization. Want to learn how the company does inventory accounting? Talk to someone in accounting. Want to know how changes are made to a product? Talk to someone in product development. Ask them to talk you through a process or, even better, ask if you can job shadow them for part of a day.

To make sure you cover things beyond processes, talk to people in your organization that deal with the outside world—customers, vendors, investors. Talking to people in your organization will not only increase your understanding of the organization, but it will also build a relationship that may help you in the future.

Even if you feel that you can get by most of the time, every IT worker needs to strive for greater understanding of the business. Whether you do all of these things or just one or two of them, the knowledge you gain will help you better see how IT can help the organization be successful. The more you demonstrate that capability, the more valuable IT—and you—will be to the organization.

Mike Bohlmann is an IT manager at the University of Illinois and believes in building a good team through leadership and professional development of one's self and one's team. He can be reached at .



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