“Everyone agrees that the focus must be on what’s best for the enterprise,” and the IT team is responsible and accountable for all technology, Chan says, but he’s not going to stop business units from adding value.
“If it’s something truly new that we can’t address immediately, we allow them to do what they want to do” but within some guardrails, he adds. “We have an agreement that whatever you do in the next 12 to 18 months could potentially be a throwaway because we could later roll it back into our environment” when the IT team develops a centralized capability. “Those are the guiding principles we have set,” he says.
Uniting to roll with changing market conditions
C-Suite alignment is critical when organizations face fluctuating market conditions or rapid growth.
At Merchants Fleet expectations are high as the transportation management company pushes to continue its 30% year-over-year growth while preserving cash in the midst of inflation and rising interest rates. Changing market conditions often require the company to quickly reshuffle priorities. One of those priorities, replacing an ERP system, was recently rescheduled to free up cash that could fuel growth. Senior VP and Chief Technology and Digital Officer Jeanine Charlton stepped up meetings with the CFO and finance team to come up with a “significant” contingency plan, as the project touches every piece of technology across the enterprise. They now meet weekly to discuss the project.
Jeanine L. Charlton, SVP and CTDO, Merchant’s Fleet
Jeanine Charlton
With contingencies like these coming up, Charlton has had to align more closely with her C-suite counterparts. “We’re getting a lot closer for sure, to constantly re-prioritize what’s most important for the enterprise,” she says.
Removing ‘blind spots’
It’s not always easy to step outside traditional C-suite behaviors. Collaboration with C-suite peers requires effective listening and meaningful communication, Sunbelt Rentals’ Saini says.
“There are blind spots with all of us as leaders,” he says. “Generally you’re in a mode where you’re short on time, you think you know it all, you’re relying on your previous experiences — we did it this way last time — and so you have these inherent biases,” he says. “But if you’re listening to understand rather than listening to form an opinion or listening to respond, you can overcome those biases.”
Healthy tension is OK
“It’s fair to get pushed and have that healthy tension” in C-suite relationships, Merchants Fleet’s Charlton says. “Part of it just comes down to you’ve got to continually prove your value and educate them in terms of what’s required to implement digital transformation for a company.”
This often requires mind-reading skills, she adds.
“How do you translate what’s in another human’s brain into good requirements and build tech around it?” she says. It all comes down to good collaboration and communication. “Technology is the easy part. It’s understanding what the other person wants — therein lies the work.”
