Coca Cola and IT – The Real Thing
One company that seems to have got the message is Coca Cola. I was directed to an Information Week magazine video where the Coca Cola CIO — Jean-Michel Ares — details his approach to being more business-centric. His focus is business value.
Specifically he has:
- Repositioned IT as a partner to the business in creating value from senior management right through the organisation
- Created an IT strategy that is totally business centric rather than IT-centric
- Focused on growing and developing the IT talent
- Kept the technology architecture simple
- Refined the IT processes for greater efficiency.
He warns that in a down turn, CIOs need to focus on :
- Demand management
- Productivity and efficiency.
Again simplifying the environment is mentioned as is virtualisation.
Leaders on both sides of the business-IT fence would do well to track Coca Cola and its use of IT.
