Moving Technology Leaders up the Influence Curve

Over the past decade, the volume of digital information accessed by users of an organization’s IT resources has exploded. To emphasize the point, in the 20 years from 1993, the number of Internet users grew from about 14 million to over 2.7 billion, which is a change from 0.3% of the world’s population to 37.9%.2 With continual growth in both the number of users and capacity of IT, IS leadership is constantly challenged to drive innovation, align strategy, reduce costs, maintain governance and more. Yet, organizations often fail to invest in the development of IS leadership. According to Brian Donovan, a prominent executive coach, organizations that are not developing IS leadership miss out on opportunities for competitive advantage in an environment where individuals are accessing digital data continually for information, products and services. Brian Donovan is a former operational executive who has 40 years of experience in IT. He is an advocate for influential and practical leadership, specifically for individuals in the field of technology. Donovan’s executive coaching practice (Donovan Leadership, which is based in Australia) is influenced by his years of experience and ongoing effort to uncover technology leadership evidence through research. The combination of experience and research drives his focus on expanding the role of IT specialists into IS leaders. His clients include individuals from local Australian businesses and from multinational organizations such as Cisco and Vanguard Investments. The panel below provides more information about Brian Donovan and Donovan Leadership.