IMLP: Business Professionals with IT Expertise

© NH Business Resource CenterHave you ever noticed how hard it is sometimes, for any company, to put together in a conversation a very technical person (no matter in which area) and a Business Leader, and have them understand each other?

While the Business Leader owns the bigger picture, interested on how everything ties up to the company’s strategy, the technical person gets deep on the details, most of the time showing things that really don’t make any difference to the higher level. I have seen that happen to me as well (playing the technical guy role, of course).

One day I was presenting the strategy for the upgrade of some servers to a Business Leader working outside of IT. I prepared a very nice timeline slide that showed all servers with their “war names,” which projects were being done in each of them, when they were going to be phased out, etc. From my end, it seemed great. When the leader saw it, though, it took me 10 minutes to explain that the blue box was the old server, the green was the new one, the “xyz” server was the staging one, and the “abc” was the Production (and the most important to him). And then he said: “OK. This slide looks great, and I can understand everything with you by my side explaining, which is good. But I think you should show somehow, in an easy way, that the new servers are way better than the old ones. This would sell the idea to me even more.” What he meant with that was (in my own words), "Show me in Business numbers how much I can grow with your solution, for how long I won't need to worry about infrastructure, and how much faster can I generate my reports."

This talk was great, and reminded me of something that I heard, way back when I was still an intern at GE Transportation, from a Program Manager: “We, in IT, need to be Business folks, with the IT expertise”. I heard it several times again, but it didn’t fully click for me until I experienced it myself.

Knowing details is great and necessary for someone performing a specific job. But to different people, even on the same level, we need to communicate what is relevant to them. Sometimes, the details may be important, and they will ask for it. But to start talking about the bits and bytes can make you lose their attention immediately and your battle is gone.

I strongly believe that this is another differentiator of the IMLP Program at GE. IMLPs ARE technical; there is no question about it. But they are also induced to develop the other mindset. IMLPs need to explain, in a Business language, how what they are doing addresses “the pain” of the Business and how the solutions are aligned with their strategy. IMLPs are really trained to be Business oriented professionals, with IT Expertise!

If you become an IMLP, there are some simple things you can do to help you gain these business skills. Here are some of my notes:

• Find out your company’s strategy for the year. Ask questions like: What was the revenue of your company in the last year? Did it grow? How is it performing? And more importantly, how do the business goals impact your personal goals? Knowing these things will not only help you correlate current situation with strategy, but also will allow you to have more participative conversations with leaders;
• Participate in market events from your company. They might have nothing to do with your function, but they will give you a live presentation of your Business doing what it is meant to do: Business! Talk to the Commercial team, talk to Marketing, talk to Customer Service! Even get some fliers to read and understand more;
• Know the products that your company sells. It does not mean that you need to be knowledgeable like a  Customer Service or Commercial person would, but know the different product lines and how they compound the total;
• External Focus! This is the hardest one, I think, but talking to people from other areas can help. For every material that you are preparing for someone else, think: If I were them, what questions would I ask? What things would I want to see and understand?

What about you? What other actions you have learned in school or from personal experience that you believe can help IMLPs become better business professionals, to contribute even more with IT Expertise?