Quack...Quack...Quack
I'm consistently amazed at some of the people out there who claim to be experts, especially in the IT field. I was at a professional association meeting the other evening and a woman was speaking about IT strategic planning and claimed to be a expert in the field. To be fair, this was a very short presentation and she may have more insight than I was able to gather in 30 minutes. The basic steps that she outlined seemed reasonable and in accord with what I do know about the area, but some of the opinions aired seemed horribly askew and antithetical to being able to give solid strategy advice. For example, she had an bias against younger people because they can't be trusted and don't have a solid work ethic. The bell-curve of morality and work ethic seems to be fairly consistent across generations, from what I can see. There may be differences in how these things are mainfest in different generations, but they seem fairly constant. In any event, judging people with such predjudice cannot be helpful.
My real point isn't to take issue with her opinions, just to be somewhat concerned at the general quality of advice on IT strategy. Without at least understanding where IT fits in with corporate strategy, you will fail to gain competitive benefit from it. Poor advice begets poor systems and I'm not sure it is possible to give good advice in different situations without an open mindset. I have a hunch that subpar strategic understanding is at the root of much of the general dissatisfaction with IT projects.