From reading the case (below) answer the following question: IN detail please

Why was governance selected as the most critical issue by Vlad and how does it impact the other directors areas of control?

CASE:

Rob Lowe walked slowly back from the executive boardroom, contemplating a history that had seen him join a highly successful company whose products, technologies and reputation had ensured decades of success, but now sadly represented a dwindling organisation whose fortunes were anything but healthy. The company over the last few years had seen new competitors supply cheaper digital products which undermined his organisations traditional revenue base.

In an effort to survive, the organisation had started to divest itself of parts of its business. Rob had been advised that his business area was one of the first to go and the sale had been finalised. It had been sold off to an investment company and would in the future run as a separate business entity. Rob had been selected as the new president of the newly created organisation, but the new owners were keen for him to create a profitable business.

Rob felt both exhilarated (at the new opportunity), but anxious as he had previously worked so hard within his division, and yet it had been let go. The investment company operated in numerous sectors and was demonstrating significant returns on its investments. However his new company (IMP Digital) was to operate independently of the investment company and required Rob to develop/re-structure the entire former division. Particularly troubling was IT. IT had never performed well within the previous organisation and the manner in which the division was taken over meant that old IT remained in place to ensure continuity whilst the takeover was finalised. The interim CIO had advised Rob that the arrangement of sale meant that a dump of IT (from the old organisation) was required and this meant that old SLAs, processes, old infrastructure, apps, data had been purchased and were a mish-mash of chaos.

Rob decided a new CIO was required to move IMP Digital forward. He wanted someone experienced in a transformation process that could work through the chaos quickly. The new CIO ( Vlad Dracula) joined the company 1 year later, he was experienced and had a forward looking viewpoint. One which would be quickly tested as the parent company was starting to ask questions about the lack of progress achieved by IMP Digital.

Vlad realised the new position was challenging, but his early days were spent in discovering the extent of the IT issues. The old processes were irrelevant to the new business. Old SLAs and agreements tied the new company to poor service and lack of integration. IT staff felt let down and hampered by the constant reactive issues they were forced to deal with just to keep the business going. The business units were constantly complaining about the poor IT. The interim CIO had tried 4 times to separate the business in a piecemeal fashion, failing every time. The business unit managers were lobbying against change and prioritised their own interests above all. The systems were not designed for the specific industry sector and therefore werent easily usable.IT costs were high and unpredictable across all areas. In separation 500 core apps had been inherited when only 150 were relevant to the new company.

Fortunately the President Rob Lowe was aware of that transforming IT wouldnt be easy. He also understood that IT was critical to the future business goals. Fortunately Vlad understood both IT and leadership and additionally the importance of culture. Vlad resisted the temptation to start fixing obvious issues and was able to report back to Rob the following points:

# There was no alignment between business strategy and IT

# Process development and understanding was poor

# Portfolio management and prioritization was non-existent

# IT investment was ad-hoc and lacked measure

# There was no accountability

# IT strategy and governance were non-existent.

The severity of the situation required Vlad to issue a mission statement for IT, requiring IT to be customer responsive, more cost effective and partner with the business.

Vlad determined that accountability needed to lay with specific IT managers and the following roles were created:

# Director of IT Strategy & Planning, the Project Office and Governance

# Director of Operations

# Director of Relationship Management

# Director of Enterprise Architecture

# Director of Data Security and Privacy

# Director of Application Management

Vlad instructed his directors to work together to create a plan to work together to build a roadmap to the future. Vlads role as CIO was to engage the executive team, especially the CFO to work to a future understanding of the role of IT.

Vlad and the directors agreed to meet in a weeks time to discuss their initial plans for the next 3 years in respect of their individual portfolios. Early actions required building the basics, mid-term required a strategic viewpoint and lastly a targeted strategic innovation aspect for the future.

An additional requirement was mandated as an immediate priority the lack of governance was seen as critical by Vlad. The Director of IT Strategy & Planning, the Project Office and Governance was required to answer the following questions at the next meeting: