Chicken or Egg

A good old riddle, which one comes first? Chicken or Egg? We can spend ages debating on this matter. Similarly, we can ask ourselves: Business or Technology, which one drives the other?

Looking at the history of mankind, we realized that technology exists since the time when we start doing business. From a perspective, we can even argue that it is technology that enables the performance of business activity. In modern day, the dependencies between business and technology are even more inter-twined than ever that the failure of either one causes a disastrous impact on the other. Bad Business Performance can cause reduction in IT budget and ridiculously insufficient IT budget can prevent the business from attaining competitive advantage and thus loss of business opportunities.

To paint a clearer picture of the synergy between business and technology, I would like to introduce "Demand" as a mediator for this relationship. It is Demand that drives both business and technology, whether it is market demand, regulatory demand or even religion demand. Either side of the relationship which responds to Demand will eventually stimulates the evolution of the other to achieve a harmonized balance.

Take one simple example from ITIL IT Service Management chapters, Business Continuity Management or Contingency Planning requires the incorporation of both a business element (Business Continuity Planning) and a technology element (IT Service Continuity Planning) because for any service-oriented organization to continue provide the agreed level of service the business and IT must be aligned. Unless your company is truly independent of any technology, else you must plan for the unexpected, both in terms of business and technology risks.