Nikki Baird: Don’t Let IT Strategy Become a Lost Art

Editor’s Note: Nikki Baird, VP of Strategy and Product at Aptos, recently launched The Retail Pulse Report, a newsletter on Substack that provides timely insights on retail and technology strategy. Below is an excerpt from her first newsletter, published with permission. Click here to read the full article and subscribe.

When I got my MBA and then got my first “big” job, I had a difficult time explaining to my family what I did for a living. I was working as an IT strategy consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers (“2 caps, no gaps”), and while everyone in my family was pretty tech savvy – my mom made gallium arsenide computer chips, for heaven’s sake – no one knew what IT strategy meant.

No, I couldn’t fix your computer or your printer (well, probably maybe, but that’s not what I was getting paid for). I helped companies understand how to prioritize their tech investments to help them achieve their business strategies. No, Uncle John, that doesn’t mean I can help you with your company’s A/S 400. But if you wanted to know what kind of business software to run on it, or whether you needed to start thinking about life beyond that old workhorse, or what kind of software you might need if you decided to open a new line of business or a new territory, then yeah, I could help you.

What Is IT Strategy?

At the time (the 1990s), IT strategy was primarily derivative: Tell me your business strategy and your timeline, and I’ll tell you whether what you’ve invested in already will work, and if it won’t, where the gaps are and how to Jenga your way to filling those gaps. The biggest challenge was facing down all the companies that said, “Of course we have a business strategy!” and then provided a 10-slide PowerPoint deck that said things like, “We will grow sales by 5% in the next year.” You will? How exactly do you plan on doing that?

And then, of course, IT was a cost center. No one saw it as anything other than an expense to be managed and minimized. A headache for people who were not tech savvy, and something where the accountants somehow got the best computers and everyone else was hand-keying data off of duplicate forms all over the place.

The Internet Changed Everything

Like so many other things, the internet changed IT strategy. Let us say it put IT strategy on the map. Not only were all kinds of new and interesting people throwing gobs of money at anything that ended in “.com,” but it was truly a renaissance of a kind: Technology was no longer a cost center to be controlled, but a business liberator. It wasn’t just the derivative of a business strategy – it could actually be the business strategy. It didn’t just cost money; it could make money. We IT strategists had a bit of a heyday, though toward the end all kinds of business strategy consultants and snake oil salesmen and other charlatans horned in on the business and it was getting crowded and confusing.

Then the bottom fell out. It always takes longer than people think for something new to really sink in and take hold, and I would say we’re now on our fourth genuine disruptor that will boom, then bust, then become ubiquitous: the internet, mobile, cloud, and now, of course, AI.

Where Do We Go Next?

Modern IT strategy is a two-way street – it is how technology can enable the business strategy, but it’s also now firmly entrenched as the enabler of new business opportunities. And those opportunities could drive growth for your company – or eat its lunch.

IT strategy is a lost art, but it should not be. And retail needs it now more than ever.

To get to good, modern IT strategy, you first have to understand the economic environment – this has impact on consumers and retailers alike. As we’ve lived through in the past few years, high uncertainty can lead to a waiting game, as if by waiting long enough the uncertainty will resolve itself into some kind of “new normal” certainty. But what if uncertainty is the new normal?

Second, you have to understand consumer behavior. Even in high uncertainty, consumers have to consume. It’s the way our economy is built. And they have their own wants and needs and dreams and aspirations that shape what they want to see from the retailers on which they depend.

Third, you need to understand what’s going on in technology and how that applies to retail. For a long time now, that has meant understanding both enterprise technology and consumer tech. That’s not just because consumers increasingly use technology to shop, even when they’re already in a store, but also because consumer-grade technology has fully invaded the enterprise, and not just for frontline workers in stores.

All of these things combine to shape how businesses leverage technology to deliver value. These are all things I track and consider in my own day-to-day at Aptos. If IT strategy is something that you find interesting and valuable, I hope you’ll follow me on LinkedIn or Substack for more.