IT Governance failures often manifest themselves through the lack of consistency on customer-facing strategies and a quick drop in customer satisfaction, along with ample evidence of a disconnected value chain throughout the business (Weill, Ross, 2004). The airline industry is full of examples of IT governance failures, from the lack of consistency in customer service, seating programs, and the lack of focus on measurable improvements in airline performance, this capital-intensive industry tends to be the most transparent in its lack of ability to make IT investments deliver long-term, measurable financial value (Nwabueze, Mileski, 2008). Such is the case with Swiss Air, an airline which was privatized in the early 2000 timeframe and instead of concentrating on quality of customer experience and investing heavily in IT systems to streamline the customer service, boarding, in-flight and post-flight, chose to hire a new CEO who wanted to use the wealth of the Swiss government to go on an acquisition binge which nearly led to the company collapsing (Nwabueze, Mileski, 2008). What happened in this instance was the IT governance was considered only as a means to define integration projects across the many companies being acquired, not how to coordinate, focus and attain greater long-term value financially from a well-coordinated IT strategy. The result of the disconnect between IT governance, spending and strategy was near chaos and the Swiss government being called upon...
This is a prime example of what happens when IT governance is completely disconnected from the strategic plans and initiatives of a company.
References
S De Haes, & W. Van Grembergen. (2009). Exploring the relationship between IT governance practices and business/IT alignment through extreme case analysis in Belgian mid-to-large size financial enterprises. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 22(5), 615-637.
Denise Ko, & Dieter Fink. (2010). Information technology governance: an evaluation of the theory-practice gap. Corporate Governance, 10(5), 662-674.
Edephonce N. Nfuka, & Lazar Rusu. (2011). The effect of critical success factors on IT governance performance. Industrial Management + Data Systems, 111(9), 1418-1448.
Uche Nwabueze, & Joan Mileski. (2008). The challenge of effective governance: the case of Swiss Air. Corporate Governance, 8(5), 583-594.
Posthumus, S., von Solms, R., & King, M.. (2010). The board and IT governance: The what, who and how. South African Journal of Business Management, 41(3), 23.
Rozek, P.. (2008). Putting IT Governance Into Action. The Internal Auditor, 65(3), 29.
Weill, P., & Ross, J. (2004). It governance how top performers manage it decision rights for superior results. Boston, MA. Harvard Business School Press.
Wilkin,…
