The IT industry's incessant search for "the next big thing" is what actually bores business. Every two-bit software house, IT startup, pundit and consultant who can come up with a new three-letter acronym or marketing gibberish immediately starts touting it as "the next big thing," the amazing wonder technology that will somehow transform the fortunes of all who touch it. Like the villagers in the tale "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," business no longer responds to these outlandish claims - nor should they.

Businesses succeed by integrating a disparate set of components of a business architecture into a value proposition that is effective in a market at a point in time. Of course, it's true that the efficient exploitation of IT is likely to underpin a successful business. And it's also true that IT is likely to play a role in creating new markets and opportunities for wealth creation. However, the IT industry itself has a dismal track record of being able to clearly detect and signal which individual technology, out of a plethora of emerging technologies and fads, is actually going to deliver this transformation. In fact, what is now happening is entrepreneurs are creating business value by spotting technology-fueled opportunities in the markets and going out and sourcing the technology. Thus, IT value creation has become a "business pull," not an "IT push."

The IT industry would be well advised to spend more time and energy discovering and promulgating the remarkable achievements of leading businesses in the exploitation of today's technologies. A little bit of humility would go a long way to re-establishing the credibility of a tarnished and jaded industry.

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Gone is the model of fear based selling. 15-20 years ago an IT leader could threaten certain catastrophe if a technology wasn't implemented. There are now limitless ways for a business person to validate or nullify a recommendation within minutes. When IT 'knew what was best', or talked just above comprehension levels, IT didn't have a relationship at all with business, but instead was a like a bad blind date on the first course of dinner - an unpleasant situation without end in near sight. IT needs to become the perfect 'date' - sought after, a great listener, empathetic. Magazine style advice aside, only when we have honest trust with business users will they allow us to succeed on their behalf.