As we approach another new year, some may already be thinking about resolutions for 2017.

Here’s a suggestion: Stop talking about your company in monolithic, size-focused terms such as “SMB” (“small to mid-sized business”) or “large enterprise.”

In all but the smallest companies, there is rarely if ever a situation where one size fits all. Why? Because in most enterprises (regardless of size) multiple initiatives and efforts are underway simultaneously. And while your business may be deeply experienced in some areas, some of those initiatives likely involve areas of focus at which you and your colleagues are novices.

IT presents several immediate and obvious examples. Your company may be expert in its primary business or businesses. But unless one or more of those is, in fact, IT, it’s unlikely that your company is as good at IT as it is at whatever it does best.

With this in mind, it may be more valuable and relevant to think less about companies in terms of “small” and “large”, and more about companies in terms of “start-up” and “scale-up” of specific initiatives. Or about processes that are more mature and less mature. Or environments or situations that are more complex or less complex.

Why words matter

This may seem at first like a pointless exercise in rhetorical hair-splitting. However, it turns out that how you frame discussions can have important effects on how those discussions play out and the results they produce.

Or, to be a bit more succinct, word choice matters.

Especially when you’re considering or pursuing initiatives important to your business.

Depending on the words you use to describe it, an initiative to, say, improve IT security or asset management may come across as a daunting, boil-the-ocean exercise, or as a worthy enhancement to the processes that run the business. And since every significant initiative involves engaging the support of others, how you present the initiative can have a major effect on its probability of success.

The challenge of word choice is equally significant regardless of the size of your enterprise. There are lots of smaller companies that face IT and other challenges as complex as those faced by larger organizations. And not every challenge faced by a larger enterprise is necessarily more complex than those faced by their smaller counterparts.

Another challenge: making sure the words used to assess challenges and plan solutions are based on accurate, credible information wherever possible. This means that in many cases, a central, well-managed repository of relevant information, stored and organized with an agreed-upon taxonomy, is the best foundation for communications based on or related to that information.

Ivanti solutions

Ivanti has both the solutions and the thought leaders to help you use the right words to pursue your IT initiatives successfully, and to back those words up with the best available information about your environment.

  • ITAM
  • Risk management
  • Service management

Let Ivanti help you make 2017 the year in which your organization increases the maturity of its IT initiatives and processes, to the benefit of the entire business.