Toyota Case

Executive Steering Committee

Shift the responsibility of IS Project vetting and monitoring away from IS towards business

Fund allocation from a central pool

Streamline project approval process

To further strengthen the IS-business bond, Cooper chartered the executive steering committee, or ESC, to approve all major IT projects.

The committee consists of Cooper; Cooper's boss, Senior Vice President and Planning and Administrative Officer Dave Illingworth; Senior Vice President and Treasurer Mikihiro Mori; and Senior Vice President and Coordinating Officer Masanao Tomozoe.

The executive steering committee now controls all of the project funds in one pool of cash, and it releases funds for each project as each phase of the project's goals are achieved. Everyone in the company can look at which dollars were (and were not) going to be spent, the pool's administrators can sweep unused funds out, and other projects can go after those funds. And there are no more spending swings; projects are regularly paced throughout the year.

To begin, many business executives didn't want to participate in the new approval process that required them to seek funding through the executive steering committee. Instead, those executives tapped lower-level business sponsors who worked with IS on business case development and implementation. But then, if a project ran into trouble, those high-level "executives would scatter like cockroaches," says Goltara. No senior-level business execs were willing to take IS project responsibility. After about six months of this, Cooper demanded that a higher-level business executive-a corporate manager, VP-level or above-back each IS proposal. Now, the ESC won't approve a project unless that support is there. "There's equal skin in the game now," says Goltara.

By exposing IT's inner workings to the business side at Toyota Motor Sales, Cooper hoped that this new transparency would lessen IS's role on IT project vetting and monitoring, and increase business's responsibility.

ITM Toyota Case

Pros

Decision rights were improved and Efficient accountability was achieved.

business execs were held accountable for achieving business benefits of IS projects, rather than IS execs

this helped create projects that management could stand behind, with equal stakes in the outcome for both the IS and business side

each initiative had its own team with a project leader

project funds were maintained by the Exec Steering Committee which also had to approve new IT projects

DIOs became accountable for strategy, development, and services

IT went from being "order takers" to collaborators

Cooper lead the IS organization through this change from a mere order taker to building the solution together with the business