How to fix the company before it's broke

The IT Organization Efficiency Framework

Marcel Wanningen • Boek • paperback

• Samenvatting
  This book was written in march 2026 following the launch of Operation Epic Fury against Iran on februari 28th 2026.
  OSINT learned on 28th that ‘Mosaic Defense" doctrine’ was activated by Iran as a direct response to a massive joint military operation by the United States and Israel, dubbed Operation "Epic Fury" and Operation "Roaring Lion". This operations which targeted Iranian leadership resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Mosaic doctrine transferred authority to autonomous, self-regulating "cells" that operate independently once the central chain of command is broken. In effect it was on 28th foreseeable that the operation failed to destabilize Iran.
  Irans protocols for a conflict were known in advance. They were wargamed in Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02). Retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General van Riper famously used "asymmetric" and "low-tech" methods”. In the first few days, Van Riper’s forces "sank" 16 American warships, including an aircraft carrier.
  The war would escalate! The Street of Hormuz would be closed. The cascade was already observed in 2020 & 2022: disruption of supply chains → rising cost of energy → inflation → rate hikes by Central banks → Companies that can not refinance debt and fail. Only this time the shock is a multitude larger.
  For C-level executives the coming winter of 2026 will prove their measure. Those companies that have executives that can adapt the (IT-)organization might survive. Those companies that have executives being blindsided or hoping to sit it through will fail. Possibly due to the costs of energy and capital, probably by the failure of the supply chains and certainly because the collapse of the internal (IT) organization not able to adjust to rapid external developments.
  This book was written during march 2026 in response to above situation. It provides a framework focused on fixing the company before it it’s broke. It contains a highly condensed overview of management literature, how to apply this in context of an IT organization and a toolkit to get the IT organization redesign started.
  Knowledge from organizational literature was rigorously applied, tempered by personal experience over 20+ years in IT and across sectors and roles. It should give the executive an overview of thinking about organizations, inspiration to take action and insight what to address.
• Productinformatie
  Binding : Paperback
  Distributievorm : Boek (print, druk)
  Formaat : 210mm x 297mm
  Aantal pagina's : 179
  Uitgeverij : Marcel Wanningen
  ISBN : 9789465335483
  Datum publicatie : 04-2026
  
• Inhoudsopgave
  1 CHAPTER 1 – OPERATION EPIC FURY & THE CRASH 6
  1.1 The Energy Void: Quantifying the Collapse 6
  1.2 Sectoral Analysis: The Tsunami of Shutdowns 8
  1.3 The IT Organization Efficiency Framework 9
  1.4 A Call to Strategic Arms 11
  2 CHAPTER 2 – THE FUNDAMENTALS: SYSTEMS THEORY 12
  2.1 The Science of Control: Cybernetics and the Feedback Loop 12
  The Failure of Traditional Budgeting: The "Obsolete Data" Loop 15
  Double-Loop Accounting: Aligning Spending with Shifting Realities 16
  Implementing the Self-Corrective Mechanism: Viable System Model (VSM) 17
  The Black Box Approach to System Behavior 20
  The Cost of Complexity: Unmanaged Variety 20
  The Financial Hemorrhage: Variety vs. Debt Service 21
  2.2 The Open System: Survival Through Interaction 23
  The Open System Paradigm: Survival through Exchange 24
  The Artifact as "Interface" 25
  The Rejection of the "Machine Model" 25
  Importing Negative Entropy: Information as "Order" 26
  Strategic Cost Cutting vs. Symptomatic Weight Loss 26
  Challenging the "One Best Way" of Scientific Management 27
  The Labor Disruption Pathway 28
  Designing Flexible IT Architectures for Equifinality 28
  2.3 Order Out of Chaos: The Goal of Restructuring 29
  The Physics of the New Normal: Dissipative Structures 29
  Fluctuations and the Power of Positive Feedback 29
  Irreversible Processes and the Arrow of Time 29
  Organizational Evolution: Necessity vs. Chance 30
  Leveraging Complexity: From Machine to Adhocracy 32
  The Total Costs of Resisting the "Arrow of Time" 33
  Constructive Loss: The Price of a New Order 33
  2.4 Designing the Artificial: Architecture and Modularity 34
  The Parable of the Two Watchmakers: Survival of the Stable 35
  The Hierarchy of Levels: Reducing Information Load 38
  Modularity as a Driver for TCO and Integration Cost Reduction 42
  The "Fit for Growth" Lens: What, Where, and How 42
  2.5 Conclusion: The New Strategic Mindset 43
  3 CHAPTER 3 – STRUCTURED ARCHITECTURE and THE CONFIGURATION OF ORGANIZATIONS 44
  3.1 Mintzberg’s Anatomy: The Five Basic Parts and the Quest for Harmony 44
  The Five Basic Parts of the Organization 44
  The Flow of Work, Authority, and Information 46
  Line vs. Staff: Functions and Conflicts 46
  The Cost Profiles of Mintzberg’s Five Parts 47
  The "Bulge": Techno-structure and Support Staff as Hidden Overhead 48
  The Administrative Ratio (A/P) as a Diagnostic for Inefficiency 48
  The Simple Structure: The Pull to Centralize 49
  The Machine Bureaucracy: The Pull to Standardize 49
  The Professional Bureaucracy: The Pull to Professionalize 50
  The Divisionalized Form: The Pull to Balkanize 51
  The Adhocracy: The Pull to Collaborate 52
  Conclusion: The Pentagon of Structures 52
  Common frameworks in context of Mintzberg’s organizational theory: ITIL 53
  Common frameworks in context of Mintzberg’s organizational theory: AGILE 57
  The Inefficiency of the "Extraordinary" : Misfits 60
  The Anatomy of the Consultancy Trap: A Multi-Dimensional Misfit: 64
  Strategic Realignment: The Motive for Restructuring 65
  3.2 Viable System Model: Architecture for a Hostile World 67
  The Principles of Recursion and Nesting 67
  Detailed Review of the Five Subsystems 67
  Resource Bargaining: The Agile Alternative to Top-Down Budgeting 69
  The Algedonic Signal: Crisis Management 69
  Synthesis: The Viable IT Organization as a "Dissipative Structure" 70
  Viable System Model (VSM) versus Core Elements 70
  Detailed Analysis of the Mapping 71
  3.3 Fit for Growth: Transforming the Organization 72
  The Four Building Blocks of Organizational DNA 72
  Interaction Patterns: Creating the Resilient vs. Passive-Aggressive Organization 73
  The Resilient Organization: The High-Output System 74
  The Mandate for Cultural Evolution 74
  Identifying Differentiating Capabilities vs. Commodity Services 74
  Funding Transformation through Zero-Basing 75
  High-ROI Cost Levers: Spans, Layers, and Footprint 75
  3.4 Large-Scale Restructuring: Divestitures, Spin-offs, and Survival 76
  Business Process Redesign 76
  Divestitures 79
  Methodical Disposition: Wardley Mapping and Context vs. Core 81
  Operating Synergy vs. Dis-economies of Scale 82
  Bankruptcy Reorganizations 82
  A (Bankruptcy?) Case : ATOS 82
  3.5 Conclusion: Designing for the New Normal 85
  4 CHAPTER 4 – STRATEGIC COST MANAGEMENT 87
  4.1 Blocher’s Strategic Emphasis: Cost Information as a Decision Tool 87
  SWOT Analysis: Positioning for the Competitive Landscape 88
  Value-Chain Analysis: Identifying Strategic Cost Drivers 88
  Strategic Cost Management in an Economic Downturn 90
  Identifying the True TCO of Legacy Data Hubs 90
  Presenting Data for Divestment vs. Protection 91
  4.2 IOMA’s Best Practices: Rooting Out Corporate Fat 92
  The Four Basic Categories of Cost Reduction 92
  Identifying and Empowering Advocates 93
  The 80/20 Rule: A Departmental Approach 93
  Strategic Momentum for Growth 93
  Rooting Out Corporate Fat in IT Capital Budgeting 94
  Management of IT Services Spend 94
  Leveraging Competitive Bidding and Reverse Auctions 95
  4.3 High Output Management: The Managerial Production System 95
  The "Black Box" Model of Production 97
  Three Ways to Increase Productivity 97
  Grove’s Law: The Inevitability of Hybrid Organizations 98
  Work Simplification: The 30% Pruning Rule 100
  Assuring Quality at the Lowest-Value Stage 100
  Inspection Points as a Shield Against Technical Debt 101
  4.4 The Metabolic Efficiency of the Firm 101
  5 CHAPTER 5 – IT EFFICIENCY AND MODERN EXECUTION 104
  5.1 The Foundation of Waste Eradication: Lean IT 104
  The Value Stream: The Foundation of Flow 104
  The Three Ms: Mura, Muri, and Muda 105
  Systematic Elimination of Information Waste 106
  The Lean Enterprise Principles Pyramid 107
  Establishing a Culture of Continuous Improvement 107
  Value Stream Costing: Replacing the Distortion of Chargebacks 108
  Soft Savings vs. Bottom-Line Results: The Human Capacity Mine 110
  Freeing Capacity for the Economic Downturn 111
  5.2 The Science of Velocity: DevOps and Accelerate 111
  The First Way: The Principles of Flow 111
  The Second Way: The Principles of Feedback 112
  The Third Way: Continual Learning and Experimentation 112
  The "Inverse Conway Maneuver" and Organizational Evolution 113
  The Evolution of the Cost of Failure 115
  Minimizing the "Amount at Risk" Through Small Batches 115
  Lean Management and Organizational Performance 115
  5.3 The Engineering Reality: The Mythical Man-Month 116
  Sequential Constraints and the "Tar Pit" of Testing 117
  The Surgical Team Model 118
  Strategic Realignment: The Vertical Division of Labor 118
  5.4 Homeostasis and Reliability: Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) 119
  Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Indicators (SLIs) 119
  The Mechanics of Error Budgets 121
  Toil and the "50% Rule" 121
  Building Resilience: Postmortems and Failure Injection 121
  The Opportunity Cost of Over-achieving Reliability Targets 122
  Reducing Financial Impact: Dark Launches and Canary Deployments 122
  5.5 Modernized Governance: ITIL 4 and 5 in the Lean/DevOps Era 123
  Flashback to Chaper 2: The Black Box Approach to System Behavior 128
  Measurement and Reporting: The "Window" into the Process 128
  Change Enablement: Regulating the "Motor Operator" 129
  Incident and Problem Management: Stabilizing the Loop 129
  Optimizing Infrastructure ROI: Capacity, Demand, and Flow 129
  5.6 Conclusion: The Muscle of the Artifact 130
  6 CHAPTER 6 – THE HUMAN ELEMENT AND PERFORMANCE 131
  6.1 The Sociology of IT: Peopleware and the Jelled Team 131
  The Jelled Team: Characteristics of Success 131
  Environmental Killers: The War on Jelling 132
  Managerial Killers: The Strategy of Teamicide 132
  The Total Cost of Turnover: A Hidden Capital Loss 134
  The Mentality of Permanence: Retraining as Cost Avoidance 134
  The E-Factor: Quantifying the ROI on "Brain Time" 135
  6.2 Leadership Through Trust: Radical Candor 136
  6.3 The Organization as a Learning System: The Fifth Discipline 136
  The Five Disciplines 137
  The Learning Cycle 137
  Practice Fields: Safety and Capability Development 138
  6.4 The Philosophy of Information: Steps to an Ecology of Mind 139
  7 CHAPTER 7 – SYNTHESIS AND THE JOURNEY AHEAD 142
  The Synthesis: Reconstructing the Resilient Artifact 142
  The Journey Ahead: A Lean IT Road-map 144
  Footnote: The Energy Disruption Pathway & FFG 145
  8 Toolbox 149
  8.1 Survival Kit for the first 3-months 149
  RACI Matrix: IT Efficiency Framework Execution first 3 months 150
  The Mandate 150
  8.2 Shifting the DNA in the second three months 151
  Phase 1: Foundational Platform 151
  Phase 2: Strategic Modeling 152
  Phase 3: Operational Execution 152
  Phase 4: Strategic Adaptation 153
  Common transformation patterns for Phase 2: Strategic Modeling 154
  8.3 Roadblocks & buldozers 159
  The "Black Box" Defense (Middle-Line Resistance) 159
  The "Spanish Theory" of Management (Teamicide) 159
  Sandbagging and "Budget Massaging" 159
  The "Consultant Crutch" (Memory Loss) 159
  "Rug-Lifting" and Messenger Shooting 160
  Fragmentation of Time (The Multitasking Tax) 160
  "Symptomatic Weight Loss" (Across-the-Board Cuts) 160
  The "Bad Apple" Theory of Error 160
  "Metastable Obsolescence" (Resisting the Arrow of Time) 160
  "Catchball Deception" (Ritualistic Compliance) 161
  8.4 Vendor Financial-Operational Resilience Matrix 162
  1: Financial Solvency 162
  2: Operational Value 162
  3: Conflict-Specific Contingency 162
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