Fit, Simplicity and Risk: Multiple Paths to Strategic IT Change

Abstract

The dominant rational approach to IT-centered strategic change derives from the positioning literature in business strategy. It assumes a single best path to successful organizational transformation. Three cases are used to show that, in practice, there are multiple alternative paths. The strategic IT and business strategy literatures are critiqued in terms of the process of fit so as to explain why these alternative paths are successful. Two distinctive characteristics of the fit process – the search for simplicity and differential risk management profiles – are identified. Their roles in successful paths are discussed.

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