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employees who used computers, tablets and applications as second nature.
They had already installed a number of applications on their mobile phones,
tablets and private laptops and used them for their business tasks. This
drove the IT manager to despair, as he was no longer in a position to
guarantee a uniform scenario. He complained about losing control of the
mobile devices, and clearly explained how big a security risk the company
was looking at, if private devices were used in the enterprise without any
controls or specifications. Max was also concerned that know‐how and
production or customer data might be lost in this way. In particular, if
employees were to leave the company, they should definitely expect major
issues. Data protection and data security were currently a mess.
The IT manager also pointed out that he was worried about possible
fraudulent use of the data and systems. And just at that point, the product
departments wanted to deploy seven new IT applications from the Cloud.
Most of the participants were not entirely sure what this was really about
and what the Cloud actually was. However, the head of the accounting
department voiced further concerns. How could you post and invoice these
applications in accounts; who would the applications belong to, and how
would the licensing rights be dealt with. These were only a few of the
questions. Max's assistant, however, made it quite clear that, although she
was prepared to continue managing the internal users and their rights for
applications and data, she was very reluctant to do so for seven further
applications from diverse providers in the Cloud. She warned the others that
she would be unable to handle the administrative overhead, going on to say
that it was inconceivable to think that employees were storing their data
and applications on their own devices, and were using both on private
equipment that had actually been paid for by the company.
Finally, the sales manager, aggravated the situation by stating that the sales
figures had slumped, and that he saw a bleak a future without appropriate
support by IT and new IT based solutions for securing customer loyalty.
No wonder that everyone had left the meeting feeling frustrated, confused,
and demotivated. So many questions had arisen, and there were so few
answers. So many positions had become entrenched, and there was no sign
of a consensus.
1.2.3
The second management meeting
At the second management meeting, which had just ended, everything
turned out quite differently. Max had retreated to a conference hotel with
his executive team. Up front it was already clear to Max that the internal IT
