In this thought-provoking compendium, top IT experts from around the world analyze why transformation efforts built around IT often fail, and share provocative and practical methods for ensuring that IT lives up to its promise. Writing for both IT and general business managers, they zero in on the management competencies required for successful, sustainable change, incorporating case studies and cutting-edge research findings to pinpoint the failings of traditional IT management approaches such as strategic alignment and business process reengineering. They persuasively argue for the integration of the core business unit and the IT function, advocate a new role for IT professionals, stress the importance of managing outcomes rather than process, and provide practical guidelines for turning new ideas into new management practices. Presenting novel and stimulating ways of thinking about the dynamics of change, Steps to the Future includes a challenging vision of what organizations of the future will need to compete - and helps managers, executives, and consultants meet the challenge with a radically new, incremental approach to managing the process.