Last Updated on 30. October 2025 by mgm-marketing
Welcome to the fourth and final part of our series ‘IT Strategy Meets Business Goals’. In four consecutive articles, we show how genuine collaboration between business and IT can work in companies – and how you can benefit from it.
Part three showed that co-creation not only affects collaboration, but also has a significant impact on a company’s technological architecture and organisational design. Platform thinking, modular building blocks (APIs), AI and automation, and digital twins bring greater flexibility, innovation and agility, and enable data-driven control.
Business-IT co-creation is not a state that can be achieved – it is a path that must be consistently pursued and then continuously followed. Many organisations want to become faster, more agile and more customer-oriented – but remain stuck in old control logics and role attributions. In our consulting practice, we see time and again that the difference lies not in the vision, but in the implementation.
Five recommendations that companies can use to shape business-IT co-creation in concrete terms
1. Start where value is created – with the products
The easiest way to get started with true co-creation is to begin at the product level. Put together cross-functional teams that pursue a common goal – e.g., a customer portal, an internal service platform or a data-driven business process. Ensure that these teams have end-to-end responsibility – from conception to implementation to operation.
Practical example: An energy supplier set up a team from IT, billing, marketing and data analysis for its smart meter platform – with weekly steering and a joint OKR structure.
2. Establish new role models
Business-IT co-creation requires new roles. Old job titles such as ‘requirements manager’ or ‘IT coordinator’ are relics of a separate world. What is needed are bridge roles – e.g.:
- Product owner with specialist and technical understanding
- Business technology partner at divisional level
- Capability owner in platform teams
These roles not only need new descriptions – they also need clear decision-making powers and budget responsibility.
3. Work with different levels of maturity – consciously
Not every organisation is ready for complete co-creation. Some areas benefit from classic alignment in the short term, while others are ready for radical integration. The key is to make the levels of maturity visible and consciously manage them – e.g. through maturity models or an IT operating model with development stages.
Recommendation: Develop a heat map of your organisation – where does real co-creation potential exist, and where does it not?
4. Invest in communication skills
Co-creation rarely fails because of technology – but because of language. IT teams talk in terms of platforms, APIs and sprints, while the business thinks in terms of customer needs, revenue and risks. Formats are needed in which both sides learn to understand each other – e.g. joint design thinking workshops, value proposition sessions or customer journey analyses.
Tool tip: Make conscious use of value frameworks (e.g. the ‘Business Model Canvas’) as a bridge between worlds.
5. Think in terms of impact logic, not project plans
Projects often start with scope, budget and milestones – but rarely with the question: What impact do we want to create? Co-creation requires a new way of thinking: output (what are we doing?) is not the same as outcome (what are we achieving?). That’s why CIOs and their teams should learn early on to think in terms of impact logic:
- What changes for the customer?
- How do we measure the business benefit?
- Which hypothesis do we want to test?
Recommendation: Establish KPIs that reflect impact – e.g. customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, time-to-market or usage rates.
Co-creation is not a ‘big bang’ but a process. It begins with attitude, is supported by structures – and shows its effect through small, visible successes. CIOs who take this path need patience, clarity and the courage to leave gaps. But they are the ones who make their organisations fit for the future – not through control, but through joint design.
For many years, ‘business-IT alignment’ was a sensible goal – at a time when IT and business were indeed separate spheres. But those days are over. Today, business models, customer experiences and operational excellence are inextricably linked to technology. IT is no longer a supporting function – it is an integral part of the business.
Anyone who still focuses on ‘alignment’ in this environment is wasting valuable time. What companies need today is business-IT co-creation: joint thinking, decision-making and action across divisional boundaries. Not in exceptional projects, but in daily operations. Not as an experiment, but as a structural principle.
This transformation cannot be achieved through methods alone – it requires leadership. It requires CIOs and business managers who are prepared to question old patterns, establish new roles and create a common operating system for digital value creation. They should not mediate between the ‘business side’ and ‘IT’ – but rather create a space in which the two merge.
Co-creation is not a goal, but an attitude. It begins where responsibility is shared, impact is made visible and silos are overcome. And it unfolds its greatest power when it is not viewed as an ‘IT issue’ – but as a management task at board level.
Because in a digital world, IT is not the problem. Separation is.
