Stephen,

Great post and I agree whole heartedly. I saw an article at infoworld today that compliments some of your points on our need to adapt to the changing environment. It some of the management gurus are changing their tune then we really need to pay attention. The article “Why IT gives business a competitive edge” http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/12/05/49FEcompete_1.html?source=NLC-TC2005-12-05 talks about how many of these gurus that were turned off IT just a few years ago are getting bullish on IT as a source of competitive advantage. Even Nick Carr, one of the famed people that even wrote a book or two on the death of IT is taking a softer approach. He recently adapted his point of view in an InfoWorld interview, “Carr says that IT might matter -- in certain cases.”I haven't changed my mind about the core of my assessment," says Carr, "which was that as IT becomes standardized and cheaper and better understood, it becomes harder to sustain a competitive advantage." The comments in this article highlighted some of your key points about the need for IT folks with relationship (human) and business skills. I haven’t captured them all here as it is an extensive article, yet I thought this quote said it very well “ Nick Carr was half right," says Tom Davenport, Babson College professor and management guru. "You've got to combine IT with smart people and good business processes that are supportive of a distinctive capability the organization has.". To be a leader in IT you need to understand how to implement process, your business and be able to relate to people. So does this mean we have to come out behind the computer screen :=)

You can also check out “Nick Carr takes the middle path: http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/12/05/49FEcompetecarr_1.html?source=NLC-TC2005-12-05” for a good read.

John