It took years for me to appreciate the fact that the core business of an organization is the core business! For example in a telecommunications company, the core business is the communication service that is provided by the company. So the Technical and Information and Communications function are critical to service provision which in turn generates revenue.

I remember my colleague in the Technical Division of a company I worked for saying “ I am making this presentation so that Leya and other non technical colleagues understand what happens in Technical and I will not stop until they get it!”. His presentations were always passionate and deliberate in breaking down the critical aspects of the network that supported the service.

Later, I discovered that I could “swing” it and hold my own as I spoke about the business and participated in negotiations regarding the network upgrade or other operations.

Everyone in the organisation has a duty to understand the core business at a basic level at the very least. All functions in the company link into the core business in varying extents. Do not detest references to your function as “support” to the core business, because you are! In one era I worked in, our CEO referred to the functions around the core business as “core support” and that sat well with us!

To my colleagues in core business functions, please come in to my house of thoughts.