Chris Knowles

Keswick, England

IT Management Consultant

Both arguments have merit. There is clearly a need for business managers to accept responsibility for the processes within their companies, and that means having an understanding of the applications that support those processes. They are (or should be) the system owners, the IT department is the custodian.
Equally the IT managers must understand the business and propose / provide appropriate solutions that meet the business requirement.
Ideally a business has strong business managers with a good understanding of IT, strong IT Business Managers who understand the business and can interpret business requirements into technical solutions (and vice versa), and strong IT Technical Managers who can deliver appropriate technical solutions.