[Discuss] Justify your existence

[blu at nedharvey.com (Edward Ned Harvey)]

You're in a social situation - at a party or something - You're talking with
some CFO or otherwise interesting financial person about work, and Dilbert
cartoons, and the wastefulness and inefficiencies of typical corporations or
typical organizations, etc.  Somebody uses a term like "overhead" or
"secondary" referring to support roles.  But you're an IT person - You're a
support role, and depending on what is your core business, most likely
you're overhead.

 

With only a moment's thought, and only a few words, how do you describe the
value that your role adds to the organization?  How do you justify your own
existence, casually, when talking to a CFO or somebody in a social
situation?