The great investor, Warren Buffett, is known for his viewpoint that America's economic power lies in its ability to unleash human potential. With increasing global competition, that potential couldn't be more essential to the country's future.

Now let's take that same thought into the corporate world.

In similar ways, a corporation's success is equally dependent on the potential of its people. While the "consumerization of IT"' is perceived by many organizations as a risk to corporate security, it is the wrong way to view this new paradigm of enterprise mobility.  Sure, there are security risks associated with any new technology, and the right policies and tools need to be in place to ensure integrity, but enterprise mobility is going through a critical transition where it now has the potential of "unleashing the power of the end-user."

In the traditional role of IT, end-user application and technology decisions were driven top-down.  Users pretty much had to use the applications that were selected by the company, and often in the restricted way that it was implemented. While the goal of IT is to select and implement the best solution based on their understanding of end-user requirements, more often than not the resulting solution falls short of expectations.

Enter the app store.

What has proven to be successful is that when consumers are given the freedom to choose, the best solutions naturally bubble to the top. That said, the forum for such collective interactions were often prohibitive, at least until app stores entered the picture. The way app stores work (e.g. access to the best apps, ease of use, choice of devices, peer reviews) is setting the expectations in the corporate world as these same consumers are employees of companies. That, along with BYOD (bring your own device) policies, and the power of today's mobile devices, are what's driving the consumerization of IT.

However, in the corporate world, the "wild west" of consumer app stores as an application procurement, delivery and management solution is simply not realistic. There needs to be some level of control and governance to protect the company.  Hence, recently there's been much talk about "enterprise" app stores as a way to bridge the gap between giving IT control while providing end-users much of the benefits found in consumer app stores. Implemented correctly, IT can still maintain control over corporate policies and procedures, while giving end-users a far more productive way to do their jobs.

For example, a traditional corporate application designed for the desktop usually consolidated multiple functions into a single interface which makes it cumbersome to use and often required training. By selectively porting the functions of that same application onto mobile devices using smaller chunks of "app functionality," it will make it easier for the end-user to use and often require little or no training.

Furthermore, what might have required IT to help with installation and configuration can now be delivered via a self-service app store model.  IT can also utilize the app store model to solicit direct user feedback and recommendations.  And then there's the simple power of allowing end-users to perform their job functions anywhere, anytime through mobility.

Don't look at the consumerization of IT as merely a risk mitigation issue. Instead, leverage the new paradigm to unleash the power of your end-users.

Sam Liu is vice president of Marketing at Partnerpedia.