Articles
The New Executive Mindset: Intervention, not Transformation
When looking at individual management profiles and self-describing narratives, it is hard to find anyone who is not transforming something. As such, the branding of oneself as a transformationist is losing its relevance....
Read more on The New Executive Mindset: Intervention, not TransformationEight Key Business and Technology New Year's Resolutions for 2016
The year of 2015 represents a case study in how consumer buying practices are changing, based upon their holiday shopping purchase patterns. Consumers in material numbers are choosing technology-enabled online purchasing and fulfillment using web-based technology. The quantitative evidence is clear: shopping malls are emptier, and distribution fulfillment organizations are finding their delivery capabilities stretched to the limit and then some. Consumers have further demonstrated a preference for a digital, omni-channel, behavior-based, predictive total sales and fulfillment experience. The message is loud and clear, with an exclamation point: organizations will require top-to-bottom IT and organizational transformation to remain relevant....
Read more on Eight Key Business and Technology New Year's Resolutions for 2016The Modern IT Department: Driving Business Innovation
Every working person wants to go home each day feeling like they have made a contribution to the health and growth of their organization. However, members of the IT team often feel disconnected from the organization they work for. They come to work worried about a network security issue, or mulling over a complex programming problem; they are uninvolved in or even unaware of their companies...
Read more on The Modern IT Department: Driving Business InnovationCost-Effective Data Security: Five Senior Management Principles
Customer service and product distribution are evolving rapidly. Customers are demanding new remote methods to initiate orders, and their expectations for demand fulfillment are expanding, all enabled by handheld technologies. In response, security practices must evolve to handle transactions that are no longer centralized, but rather distributed far and wide....
Read more on Cost-Effective Data Security: Five Senior Management PrinciplesAcquiring New Software: How IT Can Help
The marketing department wants to buy an integrated project management system. Accounting is looking for software that incorporates a more up-to-date set of tax rules. Operations needs a better inventory system. Sure, there are software packages out there that can help—but how will the right ones be chosen, and how will they work with the organization...
Read more on Acquiring New Software: How IT Can HelpThe Care and Feeding of Legacy Systems
Show of hands: How many remember Y2K? Those of us who lived through it can never completely forget the sheer terror of not really knowing whether elevators would stall between the 87th and 8th floors or planes would fall from the sky at midnight on December 31, 1999....
Read more on The Care and Feeding of Legacy SystemsHow Do You Improve Your Management Performance By Establishing Your Relevance?
As a manager, whenever you take on a new management role, either internally or externally, you apply the totality of your learned management practices. The rationale is simple, the totality of these practices, developed over time, has formed the basis for your success, so you see no basis for change. There is however a management practice, not often practiced, which could improve your current practices even further, which I describe as establishing management relevance. ...
Read more on How Do You Improve Your Management Performance By Establishing Your Relevance?The art of management in emerging markets - shock and awe, Part 5
In my last blog learning the strange, I introduced the idea of accepting the strangeness of the unknown as a basis for learning. Embedded within that critical competency is a critical moment in time: the rupture of the familiar....
Read more on The art of management in emerging markets - shock and awe, Part 5The art of management in emerging markets - learning the strange, Part 4
In my last blog, I talked about our first new competency: having an explorer adventurer mindset. You have to be ready to encounter strangeness from the moment of arrival - sometimes literally from touchdown. This competence gets you onto the playing field, but it...
Read more on The art of management in emerging markets - learning the strange, Part 4The art of management in emerging markets - be an explorer adventurer, Part 3
This series is drawn from the lived experiences of expats, working in such diverse countries as Upper Mongolia, Armenia, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and the Soloman Islands. These stories and our experiences are real. We say it as we see it....
Read more on The art of management in emerging markets - be an explorer adventurer, Part 3The art of management in emerging markets - diving into the unknown, Part 2
Becoming a better manager is like looking at hidden pictures. At first you take what you see at surface value, then someone explains what is really going on. From that point, the more you look at, the quicker you spot the secret....
Read more on The art of management in emerging markets - diving into the unknown, Part 2The art of management in emerging markets, Part 1
In the late 80s and early 90s many large companies hired MBAs directly from top management schools to executive fast track programs. The underlying premise: these individuals were at the top of the intellectual ladder, and had obtained a unique set of management skills that would enhance a company...
Read more on The art of management in emerging markets, Part 1Evaluating Your IT Organization - The Big Questions, Part 3
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Read more on Evaluating Your IT Organization - The Big Questions, Part 3Evaluating Your IT Organization - The Big Questions, Part 2
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Read more on Evaluating Your IT Organization - The Big Questions, Part 2Evaluating Your IT Organization - The Big Questions, Part 1
We are constantly asked, How do I benchmark my IT organization? Our very own Robert Mills has put together a great list of questions that every CEO and CFO should be asking of their IT departments....
Read more on Evaluating Your IT Organization - The Big Questions, Part 1IT Vendor Management and Outsourcing 3 Key Points
In the expanding universe of information technology we continue to see the trend of outsourcing many parts of a company...
Read more on IT Vendor Management and Outsourcing 3 Key PointsStrategy CIO Supports Local M&A Organization
As of this week we are now an annual sponsor of our local M&A group, ...
Read more on Strategy CIO Supports Local M&A OrganizationLeadership, Data-Loss, And More Than Ones and Zeros
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Read more on Leadership, Data-Loss, And More Than Ones and ZerosThe Internet's Next Phase: Neutral or Not, Cloudy or Bright?
To remain successful, businesses must stay at the forefront of technology and prepare now for the future of the Internet. As the Web advances, companies eagerly adopt new capabilities. At the same time, they must be vigilant about protecting themselves from threats, maintaining and enhancing the ease of conducting business, and making it easy for others to do business with them. ...
Read more on The Internet's Next Phase: Neutral or Not, Cloudy or Bright?Thinking About Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)?
Control. More specifically loss of control is rippling through IT departments everywhere. With tightening belts more companies are looking towards Bring Your Own Device ...
Read more on Thinking About Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)?Reducing Business Complexity to Speed Growth
In an increasingly complex and competitive world business are constantly fighting an opponent that is unyielding, unforgiving, and eternal. For those of you that don...
Read more on Reducing Business Complexity to Speed GrowthKnowledge Management Tips
A large shift has been going on behind the scenes of many large and not so large organizations over the last couple years. That has been the shift to using IT-based knowledge management systems in the storage, access, and the dissemination of organizational knowledge....
Read more on Knowledge Management Tips