Strategies and Trends for Information Technology Leaders
Suppose your family is in the market for a new house. Your plan is to interview three builders and then choose one to build your new home. You meet with Acme Builders first. The salesperson, Ann, asks some questions about what you have in mind and you describe your ideas. Ann tells you that Acme’s…
Fortune 500 companies abandon more than one-third of software-development projects after implementation because they don’t meet user needs, according to a study released today by analyst firm Voke Media. The survey was conducted from April through July. That sees a lot of money squandered — the average project costs $3.2 million and requires almost 1,300…
Even though, economically speaking, things are looking tougher by the day, in general, IT is fairing pretty well. Budget growth may not be what you would like it to be, but there is growth. Staffing levels are also, for the most part (depending what sector you’re in), are holding steady with more companies looking to…
Vision: The art of seeing things invisible, as Jonathan Swift once wrote. Visionary executives, we submit, are those who not only see possibilities in plain sight, but who also possess a unique mixture of skills, abilities and leadership that can make the impossible happen. They are individuals who can marshal the resources and people around…
Meetingitis: Having so many meetings that you can’t get your work done. –The Urban dictionary It’s no secret, the information age is about meetings. Meetings to plan next week’s activities, meetings to review last week’s activities, meetings to review the previous meeting and plan the next one. It is unending! Meetings have a real cost,…
You can be doing a fantastic job, but if some of your key stakeholders either don’t know about it, or have an incorrect perspective about your work, it can be a huge block to your credibility and your success. It is the role of any executive to both do their job and build personal credibility…
Question: are you a propeller-head? It’s an honest question, but before answering know that your boss and the company’s board do not want to have sit-down sessions with a propeller-head who intends to review the minute details of a proposed new data center. What they want to know is how much money this data center…
Don’t think your competitors are not eyeballing your best employees. The recession has hit IT, head counts are dwindling so it’s time to wake up and smell the scent of executive search: recruiters are looking to cull the very people you cannot afford to lose. The worse news is that now is the perfect time…
In the past few years, IT has enabled a sea-change in the way businesses are run. From green screens to Web 2.0, we have come a long way. But one concern that never goes away is whether the IT investments being made are worth the money, and whether they will stand the test of time….
The latest benchmarking data estimates that you spend over 70% of your time and resources keeping current operations running, i.e., keeping the lights on. Gartner estimates this at over 80%. Whatever the number, those of you I have talked with agree. It’s a big number. One of the biggest credibility issues CIO’s face is that…