Another year gone, where does the time go? As the year draws to an end I find myself reflecting on the good, the bad and the ugly of the past 12 months and as I do so I reckon there are 6 key trends or issues that have set the context for 2021 and most likely will set the context […]
Traditionally technology has been used to automate and streamline business processes. This started with mainframe based solutions that automated payroll or certain accounting functions, spreadsheets that enhanced and improved analytical capabilities or MRP and ERP solutions that sought to automate end to end supply chain processes and in some cases attempted to create an integrated whole. What these solutions have […]
The trend is clear, more and more IT services are being delivered through as a service (XaaS) style offering. In a XaaS model all of the technical work is done by the XaaS provider rather than the corporate IT team. In addition most of the user support is being done by SMEs embedded within the business. These roles also often […]
In many organisations the lack of digital skills is seen as an issue of staff capability when in reality the lack of digital skills is often a leadership issue. Most of my conversations with executives about digital skills, or perhaps more precisely the lack of digital skills, go something like this (note this is deliberately over simplified and just a […]
This was the question that the Thriving Through Digital group considered in a recent discussion. It was an interesting and wide ranging discussion touching on issues such as the role of experience in a changing environment, silo thinking from leaders that make organisational change difficult, an inability to change or worse, active protection of the past, which have provided incumbent […]
Nearly 10 years ago I wrote a blog looking at the impact of cloud computing on traditional businesses. At the time the IT, media and analysts were proclaiming cloud as the way of the future and were extolling CIOs to transition to the cloud now or risk being left behind. The headliner at that time was AWS for cloud infrastructure […]
This blog formalizes the insights, ideas and opinions voiced at the Thriving Through Digital lean beer conversation held in Auckland on 12 September 2018. The specific topic that we discussed at this session was “ How to start your digital transition.” You can find more information / join the group conversation here. In developing this blog I have considered the […]
This blog formalises the insights, ideas and opinions voiced at our lean beer conversations held in August in Christchurch and Auckland. The specific topic that we discussed at this session was “Execution Strategies”. The actual notes of these conversations can be found here. Digital transformation is the organisation change initiative of our time. Depending on the survey you read anywhere […]
After many discussions about “digital” with the CIO and members of their IT leadership team it was time to take the digital conversation to the next level. Today the CIO and I were meeting with the CEO to begin to discuss the need for the organisation to develop a “digital strategy”1 for the organisation. After the initial introductions and […]
This blog formalises the insights, ideas and opinions voiced at the Thriving Through Digital lean beer conversation held in Auckland on 6 June 2018. The specific topic that we discussed at this session was “what is success [for digital], how do you justify the investment and how do you measure impact?” You can find more information / join the group […]
I have had lots of conversations lately with CIOs and Senior IT leaders about moving to agile. There was a CIO who has invested heavily in training and support for their team, but is experiencing push back on agile practices from the executive who still expect business cases and predefined scope and benefits. A long term industry colleague who is […]
I have been thinking a lot lately about how to deliver effective change. The beginning of a new year is often seen as a good time to think about what we have achieved, what we haven’t and what we would like to change and improve, but that’s not the only reason. Effective change is a persistent issue in innovation programmes and critical to […]
Innovation is one of those words whose time has come. It seems that every organisation in the world wants to be more innovative and more often than not technology is right in the middle of the innovation discussion. For an idea that is so widely desired I reckon there is a remarkable lack of agreement on what innovation actually means. This was brought […]
One of the things that I love about the technology industry is that it is full of smart capable people. IT professionals that I have the privilege to work with all have tremendous knowledge and expertise, which has been built over years and in some cases decades of study and practical application. As a result of this training and expertise […]
“Thanks to Moore’s Law the S-Curves in technology are frighteningly short.” The S-Curve, or more correctly the Sigmoid curve is a mathematical model that gets its name from its shape that approximates a stylised S. The model has been used by many people as a way of depicting the natural life cycle of just about everything. The curve has three […]
I have recently had the privilege of talking to a large number of non IT executives who have responsibility for their organisation’s technology. While all of these people are very capable, talented executives none of them have specialised in the management and use of technology. At some level (while they won’t necessarily admit it) most of these executives are a […]
I believe that for technologists to be truly effective they need to not only have great technology skills, but they also need to be influential. Indeed, I believe that influencing is so important that we need to view it as a technologist’s second expertise. That’s all very well, but how influential do you need to be and how do you […]
“We’ve invested heavily in defining and implementing good processes, practices and methods, the problem is we can’t get the people to consistently follow the process. Why is this?” I hear this lament from Service Desk Managers and ITIL SMEs about the service desk and support staff, I hear it from PMOs about Sponsors, Business Owners and Project Managers and I […]
Over the past six months or so I have had the privilege of judging several industry awards programmes including the CIO 100 in New Zealand, the CIO 50 in Australia and the NZ Hi-Tech awards. I judge awards for several reasons. It’s a good way to give back, you learn a lot about what others in the industry are thinking […]
For those who know my Warehouse (TWL) IT story you’ll know that things were a bit bleak in the early days. I had joined TWL from Deloitte with the expectation that as a CIO my role would be to lead a team that would use IT to provide competitive advantage and create value. However, what I found when I arrived […]
I recently wrote a blog where I outlined an epiphany I had around the need for an IT team to be operationally excellent (the original blog can be found here). In essence the insight was that high performing organisations have high performing IT teams and that a key characteristic of being a high performing IT team is operational excellence. That […]
For all of you who are regular readers of my blogs you will know that I am fairly obsessed with the notion of IT Value. This obsession stems from a belief that IT has huge potential to make our lives and organisations substantially better and that it is our job, as an industry, to ensure that this value is delivered. […]
Innovation is a hot topic around the globe at the moment and given the tight connection between technology and innovation today it is something I am intensely interested in. So it was with great interest that I read the following article and the full report from a few weeks back. First things first, congratulations to Chris Paykel and James Hurman […]
A few years ago I was contacted by a local doctoral student. They were looking into success rates and best practices for ERP implementations. What he as looking for was local case study input into his thesis. Whenever I get these requests I try and help as much as I can, It’s a good thing to do in terms of […]
A few weeks ago I got a call from a client “Owen, we presented our digital strategy to the board yesterday. It went well but the board wants us to go quicker and are prepared to invest in that. Can we talk?” “Of course we can talk” I replied, “but before we dive into it, what exactly does the board […]
Many IT organisations are strong on wanting a mandate. This is what IT does and this is what users can and cannot do. The expectation is that if we can simply clarify and enforce the rules then shadow IT will go away and we will solve all, or at least a few, of the world’s problems. The problem is mandates […]
I was meeting with a client a few months back. This particular client was having some ongoing issues with the performance of their help desk. Specifically, tickets were not getting closed in a timely fashion and as a result IT’s customer (i.e. users of IT services) were getting some what exasperated (to be polite). The question on the table was […]
I consider myself to be a strategist. I love the process of determining a goal/vision, diagnosing the current situation, understanding the gaps and working out a plan or an approach to bringing the goal to reality. The best part of my job is working with teams through this process, supporting their problem solving and facilitating a joint understanding of the […]
I reckon that for most large incumbent organisations (that is those born in an analogue age) going digital is a bit like embarking on a significant house renovation and extension. But first let me take you back to the beginning of 2004. My wife and I decided to buy an old villa in Auckland. We were new to Auckland and […]
I recently wrote a blog on the importance of starting our thinking about technology based innovation from the perspective of purpose or as Simon Sinek urges start with why. To me the power of purpose as a starting point for thinking about technology is twofold. Firstly, purpose tends to be everlasting. How you fulfill on your purpose may change over time, […]
In the third most popular TED Talk of all time Simon Sinek urges leaders to start with why. Sinek’s message was fairly simple. Great communicators communicate very differently to most people. Whereas most people communicate from the outside in, by describing what they do, great communicators communicate from the inside out by describing why they do what they do. That […]
I noticed that Gartner released its latest hype cycle for emerging technologies last week (see this Forbes article for a summary). I love the Gartner hype cycles and I loathe the Gartner hype cycles all at the same time because to me they represent the best and worst in the IT industry all in the one graph. I love them […]
Technology is changing the way companies do business but the sad reality is that in many organisations the IT team, the supposed technology experts are barely participating in these changes let alone leading them. On the surface of it this makes no sense at all and many IT professionals are confused if not downright angry about it. They have a […]
There we were halfway through the workshop with the IT leadership team and our attention shifted to the team’s project delivery performance. The insight from the executive was very clear. They saw the IT team as the department of no! It didn’t matter how good an idea it was IT would find a way to make sure it didn’t get done. […]
I have spent a large part of my career leading / managing teams. I have had my moments of success and my moments of failure as a leader. I look back at some of the things I have done in the name of leadership and cringe at my crassness and stupidity. In a recent blog on persistent problems I noted […]
The internet is not 100 percent safe, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be using it to support you to take your business forward. And rather than worrying about all those things that you don’t understand I think you should think of the internet in the same way you think about driving. Think about it, is driving safe? Of course […]
I have been a fan of Stephen Covey’s 7 habits for a long time now. It has been very influential in how I look at the world and how I live my life, despite my constant failures to live up to the habits. It has also been influential in my understanding of what you need to do to be successful […]
I have been a fan of Stephen Covey’s 7 habits for a long time now. It has been very influential in how I look at the world and how I live my life, despite my constant failures to live up to the habits. It has also been influential in my understanding of what you need to do to be successful […]
I talk and write a lot about value and the ability of IT to deliver real value for organisations. That’s our role, delivering value to our organisations through the smart and effective use of technology and information. Despite this I have never formally captured my thoughts on what are the sources of value for an organisation and how IT can […]
It’s become very popular lately to declare yourself as a technology company. It doesn’t seem to matter what industry you are in, the growing popular view is that every company is a technology company. Here are some examples of company / executive pronouncements: Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs said “We are a technology company. We are a […]
Organisations are obsessed with projects. Every year they invest millions of dollars into projects presumably with the expectation that these projects will create value for them and support them to achieve their goals and visions. The problem is, projects seldom if ever actually deliver value and seldom if ever move organisations forward towards achieving their goals. I’m not saying this […]
For more than a decade now the proportion of organisational technology spend being managed outside of the IT team has grown rapidly. Most industry analysts reckon that the split in IT spending is nearly 50/50 between IT controlled and spent outside of IT. There are many reasons offered as to why this move has happened, however it is hard to […]
My daughter Sarah has just passed her learner’s driving licence. It is a very exciting time for her and a somewhat nervous time for myself and her mother. The day after she passed I took her out for her first ever drive. I decided that having her actually drive on the road with other cars was a step too far […]
In a recent blog I raised the issue that most organisations don’t systematically invest in the digital competence of their team. Having under invested, they then lament their inability to deliver real tangible value from their technology investments. You can’t be a digital leader, or expect to realise the full value from your digital investments unless your team members, who […]
In 1964 Abraham Kaplan coined what he called the law of the instrument – “Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” This law, and all of its variations, describe the IT industry, we play the role of the small boy and technology, particularly new technology, fulfills the role of our favorite […]
What makes a great CIO? What do CIOs do anyway? These two questions and variations of them seem to get asked regularly at conferences and on social networks such as LinkedIn. The latest round of these questions has inspired me to write this blog. This is my take on what makes a great CIO. At a high level I believe a […]
Before I took up the role of CIO at The Warehouse I was a partner with Deloitte Consulting. As with most professional services firms my role was a mix of selling and delivering services to clients. Because of this when I joined The Warehouse I was quite open to meet with potential service providers to see what value they could […]
The technology industry, indeed business in general, is enamoured with innovation. Any business oriented magazine you pick up talks about innovation and how to be more innovative. Innovate or die is our mantra and we are constantly on the look out for new bright ideas. If you judge us by our actions it seems we all believe that the person with […]
One night after a long day at work I came home wanting to chill out and relax. As a father of four that is seldom an option. This particular night I arrived home right on bedtime and soon found myself in the middle of stories and good night cuddles. In our house the bedtime ritual usually includes a period of […]
I developed the IS Hierarchy of Needs while I was the CIO of The Warehouse. I developed the hierarchy because I had to. Let me explain.I became the CIO of The Warehouse full of joy and hope of the world because I believe in the power of technology to be a major catalyst of change and a source of competitive […]
If you look through history for examples of great leaders they all have 1 thing in common. They have achieved amazing results. I cannot find one person who has achieved nothing or little who is considered a great leader. Based on this it seems reasonable to assume that the ultimate measure of leadership is the results that are achieved. Maybe […]
Over the Christmas break I read Nicholas Carr’s “Does IT Matter”. I figured it was about time I read it as I believe passionately that IT can make a difference to companies and within the community we operate. Based on a very quick skim read of his article and all the hype and hysteria it seems that Carr disagrees with […]
I’m not a car guy but I love Jaguars. I remember when it started, I was 7 or 8 and my North Island Uncle and Auntie came visiting. They were Te Puke kiwifruit pioneers and they had worked hard and done well. They turned off the road and onto our drive in their silver XJ 6. I fell in love with […]
A few years ago I was invited to breakfast at the Takapuna Beach Cafe by a friend of mine. The purpose of this breakfast was to introduce me to Ian Howard, a friend of his. I turned up to the breakfast with no particular expectations. However, the conversation we had at the cafe that morning has changed my life’s priorities and […]
Recently I have had the opportunity to attend a number of presentations on innovation. As I listened my mind wandered (as it often does) and I began to wonder what does the IS hierarchy of needs tell us about innovation? The answer came quickly. The hierarchy of needs tells us that different types of innovation are needed to meet the […]
Last week I gave a presentation at the IT Service Management Forum NZ titled “Using ITL to create a World-Class IT Team”. Below is a repost of a great article written by Mark Thorburn (IS Service Manager reporting to me when I was CIO at The Warehouse Ltd) which gives a very succinct and accurate overview of how the team […]
If you look through history for examples of great leaders they all have 1 thing in common. They have achieved amazing results. I cannot find one person who has achieved nothing or little who is considered a great leader. Based on this it seems reasonable to assume that the ultimate measure of leadership is the results that are achieved. Maybe […]
We hear all the time that knowledge is power. In our industry we use this mantra as a justification for all sorts of investment, particularly investments in business intelligence. But is knowledge really power? Let’s consider this. In our house we have one rule (thanks to my sister, from whom we lifted this rule). That rule is “everyone deserves love […]
New Zealand’s retailers have been slow to move on-line. Most of our traditional retail giants are either on their first generation web store or they are still not trading on-line. In the mean time on-line only competitors such as Torpedo 7, 1 Day, Mighty Ape and of course Trade Me are quietly building their business. New Zealanders are not only […]