Value. As I have mentioned many times in my previous articles the role of IT teams is to use technology to deliver value to their organisation. One of the biggest challenges to the delivery of IT value is that delivering value through technology is a cooperative act between IT and other teams across the organisation. While every team is dependant […]
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 […]
A few weeks back I was deeply involved in a conversation with a colleague. I don’t really remember where the conversation started or what’s its ultimate purpose was meant to be but it was one of those beautiful conversations that starts in one place, generates many connections and tangents and ends somewhere completely unrelated. I love those conversations as they […]
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 […]
I have always thought that success as a CIO ultimately comes down to your ability to be influential. It’s true that influence is important in many roles and essential for executive roles but in no other roll is it as important as for the CIO. Let me explain. The CIO is often the only executive role where you are not […]
I had arrived early and took up a seat in a quiet corner of the cafe. I was here for my first coaching session with Roseanne. Roseanne was identified early as a high potential leader within a major corporate IT team. Recently, however, her CIO had noticed a disturbing trend in her performance. Roseanne and her team were missing deadlines […]
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 […]
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to. Alice: I don’t much care where. The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go. Alice: …So long as I get somewhere. The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure […]
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 […]
Many years ago I remember sitting in a classroom listening to a lecturer. I don’t remember why I was there or what it was that I was meant to learn, the only thing I really remember is a cartoon that was flashed up on the screen. The cartoon had two pictures on it. On one side was a small boy jumping joyously […]
“Forget the arduous, intellectualised number crunching and data grinding. In real life, strategy is actually very straight forward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.” Jack Welch I love this quote. It captures so much of where I have ended up when it comes to understanding strategy. Not long after taking up my role as the CIO of […]
I have recently reread some of Clayton Christensen’s work. Christensen is most famous for his theory of disruptive innovation first espoused in the Innovator’s Dilemma. In many ways the popularisation of the term disruption can be traced back to Christensen. In one of the pieces I read Christensen looks at how incumbent companies can avoid or at least be prepared […]
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 […]
Last July we embarked on a family trip to the United States. I dubbed it the “parks and parks” tour as the first half was spent in some of the famous national parks. The second half was spent in Orlando’s theme parks. One of the highlights of the trip was Universal Studios, and the undoubted winner was the Harry Potter attractions. […]
I am a bit of a contrarian at heart so when I see large groups of people lining up on one side of an issue with no apparent opposition my natural inclination is to look at that big group of people and try and understand their point of view and then proceed to pick holes in their position. I reckon the […]
In my view, Peter Drucker is one of the best leadership thinkers of our time so when Drucker says something I sit up and take notice. If Drucker said it then there is a very good chance that it’s true. So when I discovered that Drucker said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” I became quite disturbed. Why? Well, while […]
While a C-Suite title may sound cool and make you feel good, having a title or position is not the same thing as being a leader. It is also no guarantee that you can or will make a positive contribution. And in my book, making a positive contribution is what it is all about. The title doesn’t matter, it is […]
Lately I have had a lot of conversations about the culture of IT teams. These conversations tend to have one of two themes. The first is whether their team has a positive culture or a negative culture. Typically, these conversations are quite negative and focus on why our culture is so bad and whose fault it is that it is […]
It started in high school. Exams were coming closer and closer and I really hadn’t done any work for them at all. I had spent many hours at my desk, supposedly working, when really all I was doing was listening to the radio and doodling a little. Then eventually something inside me clicked and I was into my work. I […]
I often get asked how I go about selling technology. Sometimes, the question comes from technology company sales teams, other times from leaders of organisational IT teams. It doesn’t really matter who is asking, because the answer is always the same: it depends on the needs of the customer. I have learned this lesson several times, most memorably on presenting […]
We hear a lot about the increasing pace of change in our world today. So much so that we have created a whole new set of acronyms. My current favourite is VUCA, which I saw in a recent McKinsey article. VUCA world – volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. We seem to be obsessed with VUCA and the increasing rate of […]
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 […]
As our oldest daughter was approaching her third birthday, my wife began to discuss with me what she wanted to do with preschool education for our children. In short, she wanted our children to attend a Montessori preschool and if at all possible a Montessori primary school as well. I didn’t know anything about Maria Montessori or the education system […]
I have recently had reason to apply much of what I have learnt in my business life to my personal life. Without going into too much detail it occurred after a trip to the doctor where he told me I had type 2 diabetes. Initially I was devastated and went into a personal pity party. After a few days […]
For large enterprises, the cloud is a revolution for those processes that are necessary, but not necessarily that important. Therefore, think very carefully before you move any process or application into the cloud, especially if it’s a source of competitive advantage. I have been to a number of events over the past few months where the theme, or a major […]
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 […]
Ultimately, if CIOs are going to be successful in realising the value of IT for their organisations, then they need to become experts at successfully delivering change. However, organisations – CIOs included – are not very good at change. Depending on the research you read, anywhere between 50 per cent and up to 70 per cent of change initiatives fail […]
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 […]
Ultimately, if CIOs are going to be successful in realising the value of IT for their organisations, then they need to become experts at successfully delivering change. However, organisations CIOs included are not very good at change. Depending on the research you read anywhere between 50% and up to 70% of change initiatives fail to deliver the benefits they were […]
For as long as I’ve been in the IT industry (which is a disturbingly long time) commentators have been lauding the virtues of the emerging ‘new CIO’. While the details change, the underlying theme remains constant; technology is changing rapidly and with these changes the role of the CIO must change as well. Today’s version of this is what IDC […]
It is 8.50 am and you are working on the IT help desk. You receive a panicked call from the chief executive’s PA. There is an executive meeting due to start in 10 minutes and she has a number of documents she needs to print for the meeting. The problem is the printer is not working! What do you do? […]
“Forget the arduous, intellectualised number crunching and data grinding. In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.” Jack Welch I love this quote. It captures so much of where I have ended up when it comes to understanding strategy. Not long after taking up my role as the CIO of The Warehouse, I […]
While many suppliers talk about best practice and sustainable advantage in their marketing material, their actions are often at complete odds to this. Personally, I think it would be great if more of our service providers were partners. I am sure that if we had business partners rather than service providers, we would be able to provide much better service […]
The leader is a coach and supports the team, building its competence and capability over time and demonstrating an interest in the team’s success. Richard Bach said: “We teach best what we most need to learn,” and it is within the spirit of “what I most need to learn” that I write this column. If you have spent any time with […]
“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr For as long as I’ve been in the IT industry (which is a disturbingly long time) commentators have been lauding the emerging “New CIO”. While the details change the underlying theme remains constant, technology is changing rapidly and with these changes the role of the CIO will/must […]
I am a huge NZ Breakers fan. I have had seasons tickets for about 5 years and this year was a big year with the Breakers winning the championship. I am also a huge Los Angeles Lakers fan and have been since the 80’s when I watched Magic Johnson and Larry Bird battle it out in many NBA finals. So […]
There is a lot of literature out there that talks about the importance of IT and business alignment. If you search for the term at gartner.com you get “about 1700” hits. You can’t go to a conference without it being the topic of at least 1 of the speakers. Nearly every survey of CIO concerns has IT and Business alignment […]
I was talking the other day with a group of highly capable IT professionals who were looking at improving their process maturity through the use of the ITIL framework. As the conversation progressed it became clear that they were committed to improving the process maturity and began to discuss setting targets for their future maturity levels. One of the issues […]
Often, we work really hard on a project and once we achieve our goal, the gains are short-term. Inevitably, organisational focus moves on, and the organisation rebounds back to the way it was. How do we break this cycle? When I was young, I played rugby. The season’s pattern was always the same. I’d start the season overweight and unfit […]
Over the years I have come to realise that I am driven by two separate forces. The first of these is an internal drive to be “successful”. For me, this generally expresses itself in a desire to achieve certain goals rather than to win in direct competition. What I want to achieve is very personal to me and often at […]
Over the last 12 months or so I have been lucky enough to complete a number of “personal development” programs and events. Each of these was different and I played very different roles from a participant to coach to leader of the team. One of concepts that has really stayed with me and changed my outlook on life has been […]
I believe in the power of focus to make a difference in performance. I love the analogy of the laser which gets its power from being focused on one small point. As much as I believe in the power of focus in principle it is incredibly difficult to achieve in practice. As a CIO you have a lot of demands […]
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 […]
As a teenager growing up in rural New Zealand if I ever wanted to go out I needed to borrow my parents’ car. Borrowing the car involved a pretty standard ritual of asking for it, explaining where I was going and who I would be with and when I expected to be home. Based on this explanation I would be […]
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. Peter Drucker “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Lord Kelvin The title on my business card says “Chief Information Officer”. The CIO title is considered by many to be the most coveted in the IT industry and typically represents the top IT decision maker in an organisation. I often […]
Over the past year or so I have been reading and thinking a lot about leadership. The catalyst for this came from a number of sources. Firstly our company invests a lot of money on performing employee engagement surveys. My team’s level of engagement was terrible and it seems that no matter what I did it would not improve. Secondly […]
There is a superb poem by Robert Fulghum about life called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It is a very simple and common-sense approach to life. Once you have read it you wonder why life is so complex. We seem to get some form of satisfaction and sense of self-esteem by making things complex. Did you […]
When I run my how to sell to a CIO workshop I often get asked who was the best salesman I worked with and why were they so good? This is a fairly simple question for me to answer because one person stands out. For the purposes of this blog I will call her Connie. Connie represented an incumbent supplier […]
The IT industry has come a long way in 50 years or so. From a few machines the size of houses doing very simple repetitive tasks to digital sensors everywhere. This comes home to me when I have to drive to a meeting in a location that I have not been to before. I set up my smartphone to act […]
“Show me the Money!” (Rod Tidwell to Jerry Maguire). Recently I have had the opportunity to speak at a number of conferences where the target audience has been CFOs and senior members of their teams. This has caused me to think about the CIO, CFO relationship and what a CIO can do to build a productive relationship with the CFO. […]
After months of preparation and work across the organisation, today was the day that I would discuss the proposed IT strategy with the chief executive. It wasn’t the first time we had talked about what our IT strategic direction should be or how IT would support and enable the business but this was the first time that all this thinking […]
Our industry is obsessed with best practice. If you are not at best practice then most commentators will suggest that you probably will not be long in your current role. As a consultant I spent years selling the advantages and importance of best practice to my clients. It was their ticket to superior performance. As a CIO however, I have […]
Sister one, Katie, I arrive home after a long days work. Katie greets me as I come in with a bright and cheerful “Hi, Dad”. I say, “Hi back” and continue on. I head upstairs drop my briefcase and get changed. I then head back down to the family and greet them all properly. As I do this Kate asks […]
I am a big fan of the Breakers. I am a season ticket holder and go to every home game. I have also followed the team to Australia to watch some of their recent finals success. As a fan of the Breakers, it pretty easy to know how they are doing. As they play the game you look up to […]
Running a successful IT project is a lot like raising a child. So why do project managers so often abandoned them at birth? When I was the CIO at The Warehouse I was the executive sponsor of the organisation’s Managing Successful Projects training. In this role I was asked to do a short session at every course we ran. Ironically the session […]
As a teenager growing up in rural New Zealand if I ever wanted to go out I needed to borrow my parents’ car. Borrowing the car involved a pretty standard ritual of asking for it, explaining where I was going and who I would be with and when I expected to be home. Based on this explanation I would be […]
It is funny how life goes in circles. As a young man I knew that if I was going to be successful in life it would be up to me to make it happen. It needed to be that way because my family was a farming family and had been since we had arrived in New Zealand five generations ago. […]