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 me you will know that I am a big fan of the work of Stephen Covey. One of Covey’s teachings is that the […]
I’m a qualified accountant. I even sometimes read the Accountants Journal … there, I’ve said it! As an accountant and a CIO I am intrigued by the debate within the IT community about how businesses should account for IT. Should it be a cost centre? A profit centre? Or a standalone, semi-independent business unit? From what I can tell, the argument is […]
I have written about strategy before and in particular my dislike of our industry’s obsession with the need to align IT with the business. The very act of trying to align IT and the business is perhaps the source of our issues as alignment assumes separateness where no separateness exists. IT is a part of the business as a whole. […]
I like to win. For me winning is not so much about beating the other person or team, although that’s nice, it’s about taking on a difficult challenge and succeeding. When I take on a challenge I like to think of that challenge as a game and when it comes to games I have learnt over the years that if I want […]
About two years ago I co-founded the Life Game Project (LGP). LGP is focused on using immersive on-line games to support learning the skills required to be successful in life. For learning to occur two things need to be present for the learner: Content, there is something to learn, and Engagement, they want to learn Traditional education does a great job of […]
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 […]
It’s Wednesday and I think about the old adage of Wednesday being hump day and I’m pleased to be on the downhill slope to the weekend. Not that this has been a particularly bad week and certainly no worse than normal. It started Monday with reviewing the weekly reports. Performance was flat. Faults remained at about historical levels and SLAs […]
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 […]
You cannot outsource a problem, not invest deeply in fixing the problem in conjunction with your outsourcer and then expect that the problem will just magically disappear. Successful outsourcing relationships require hard work and there is no shortcut to success. In the early 1990’s I spend about 2 years in Atlanta with Deloitte. While there my wife decided that she […]
I have spent a long time in and around the IT industry – 24 years and counting. During this time I have been a consultant, lead an outsourcing team and now I am a CIO. As a result I have been both a seller and buyer of services. Currently as the CIO of The Warehouse, I get approached many times […]
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 […]
Are you focused and calm or have you got too many things going on and rushing around? Do you come away from meetings with your leaders clear on what’s needed and focused – or confused and frustrated? In the early 1990s I spent about two years in Atlanta on transfer. During my time there I reported on projects to two […]
In the early 1990’s my wife Jo and I had the opportunity to live in Atlanta Georgia. While we were there my wife decided to run the Peachtree Road Race. The race is a prestigious 10 kilometre event and one of the largest fun runs in the US with over 85,000 people participating each year. As Jo told me about […]
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 […]
Many of our service providers aspire to be business partners. 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 to our users and life would be much easier for my team and […]
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 […]
It’s 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 that she needs to print for the meeting. The problem is that the printer is not working! What do you […]
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 […]
Research shows that high levels of engagement are associated with lower staff turnover, high levels of customer satisfaction and superior organisational performance. Conversely a lack of engagement is linked to high staff turnover and poor organisational performance. Because of this link the last decade has seen a significant level of leadership attention on improving employee engagement. Despite this, precious few […]
During the last Christmas holidays our family choose to tour the South Island. So we packed up the family, including the dog, and set off from Auckland for the South Island. It started with a trip to Granny’s, in Tapanui for Christmas and ended at Grandma’s in Nelson for a classic Kiwi summer holiday. It was an amazing trip with […]
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. […]