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 […]
This series of blogs is investigating the issues that traditional organisations, face in their journey to becoming digital organisations (in this context a traditional organisation is an organisation that was born and matured before digital was “a thing”). One of the major issues that leaders of traditional businesses face is the need to operate their dominant legacy traditional business alongside […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 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 don’t know about you, but I have a series of moments which are burnt on my mind and I can recall them easily and always will. Whether it is the birth of my children, the 1995 World Cup, which I watched with friends in Ngaio, or the turn of the millennium with family at Waikoikoi. Another of these times […]
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 […]
In my job you don’t go to many days without hearing someone talking about the gap between IT and “the business”. It may be from someone in IT, who is struggling to be heard and understood by their colleagues. It may be from an executive, who is trying to “go digital” and is finding it difficult to get the support […]
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 […]
I have been thinking a lot about projects and project management lately. Why? Because effective project delivery is critical to delivering value from IT and as an industry we don’t do a great job of delivering our projects. We are all aware of the statistics. Most commentators report that 50% of our projects fail and to make matters worse the […]
It has become very trendy to trumpet the importance of failure. Many authors, and commentators are encouraging us to fail. The rationale? The only way to make progress, to change things, to innovate is to do something, most likely to do something new. When you try something new there is a chance that it won’t work out the way you […]
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 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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]