Insight for Current and Future Business Leaders
Posts tagged as:
The world is full of cycles. There are stock market highs and lows, periods of good weather and bad weather, even apparent cycles of good luck and bad luck. Many of the people-related cycles are caused by basic human nature. The bad part of a cycle starts when we hear bad things about a particular [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In Stephen Covey’s latest book, The Eighth Habit: from Effectiveness to Greatness, he includes the following Q&A: Q: “In your experience, what is the best question to ask people when you hire them?” A: “In my experience, the best question is to say ‘Starting with your earliest memory, what did you really like doing and [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
When we come into this world as babies, we believe that the earth revolves around us, and from the way that most parents treat their newborns, I guess that’s true to some extent. As we grow out of babyhood, we gradually become aware of other people, and our concept of existence evolves into a view [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Middle managers don’t get much respect. All of the glory goes to the CEO’s and senior executives, who in turn focus their own occasional reward programs on the “worker bees.” Middle managers play a vital role in most organizations, but it’s a shame that many middle managers don’t understand their role, or see their jobs [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
What do the three things in the title of this article have in common? Julia Roberts In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, there’s a scene in which a Wellesley instructor played by Julia Roberts shows the class a painting, and asks them whether or not it’s any good. Up until this point all of the [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
If you haven’t been involved in an acquisition, then wait a few months; it eventually happens to all of us. In preparation for that event, it’s useful to get an understanding of why companies do acquisitions, so that you can anticipate the effect that an acquisition will have on you. I’ve been lucky enough to [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In my previous newsletter I explained why ROI isn’t working in most businesses. Based on comments I received from readers, I want to quickly point out that I don’t believe that the “game players” I mentioned are bad people, in spite of my use of the word “crime” in the article. I believe that everyone [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
ROI (Return on Investment) is the most common and popular method for project ranking, both in IT and elsewhere. But ROI isn’t working in most companies, and as a result, businesses are making bad project decisions. In this article I’ll explain why ROI isn’t working. Then in next month’s newsletter I’ll tell you how you [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Last month I had the unique opportunity to help a large university plan its future curricula for its undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer information systems. The university recognizes that Information Technology is changing, and wants to make sure that its students are being prepared for the real world. To this end the university has [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I’m writing this on my birthday. Birthdays are a pretty arbitrary measure of aging—the earth has made some number of revolutions around the sun since I was born. Time passes, and our experience grows. But it’s not our experience that counts in life as much as what we do with it. Do we learn from [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The subject of outsourcing is in the news a lot lately, particularly when the outsourcing is done to a location outside your country. Based on my experience, a company should consider outsourcing when one of the following criteria is met: The vendor can do the job better than your company, at a reasonable cost. The [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It’s that time of the year when many of us are thinking about finding appropriate holiday gifts for loved ones. The other day it struck me that there are similarities between the gift giving process and the profession of Information Technology (IT). Here are my thoughts about the philosophy of gift-giving as it relates to [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A friend of mine struggled with bad weather and worse traffic to make his way across town, arriving just in time for a scheduled lunch meeting. Unfortunately, he had misunderstood his calendar, and he was at the wrong restaurant. When he told me about it the next day, it struck me how his predicament is [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
What do capability, motivation, and expectations have in common? All three are essential for a successful service organization, whether that organization is in Information Technology or in any other field. Capability Let’s use a help desk as an example. For such a service organization, capability includes the basic skills necessary to be able to answer [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Do you want? A more satisfied boss … Less stress … More successful projects … Infrastructure savings … Enhanced leadership … Low risk solutions … This two-page article gives you some proven approaches for reaching these goals, along with some comments about how you can achieve them. It’s a check list for the kinds of [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Web services aren’t the answer, but you should use them anyway. I’ll tell you why. Let me start with a quick definition of web services. When you use web services, you allow software applications to communicate with each other using three technologies: HTTP, XML, and SOAP. HTTP is the primary protocol used for data transmission [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Like many of you, I travel a lot. Some of the travel requires me to wear business suits, and I’ve had to learn how to pack a suit coat so that it’s wearable when I unpack it. Years ago I learned the secret, but it recently occurred to me that the secret of packing a [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
There is an article in the May, 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review with the disturbing title “IT Doesn’t Matter.” Yet despite its inflammatory title, the article is highly supportive of today’s information technology, comparing it to the likes of electricity, transportation and telecommunication in its importance to business, and declaring it “the backbone of [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In last month’s newsletter, I said that Information Technology (IT) is about people and change, and that software and hardware are just a means to an end. However, some of you are operating under the impression that the IT organization itself is just a means to an end. To use an analogy, some of you [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
According to a recent study by the Standish Group, only 34% of Information Technology (IT) projects are completed on time and within budget. I believe that a large number of the remaining 66% of projects get in trouble because they don’t adequately consider the human side of the projects. Good CIO’s recognize that Information Technology [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
How can you focus your use of information technology for increased business benefit? Initial implementations of information technology in business almost always focus on cost reduction; it’s been that way ever since computers were first invented. But cost reduction is only one of seven different ways that IT can improve your business, and if you’re [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
What is this thing called “acquisition due diligence”, and how does due diligence for information technology differ from any other kind of acquisition due diligence? These questions will be answered in this white paper which describes the three IT surprises that you want to avoid. Did you know that most people doing IT due diligence [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Follow MakingITclear on Twitter (tweets only when new content is posted)
Follow Harwell on Twitter (more frequent tweets, including a daily quote)
Some of My Favorite Tweets
