Kathy Harris

Recently, I’ve discussed IT strategy with many government and private sector organizations who are implementing new packaged systems and applications. In many cases, these are enormous undertakings that will take years to accomplish. And, the massive business changes that have occurred since the current system was implemented have added to the already complex environment and this will be difficult to re-automate. 

Here [...]

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A few weeks ago, I developed a presentation on the skills needed to build the robust web sites and applications that enable modern business models and practices. Since its development, I’ve presented and discussed this work with many university and business people.  And, this past week, one audience included human resource professionals wanting to discuss the [...]

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The Web is currently the most fruitful area for innovation — every day, new ideas emerge along with new uses for old ideas. The difference in innovations from the Web and those from other sources is who is driving the change. Web innovation is led by individual consumers (acting alone or in communities) and by [...]

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In my career, I’ve generally looked at any project or investment for the long term. I worked in organizations whose point of view was that investments in innovation or technology or services should be leveraged as broadly as possible. So, in many projects, we looked not just at current needs but also at future needs and we scoped initiatives [...]

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Gartner categorizes organizations into one of three segments depending on how early and aggressively they adopt new technologies. Segment type A are the most aggressive companies – they will adopt more technologies earlier and take more risk in anticipation of gaining more market share or brand value if they succeed.  Segment type B organizations are moderate [...]

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I just completed new research on jobs that are emerging from consumerization and the deep adoption of consumer technology and the Web by individuals.  This same consumer technology is also being adopted for corporate use and is driving a growing demand for skills in advanced customer or employee services and in technology-enabling these human interactions. In fact, the current and emerging [...]

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Wow, that’s a big title, isn’t it? I’m not overreaching - just some observations. I paid a lot of attention last week to people all around me and how they use personal technology without realizing the behavioral changes that have come with it. Here are four short stories. 
A ten year old is visiting me this week and she [...]

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I frequently have conversations with great companies hoping to improve their innovation capabilities. They will usually describe what they’re doing with quite a long list of innovation activities such as idea generation, crowdsourcing or brainstorming. Then, they’ll admit that no real progress has been made and the program needs a shot in the arm.
The missing element and one reason [...]

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I’m conducting a free Webinar on Wednesday, July 8 – the title is “Balancing Cost, Growth, Innovation and Risk”.  I’ll focus on these four big topics and provide some tools, etc. to attack the balancing act we all go through. Here are the hyperlinks to register for the Webinar – it will run two times: at 9:00 [...]

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A lot of my discussions with Gartner clients focus on the obstacles in launching an innovation program. I sometimes find myself in point – counterpoint conversations on their big obstacles around funding, people, processes, etc. You know the story – “We tried that, but…” 
If you really care about innovation and you really believe it’s critical [...]

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