by Mark P. McDonald | February 27, 2009 | 2 Comments
This past week I presented to the global IT organization of Kraft Foods Inc. and witnessed my first global online meeting. The company operates in more than 160 countries and participating in this meeting were IT people from India, across Asia, Europe, across the U.S. While I was at corporate headquarters, via live meeting, three [...]
Category: Innovation Leadership Uncategorized Tags: global IT, Innovation, Telepresence
by Mark P. McDonald | February 26, 2009 | 1 Comment
Warning this is a bit of a rant. Now you are warned. The term ‘individual contributor’ is making the rounds again as people are getting their performance reviews for 2008. The term is unfortunate as it is often is used by managers as a pejorative term and ‘HR speak’ for someone who is not on [...]
Category: CIO Economy Personal Observation Uncategorized Tags: empowerment, IT personnel, Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | February 25, 2009 | Submit a Comment
“How did he die?” the audience is huddled over an executive wearing a business suit and clutching a wireless mouse. ”His brain exploded, at first we thought it was as stroke, but know we know better.” “It was death by powerpoint.” You hear the term a lot; you have probably had your life shortened by [...]
Category: CIO Fun Personal Observation Tags: Leadership, Powerpoint, presentations
by Mark P. McDonald | February 24, 2009 | 3 Comments
It’s a question my mother asked me over the summer. She had just had some major surgery and was recovering in the hospital. The kids – were all over 30 now — bought laptop for her so she could send us emails, look at images we were sending her. She had always known how to use email but [...]
Category: Personal Observation Uncategorized Tags: Internet, personal, rules, Strategy
by Mark P. McDonald | February 21, 2009 | Submit a Comment
Executives are starting to be bombarded with books on how they need to lead in tough times. One of the first is from the influential author Ram Charan, noted consultant and co-author of Execution (with Larry Bossidy). Charan has just come out with a new book, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New [...]
Category: CFO CIO Economy Leadership Tags: 2009 CIO Agenda, Add new tag, Book Review, Cash Flow, CIO Leadership, cost cutting, Economy, Leadership, Operational Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | February 19, 2009 | 5 Comments
CIOs face multiple competing factors for their time, resources and attention. CIOs need to choose in 2009, as they do not have luxury of doing everything for everyone. CIOs also face a challenge in how do they organize and marshal the energies and resources of their people. In other words, what should the theme be [...]
Category: CIO Leadership Tags: 2009 CIO Agenda
by Mark P. McDonald | February 17, 2009 | 2 Comments
CIOs face a high-pressure environment to deliver results in an environment of tight resources and rising expectations. One question, sitting in the minds of many CIOs is “how can I keep my job?” CIO tenure is a perennial issue and while current CIO tenure remains stable at around 4 years and 4 months the change [...]
Category: CIO Leadership Tags: CIO Tenure
by Mark P. McDonald | February 16, 2009 | 1 Comment
A little holiday hypothesis given that today is President’s Day in the U.S. also known as a bank holiday outside the U.S. Now to the question. The President is a leader of the country (Head of State) of their political party, and more often than not of the people. CIOs are also leaders in their [...]
Category: CIO Fun Tags: CIO, Presidents
by Mark P. McDonald | February 13, 2009 | 1 Comment
Twitter, Facebook and other social computing platforms are filled with people’s activities, what is going on with their lives. Most of it is interesting and often you get to see the routine pace of others. Yesterday the routine became the extraordinary in a simple way. A friend of mine from College and I had just [...]
Category: Fun Personal Observation Uncategorized web 2.0 Tags: Add new tag, home life, personal, Social Computing, web 2.0
by Mark P. McDonald | February 12, 2009 | Submit a Comment
Enterprise change is challenging, complex and fraught with risk. It’s the subject of smart people writing great books. And when well executed it’s the subject of legend. So why am I connecting change management to Mr. Daltrey, Townsend, Entwistle, and Moon? Simply because the WHO, despite all they have done for rock-n-roll have also done [...]
Category: CIO Tags: Change Management
