by Mark P. McDonald | January 27, 2010 | 5 Comments
This is a personal observation and in the spirit of full disclosure I have become an Apple admirer as I am writing this post on a Mac Book Pro while listening to songs on my iPhone 3 G. So, it would be easy for me to gush on about Apple and its exploits, but let [...]
Category: Innovation Strategy Tools web 2.0 Tags: Innovation, personal musing, Personal Observation, Technology, Technology Leadership, web 2.0
by Mark P. McDonald | January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment
Analytics is a hot topic and executives looking to get value from business intelligence. Analytics at Work by Tom Davenport, Jeanne Harris and Robert Morison book discusses how they do that. I recommend this book as perhaps the book for people looking to establish and sustain an ability to use information in decision-making and process [...]
Category: Book Review Strategy Tools Tags: Book Review, IT strategy, Marketing
by Mark P. McDonald | January 26, 2010 | 4 Comments
I am sure that you have all seen a concept presented in a three dimensional diagram – the X, the Y, and the Z access. When I drew a three dimensional box once the comment from one of my colleagues was ‘oh you must be a guru because only guru’s work in three dimensions.’ I [...]
Category: Innovation Strategy Tools Tags: Innovation, Strategy, Strategy and Planning, Tools
by Mark P. McDonald | January 25, 2010 | 1 Comment
Conventional wisdom says that digital natives who were raised with the Internet are expected to drive technical demands higher and higher simply because they are familiar with technology. CIOs and IT groups face challenges to upgrade solutions and tools in order to match what digital natives have available in the consumer marketplace. Here is an [...]
Category: Personal Observation Tags: Innovation, IT strategy, personal musing, product innovation
by Mark P. McDonald | January 21, 2010 | 3 Comments
If you are what you measure, then many IT organizations tell their business peers that IT is a non-strategic back office function. Metrics such as systems availability, project status and help desk backlogs re-enforce the separation of IT form the rest of the enterprise. The lack of business relevant metrics and measures that communicate the [...]
Category: Leadership Strategy Tools Tags: 2010, 2010 planning, Business Leadership, Business Management, CIO Leadership, Finance, IT and Business, IT management, product innovation, Strategy and Planning, Tools
by Mark P. McDonald | January 20, 2010 | 3 Comments
“I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” J. Wellington Wimpy. The quote may be unfamiliar to people who have not seen the Popeye cartoons. The quote may seem unfair as a way to describe the business/IT relationship regarding benefits realization, but the ethos behind it illustrates the need to change attitudes toward [...]
Category: 2010 CIO Economy Leadership Tags: 2010, Economy, IT and Business, IT Leadership, IT management
by Mark P. McDonald | January 19, 2010 | 15 Comments
These years 2010 Gartner CIO Survey captured the priorities and plans of more than 1,500 CIOs. The CIOs reported that they see 2010 as a time of transition across three areas: Economically from recession to recovery and growth Strategically from a focus on cost cutting efficiency to raising enterprise and IT productivity Technology transition from [...]
Category: 2010 budgets CIO Economy Leadership Tags: 2010, 2010 planning, CIO Leadership, IT budgets, IT Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | January 18, 2010 | 1 Comment
Productivity is a hot topic for investors, business executive and the media. Productivity is one of the reasons for the recent stock market run up. Productivity is a leading indicator for earnings and therefore share price. Business executives are interested in productivity for much the same reason The media is watching productivity as higher productivity [...]
Category: CIO Economy Strategy Tags: 2010, 2010 planning, Business Strategy, IT and Business, IT strategy, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | January 15, 2010 | 3 Comments
IT complains that they are order takers rather than business partners. The point to the observation that IT sees problems right away but has to wait for the business to develop an idea, recognize a problem or see an opportunity. The waiting creates a time gap between identifying and addressing a business issue that separates [...]
Category: CIO Leadership Tools Tags: Business Management, Business Strategy, IT management, Management, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | January 14, 2010 | 6 Comments
Requirements are the basis for the business and IT conversation. Requirements form the foundation of developing IT solutions and assessing the value and contribution of IT. So how can this be something that separates business and IT? Simple, focusing on requirements puts two things between the business and IT. First, it puts a language between [...]
Category: CIO Personal Observation Strategy Tags: Business Management, IT and Business, IT management, IT strategy
