by Mark P. McDonald | July 29, 2010 | 3 Comments
The relationship between the CIO and the Board of Directors is fraught with risk and misunderstanding. While many CIOs have presented to the Board of Directors, these interactions are can be problematic. CIOs feel the need to explain IT and their inititiatives to an audience. Given the average duration of a board presentation is about [...]
Category: Leadership Tags: 2011 Planning, Business Strategy, CIO Leadership, IT Leadership, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | July 28, 2010 | Submit a Comment
Just about everybody can tell you the relationship between the IT budget and company sales. Percentage of sales is a common and quick metric for benchmarking and describing your IT organization, CIOs see it as handy because in most cases the number is rather small. IT spend as less than 1% or even 5% of [...]
Category: CFO Leadership Tags: CFO, IT Value, Metrics, Value of IT
by Mark P. McDonald | July 27, 2010 | 2 Comments
Change is a constant in every enterprise to varying degrees. In some companies the introduction of a new coffee maker is the subject of intense debate. In others they appear to be in a state of constant change and sometimes constant chaos. Regardless of where you are, shift happens. Shift is a change that cuts [...]
Category: Strategic planning Tags: 2011 Planning, CIO Leadership, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | July 23, 2010 | 3 Comments
Transparency is a hot issue in halls of legislators and executive offices and something that everyone has to do. Increasing transparency is part of CEO strategies and investor commitments. Transparency is the solution to regulatory challenges. Transparency is something demanded by consumers ranging from support for free trade through to the ingredients in our food. [...]
Category: Leadership Personal Observation Strategic planning Strategy Tags: Business Management, Information, Management, personal musing
by Mark P. McDonald | July 21, 2010 | 2 Comments
This is the first post in an occasional series called “best business books you may never had heard of but should read. The idea is that in the rush we face on a daily basis, we may lose the opportunity to pick up on some good ideas that we neither had the time or attention [...]
Category: Book Review Innovation Strategy web 2.0 Tags:
by Mark P. McDonald | July 18, 2010 | Submit a Comment
A while back I wrote a few blog posts about the transition that is going on in the Media industry and what it may mean for the future of IT. “What’s black and white and red all over” I believe the changes the media industry is going through, and newspapers in particular, have a particular [...]
Category: CIO Leadership Strategy Tags: 2011 Planning, CIO Leadership, CIO strategy, IT strategy, Leadership, Technology
by Mark P. McDonald | July 16, 2010 | Submit a Comment
If you are over 30 you may remember when the world went from a textual to graphical interface, if the words “green screen” and DOS resonate with you then you remember when computers were largely text based. Computers no longer have a textual interface. However, when graphical interfaces were new, there was a great debate [...]
Category: Technology Tools Tags: Innovation, Technology, Technology Leadership, web 2.0
by Mark P. McDonald | July 15, 2010 | Submit a Comment
FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out, influences our behavior often in ways to do not consciously recognize. FOMO is real and it influences our decisions. Brain research has found that we tend to over value things we do not have and undervalue the things we have. While FOMO can be described as human nature, we often [...]
Category: Leadership Personal Observation Signs of weak management Tags: 2011 Planning, Business Leadership, CIO Leadership, Operational Leadership, Personal Observation, planning
by Mark P. McDonald | July 13, 2010 | 1 Comment
We all get FOMO from time to time. The fear of missing out is a constant in today busy and multi-priority world where something new is always coming up. There is always something starting before you have finished what you are working on now. FOMO is just like the grass being greener on the other side [...]
Category: CIO Strategic planning Tags: 2011 Planning, CIO Leadership, IT strategy, Leadership, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | July 12, 2010 | Submit a Comment
With 2011 planning starting up its time that we start asking the business what they want from IT. The approach is standard as IT is focused on requirements from which to plan. This is the second most dangerous question in IT for several reasons including: The question asks the business to do the software engineering [...]
Category: Strategic planning Tools Tags:
