Mark P. McDonaldA new year brings anticipation and the promise of innovation and 2012 is no exception. Rapidly evolving technologies like mobile, analytics, social and the like are opening the doors for new answers to new and old questions about growth, efficiency, value and innovation. This is setting the stage for significant innovation in the coming year. Here are a few things I am looking forward to in 2012, more of a wish list than predictions, which I will leave to others.
Professionally I am looking forward to:
- A major cloud service provider who is willing to put their SLA into writing and be contractually obligated to deliver against those service levels to a better degree than a traditional outsourcing contract. We may not see that in 2012, but it is a stumbling block to broader cloud adoption at the corporate level.
- CIOs to focus more on building skills in their current workforce and organization as IT skill gaps and future expectations are reaching critical levels. CIOs know they do not have the right skills and more will have to do something about it.
- Increased application of social media based technologies outside of marketing and communications. While its easy to think of these technologies as just another means of eCommerce, they really have a deeper ability to change the nature of work, the culture of an organization and address deep system issues through mass collaboration. It takes leadership to do things in new ways and that is something I am hoping to see.
- IT organizations dropping the name IT. Not because they no longer work with technology, but because they work with it in ways that are different enough from what we all think of as traditional IT. There are a few organizations that have done this, but in 2012 there should be more who see their role around guiding the business model and business performance than administering technology. Not sure what the new name would be, but this is definitely not the death of IT, but rather its evolution. Your thoughts appreciated, where are a few of mine in an EXP report entitled “A Different Theory of the Firm: a Different theory of IT.”
- Executive teams who transform their meetings and management mantra’s beyond managing cost and conformance to budget to achieving benefit and performance target goals. Too much of what passes for leadership and decision-making is made using a single dimension – financial – without real consideration of the deep bias and limitations it creates. Comprehensive value, deployment and achievement of operational goals are things that would be great to get back on the executive table.
Personally I am looking forward to a few things.
- New products from Apple, yes I am an Apple fan and user simply because they are easier to use and feature rich. This year I found out that I am an ‘odd’ Apple user. Odd in the sense of adopting odd versions 1, 3, 5, versions of the products rather than an even person 2, 4, 6 or the every person 1,2,3,4,5. 2012 promises to be a good year for the odd adopters with the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 anticipated to drop. Both are expected to introduce a new form/factor rather than a major technical/software upgrade like the 3GS and 4S models.
- I look forward to the opportunity to work with all of you, either as readers of this blog, members of Executive Programs or in some other way. I know that that sounds corny, but its true as I believe we are in the middle of something that is both exciting, threatening and confusing all of which means that we can make the future what we want it to be.
- There are other personal things that I will keep to myself.
What are you looking forward to in 2012?
What are you planning on doing different next year, not a resolution so much as a change?
Thanks for reading the blog, welcome your comments and all the best for the New Year.
Mark
Category: 2012 Management Personal Observation Tags: 2012 planning, Business Leadership, Business Management, Personal Observation, Strategy and Planning
3 responses so far ↓
1 Steve December 29, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Mark,
Happy New Year to you and thanks for the great blogs and book reviews in 2011!
I’m a believer that social media inside the corporation will become more important. I actually think it will help bring on’s Hamel’s Management 2.0 world.
Looking forward to your insights in 2012.
Steve
2 Mark Brewer January 1, 2012 at 1:38 pm
Good list Mark. Your point about “beyond managing cost and conformance to budget to achieving benefit and performance target goals” is a great comment. Things to always be looked at through finance lens first and last.
Happy new year to you.
Mark
3 Thierry Kuperman January 5, 2012 at 9:12 am
Very good list Mark for a fresh start into 2012.
Your point “IT organizations dropping the name IT” is well in line with some discussions I had recently with one CIO who asked me if the CIO title was to remain in 10 years time.
There is currently a big debate in the industry to review the role of the CIO or rather to divide it into two, between the traditional CIO for Infrastructure & Operations (with a notion of risk management at minimum and at reasonable cost) and a new role whose names are manifold, but are intended to meet the needs of end-user (client) technology.
The latter role is especially present in industries undergoing radical changes in markets and technologies (for example the paper publishing industry or the travel industry). These industries are experiencing behavioral and technological revolution in their customer base and need to recreate a new environment at 180° opposite to traditional patterns. These companies are really looking for a new “business model”.
It is therefore necessary to create a new role for the CIO and give it a name more in line with this new mission.
In this new role, many names appear as:
• Director of Emerging Platforms
• Director of Technology Development
• Director of Business Technology (close to Chief Business Technology Officer – CBTO as mentioned by our colleagues at Forrester*)
The ability for a CIO to evolve in this second role (so desirable and necessary) is strongly linked to the personality of the CIO him(her)self. Just as some CIOs become CEOs, some CIOs (also in small proportion) have the ability and desire to move towards that role.
I sometimes feel awkward that some CIOS try at all costs to proclaim their membership in the Business by entering in their title the word “Business” to show (and superficially for sure) their own perceived participation in Business.
If we separate out the two roles mentioned in my remark, it is clear that the Director of Operational Services naturally focuses on the operational objectives (with the aim of business continuity, maintaining the quality of service and reducing expenditure).
In parallel, the Director of “digital development” can justify full membership in the business based upon the simple fact that he/she is a key player in the digitization of the relationship between end customers and the company (broadly defined). He/she therefore directly influences services / products and ultimately participates to the performance improvement of the company.
Maybe an interesting topic for further discussions. Look forward to your insightful views as usual
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