Entries Categorized as 'CFO'
by Mark P. McDonald | March 22, 2013 | Submit a Comment
Prior posts have discussed the need for a Chief Digital Officer as well as the different types of Digital Officers. This post concentrates on the range of possible reporting relationships for the Chief Digital Officer. This is a complex and important question that requires thinking through the implications rather than building on a blanket assumption. [...]
Category: 2013 CFO CIO Digital Edge Digitalization Leadership Strategy Tags: Business Leadership, Chief Digital Officer, Digital Edge, Digitalization
by Mark P. McDonald | March 1, 2013 | 1 Comment
Today starts sequestration; the term for the ‘draconian’ budget cuts in the U.S. The 6% across the board cuts to social programs and 8% cut for defense programs has been the subject of discussion, hyperbole, blame storming on all sides. CIOs are familiar with the idea of having to manage in an environment of broad [...]
Category: budgets CFO CIO Tags: 2013 Planning, CFO, IT and Business, Leadership, personal musing, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | February 22, 2013 | Submit a Comment
There are many ‘reasons’ why the C Level colleagues of the CIO should pay attention. Frankly many of those arguments about the power of technology, its strategic importance, etc. fall flat in the eyes of fellow C Level executives who have a tough time understanding the connection between technology and changes in business performance. Ask [...]
Category: 2013 Amplifying the Enterprise CFO CIO Leadership Management Strategic planning Strategy Tags: CIO Leadership, CIO strategy, IT strategy, Leadership, Strategy and Planning, Technology Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | March 19, 2012 | 4 Comments
There is a renewed discussion of the CIO reporting relationships. It is a discussion that is sure to generate debate as who you report to is important both personally and professionally. The perceived increase in CIOs reporting to CFO’s is a topic that goes through this cycle much like call of Paul Revere in the [...]
Category: CFO CIO IT Governance Leadership Tags: CFO, CIO, CIO Leadership Forum, CIO-Forum-NA, IT organization, Leadership, reporting relationships
by Mark P. McDonald | December 5, 2011 | Submit a Comment
I was at a large conference recently and I noticed a very helpful ad hoc tool a team had developed. The tool was a list of people and rooms taped to a wall so people could see where their peers were without having to stand in line and ask a coordinator to direct them. Now [...]
Category: CFO CIO Leadership Signs of weak management Tags: Business Leadership, Business Management, CEO, Signs of weak management
by Mark P. McDonald | November 30, 2011 | 2 Comments
Precision is the enemy of IT value and a root cause of why it is so hard to measure IT’s. About the only thing that you can prove with precision is that is not wasting money. Precision requires that specific investments that produce pre-defined and specific results. You want to produce more widgets, then you [...]
Category: CFO CIO Management Tags: Finance, IT Value, Metrics, Value of IT
by Mark P. McDonald | November 17, 2011 | 3 Comments
Business relevance and alignment is a persistent issue in IT and a challenge for CIOs. In this year’s CIO agenda presentations at Gartner Symposium these issues were discussed and measured based on CIO business priorities and plans. The 2011 CIO survey looked at this issue and we described it in an analogy that IT believes [...]
Category: 2012 CFO CIO IT Governance Leadership Strategic planning Strategy Tags: 2012 planning, Business Strategy, IT and Business, IT strategy, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | July 5, 2011 | 2 Comments
It is time to begin formulating the team that will develop the 2012 Business Strategy. You may have already held preliminary discussions; the heavy lifting of strategy formulation and execution planning is just beginning. While preliminary meetings involve discussing high-level goals, like grow by 20%, the next round of strategy work requires a comprehensive view [...]
Category: 2012 CFO CIO Leadership Management Strategic planning Strategy Tags: 2012 planning, Business Strategy, IT and Business, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | June 29, 2011 | 1 Comment
The Wall Street Journal published the results of their first CFO network meeting in the Monday June 27 edition. The network includes 60 CFO’s from leading organizations as well as subject matter experts including Clayton Christensen and Arthur Levitt. The discussion sheds interesting light on a world that few people outside of the finance organization [...]
Category: CFO Leadership Management Strategic planning Strategy Tags: Business Leadership, Leadership, Management, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | May 2, 2011 | Submit a Comment
There is no doubt that CIOs have one of the more challenging sets of responsibilities on the senior executive team. It is easy to see the CIO as accountable for everything that happens in an organization while only be responsible for a specialized set of resources to make those things happen. Over the past 30 [...]
Category: CFO CIO Leadership Management Personal Observation Re-imagine IT Strategic planning Strategy Tags: Business Leadership, CFO, IT and Business, personal musing, Technology Leadership
