Mark McDonald

A member of the Gartner Blog Network

Entries Categorized as 'Economy'


When Frugality Fails

by Mark P. McDonald  |  January 20, 2012  |  3 Comments

For the past 10 years, cost has been the mantra facing CIOs and IT organizations.  Cost benefits are a factor in just about every major technology wave in the past 10 years.  Cloud, the current theme, is presented as a cost play so is sourcing, services, virtualization, open source — if I did not know [...]

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Category: 2012 Economy Leadership Management Strategic planning     Tags: , , , , , ,

Maximize IT returns by amplifying performance rather than administering a budget.

by Mark P. McDonald  |  January 9, 2012  |  1 Comment

In times of economic adversity, conventional wisdom calls for conserving cash and capital.  Firms have amassed record amounts of cash as governments face deep cuts in the fourth year of five-year plans.  Leaders know that the future requires re-imaging the enterprise rather than repeated waves of belt tightening. Nowhere is this more evident than in [...]

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Category: 2012 Economy Strategic planning Strategy budgets     Tags: , , , , , , ,

What I learned from CIOs at Gartner’s first Symposium in India

by Mark P. McDonald  |  November 25, 2011  |  Submit a Comment

This past week marked a milestone as Gartner brought its symposium format to India for the first time.  More than 1,000 Indian IT professionals met in Mumbai to learn, discussion, participate and contribute to each other on issues ranging from cloud computing to the future of IT itself.  Between the presentations, workshops and 1 on [...]

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Category: 2012 CIO Economy Leadership Management Strategic planning     Tags: , , , , ,

What I have learned from European CIOs in Barcelona

by Mark P. McDonald  |  November 11, 2011  |  1 Comment

Gartner’s first Fall Symposia and ITXpo in Barcelona is complete. I am writing this blog post on my iPad while I am flying to Frankfurt to start the trip to Australia and the Symposium there.  It has been a rather full week with hundreds of presentations, meetings, more than 50 CIO workshops, thought leadership presentations, [...]

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Category: 2012 CIO Economy Innovation Leadership Management Personal Observation Strategic planning     Tags: , , , ,

Comprehensive value defines broader goals for organizational leadership and management

by Mark P. McDonald  |  November 9, 2011  |  3 Comments

Occupy Wall Street is just the latest in a series of protests against the idea that businesses exist only to create economic returns for their shareholders. The idea that business should do more for society is appealing and requires more than light current forms of corporate charity.  Two articles this year in the Harvard Business [...]

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Category: Economy Innovation Leadership Management Personal Observation Strategic planning Strategy     Tags: , , , , , , ,

Welcome to the 2011 European Symposium in Barcelona

by Mark P. McDonald  |  November 6, 2011  |  Submit a Comment

With macroeconomics and international finance dominating world news its easy to lose site of the fact that organizations cannot wait on the sideline for things to get better they have to take action and make the best of a difficult situation.  That is the challenge facing CIOs and IT leaders attending this year’s Gartner European [...]

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Category: 2012 Economy Leadership Management Strategic planning Strategy     Tags: , , , , ,

Business executives are not traders.

by Mark P. McDonald  |  November 1, 2011  |  Submit a Comment

Throughout much of the market turmoil the news, discussion, uncertainty and doubt have all been aimed at one audience – traders.  Traders are those who earn their income from moving money across financial markets or follow the financial markets.  Traders make money when there is turbulence as change and volatility move stock prices generating ‘market [...]

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Category: Economy Leadership Management Strategy     Tags: , , , ,

Enterprises don’t need social media, they need to become a social organization.

by Mark P. McDonald  |  October 28, 2011  |  2 Comments

Executives admire the ability of social media to garner the attention of millions of people.  They see the market potential of those millions share their ideas, interests, opinions about themselves and your products or services.  They fear what will happen to them if someone else turns all of that potential into reality.  Those fears are [...]

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Category: Economy Leadership Social Media Social Organization     Tags: , , ,

Race against the Machine — A book review

by Mark P. McDonald  |  October 27, 2011  |  1 Comment

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee have created a powerful, concise and informative discussion of the impact of technology on employment, income distribution and macroeconomics.   Do not be fooled by the title, Race Against the Machine is not a neo luddite treatise on the evils of automation and technology.  The title is more about generating buzz [...]

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Category: Book Review Economy Strategy Technology     Tags: , , , , ,

Great by Choice — a book review

by Mark P. McDonald  |  October 24, 2011  |  1 Comment

Great by Choice is the second/better half of How the Mighty Fall Jim Collins extends and deepens the body of knowledge around the fundamentals of success. Great by Choice represents the second half of Collin’s earlier book on company failure – How the Mighty Fall. While that earlier book concentrated on factors that drive failure, [...]

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Category: Book Review Economy Innovation Leadership Management Strategy     Tags: , , ,