Mark McDonald

Good question, tough answer.  Jim Collins provides ideas regarding the differences between good and great.  He discussed them at these years Gartner Symposium CIO Program in Orlando.  Collins, the best selling business author and advisor, has studied the differences between good and great companies and leaders for more than twenty years.  His books Build to [...]

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I have been thinking about something I saw a few weeks ago.
In a sign of how tough 2009 is retailers around the country have jumped the gun on Christmas.  Traditionally Christmas decorations and sales began with Black Friday – this year November 27th.  But the Thanksgiving holiday is late this year and retailers are understandably [...]

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An observation.
I applaud ICANN’s decision to support Internet domain names in people’s local language and character set. The decision achieves the goal of making the Internet more accessible and global.  But, it also tells us more about the nature of the web than just a move to accommodating the majority of the world using a non-latin [...]

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An observation.
I applaud ICANN’s decision to support Internet domain names in people’s local language and character set.  The decision achieves the goal of making the Internet more accessible and global.  But, it also tells us more about the nature of the web than just a move to accommodating the majority of the world using a non-latin [...]

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NOTE: this post is a continuation of a prior discussion on Regulation 1.0.
Regulation 2.0 will be shaped as a direct response to the shortcomings of existing regulatory regimes, the potential of emerging technologies and the desire to incorporate state and non-state actors into regulatory regimes.
Regulation 1.0 is based on prohibitions defining the wrong things in [...]

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Regardless of your political philosophy, the role of government in today’s economy is a reality in most if not all countries.  The challenge for elected and government officials, in my opinion, is not the need for regulatory change, but how will they use technology  tools to create proactive rather than reactive policies and legislation.
Regulation 1.0 [...]

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This post is coming from Gartner’s Annual Fall Symposium in Orlando where more than 1,500 CIOs and another 5,000 other IT executives are gathering to discuss what is going in IT.  I had the privilege to talk with them in a session focusing on the 2010 agenda for CIOs.  Here are a few thoughts.
It is [...]

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Time out for a little personal observation posting.  I have been travelling on one of those forced marches through Europe – you know 10 cities in 7 days kind of things — and this time I am really noticing the challenge posed by the bathtub/shower complex present in many hotels.
I will refer to them as [...]

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You’ve heard the phrase ‘living document’.  The other day I overheard an executive at the airport say into his cell phone – “that’s ok it’s a living document.”   The tone was one of pulling the escape hatch or opening a loophole.
The term living document is handy for making a commitment that you know will change [...]

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Welcome to the endgame for a very tough year.  There are only 60 working days left in the year.  There are roughly 60 working days to complete your value delivery for 2009 and plans for 2010.  I use the term roughly both to describe how those days will be and to point out that this [...]

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