Mark McDonald

I was at an event a few weeks ago hosted by a leading IT journalist who made the following opening remarks.  “Good times are ahead for IT.  A new investment cycle should happen soon as we have postponed infrastructure upgrades for too long.”  His tone was upbeat and encouraging.  The only thing was that the [...]

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I was at an event a few weeks ago hosted by a leading IT journalist who made the following opening remarks.  “Good times are ahead for IT.  A new investment cycle should happen soon as we have postponed infrastructure upgrades for too long.”  His tone was upbeat and encouraging.  The only thing was that the [...]

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Demonstrating the business value of IT is challenging CIO’s, CEO’s, CFO’s and other managers.  The problem is not that IT creates no value; it is just how do I measure and communicate that value.  Current practices in IT measurement and metrics do not help as they concentrate on reporting how IT spends money (projects on [...]

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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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Proctor and Gamble and their Connect + Develop process for innovation is a leading example in the potential of innovation to restore growth and profitability.  Yesterday I was reading The Design of Business by Roger Martin that dedicates a whole chapter on P&G and its innovation process.
Latter that day I read an article in the [...]

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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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I have had the priviledge to talk with you all through this blog for almost a year and more than 160 posts.  That is a lot of dialogue and I thank you for it.   Anything of that size contains good things and other things that perhaps are best unread.  This post highlights entries related to [...]

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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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Jim Collins has researched and written extensively about the characteristics of successful companies.  Recently he has published a short book, “How the Mighty Fall,” describing the characteristics of companies that fail.
Collins defines five stages of decline prior to the company’s failure.  Thinking about these characteristics it should be possible to provide insight into changes in [...]

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When you think of a book about design, you tend to think that it is more about art and form rather than function and process.  This book presents a new way of management thinking and problem solving centered on human interaction, innovation, information and insight.  Change by Design by Tim Brown the CEO of IDEO [...]

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