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 | July 2, 2012 | 4 Comments
While Europe finance ministers deal with national debt crisis, CIO’s and CFO’s are ignoring their organizational geek debt crisis. Measure your organization’s geek debt by the degree to which existing systems, operations, and capabilities limit future potential. We often think and call our existing systems in more noble terms – legacy. But in reality it [...]
Category: budgets Distortion Re-imagine IT Technology Tags: CFO, cost cutting, IT budgets, 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 | 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 [...]
Category: 2012 budgets Economy Strategic planning Strategy Tags: 2012 planning, amplify, CFO, CIO strategy, CIO-Forum-NA, cost cutting, Economic conditions, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | December 21, 2011 | 2 Comments
Benchmarking is a hot topic among CIOs and IT leaders as they look to evaluate and justify their operations by answering the question — ‘how do we compare with others?” Increasing change creates demand for increasing benchmarking as companies value peer comparisons over their own experience and history. This bias makes it surprisingly easy for [...]
Category: 2012 CIO Management Tags: 2012 planning, CFO, Metrics, Tools, Value of IT
by Mark P. McDonald | September 14, 2011 | 2 Comments
Leading CIOs have been re-imaging IT in the face of changing business priorities, technology innovation and resource realities. This is leading some to adopt a new way of thinking about IT — thinking small. Thinking small touches just about every aspect of IT from its foundational assumptions, to how it operates, to how you judge [...]
Category: 2012 IT Governance Lean Thinking Small IT Strategy Tags: CFO, IT budgets, Small IT, Strategy and Planning, Value of IT
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
by Mark P. McDonald | April 13, 2011 | 2 Comments
It is time to replace the traditional IT business case with a Business Investment Plans. Why? For the simple reason that they do not work, at least they do not work from the perspective of helping an organization realize benefits from IT investments and projects. Part of re-imagining IT is taking a hard look at [...]
Category: budgets CFO Economy IT Governance Re-imagine IT Tools Tags: Business, Business Management, Business Strategy, CFO, RE-imagine IT, Tools
by Mark P. McDonald | February 10, 2011 | 1 Comment
Remember the global economy right before the global financial crisis? Oil prices were hitting nominal records, food prices were climbing and other commodities were driving resource-based economies forward. Inflation was nowhere to be seen, but it was suspected around the corner. Then the global financial crisis took away demand and seemed to drive us to [...]
Category: 2011 Economy Leadership Lean Thinking Strategy Tags: 2011 Planning, Business Strategy, CFO, Economy, Finance
by Mark P. McDonald | August 23, 2010 | 1 Comment
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of working with the IT leadership team of a $20 billion global company. I was the guest of the CFO and CIO. Toward the end of the first day of the meeting the company’s Chairman of the Board and their CEO joined the meeting. Each spoke for [...]
Category: CFO CIO Strategic planning Strategy Tags: Business Strategy, Business Value, CEO, CFO, IT and Business
