by Mark P. McDonald | April 15, 2013 | Submit a Comment
Playing to Win is highly recommended as perhaps the first and one of the few books you should ever read about business strategy. Penned by the former CEO of P&G (AG Lafley) and the Dean of the Rothman Business School (Roger Martin) this book takes the esoteric and jargon based world of strategy and drives [...]
Category: Book Review Strategic planning Strategy Tags: Book Review, Strategy, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | April 11, 2013 | Submit a Comment
Brand matters. Regardless of the definition of Brand, as an identity, market promise, a message, image etc., the face of your brand is changing. The face of your brand is technology. Not just any technology but specifically digital technologies like mobile computing, consumer devices, social media and things we have not even thought of yet. [...]
Category: Digital Edge Digitalization marketing Tags: brand, digital marketing, Digitalization, Strategy
by Mark P. McDonald | March 12, 2013 | 6 Comments
Everyone is talking about the need for a chief digital officer (CDO). The CDO role has come into fashion as a demonstrable sign that your organization is serious about digital technology. The topic of what is the chief digital officer their role and responsibilities is full of energy and attention. It is rare to create [...]
Category: Digital Edge Digitalization Hunting and Harvesting in a Digital World Leadership Management Strategy Uncategorized Tags: Chief Digital Officer, Digital Edge, Digitalization, digitization, Leadership, Strategy
by Mark P. McDonald | January 23, 2013 | 8 Comments
As more and more attention turns to digital technology (mobile, big data, social, cloud) the greater the temptation to invest in a ‘digital’ strategy. The idea sounds clear, simple and intuitive. Digital technology is complex both in terms of the technology itself and the relationships between the business and technology. That complexity and the relative [...]
Category: Digital Edge Digitalization Strategic planning Strategy Technology Tags: Digital Edge, Digitalization, Strategy, Strategy and Planning, Technology, Technology Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | December 5, 2012 | 13 Comments
Everywhere I look, including on this blog, people are telling each other what they need to do to be successful. “Use this process,” “create this type of strategy,” “apply this tool,” etc., the constant drum roll of recommendations can leave you numb and confused. Numb to the extent that the sheer volume of advice pummels [...]
Category: 2013 Leadership Management Strategy Tough Questions Tags: 2013 Planning, Business Leadership, Business Management, Business Strategy, Strategy, Strategy and Planning, Technology Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | October 22, 2012 | 1 Comment
Every organization has an edge – a reason behind their future success. Having an edge is great, but customer expectations, competition and technology dull every edge. Sharpening these edges becomes increasingly difficult over time as technology makes it easier for competitors to copy, mimic, reverse engineer your edge. Executives need an edge that is self-sharpening, [...]
Category: 2013 Amplifying the Enterprise Digitalization Innovation Technology Tags: Digital Edge, Digitalization, digitization, Strategy, Strategy and Planning, symposium, Technology, Technology Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | October 21, 2012 | 3 Comments
It’s October. It’s Orlando. It must be time for Gartner Symposium. This year’s event represents a pivotal time for CIOs and IT particularly as the world makes the transition between a focus on IT and a broader focus on Technology. The Nexus of forces (Cloud, Mobile, Social and Information) is a focus of the event, [...]
Category: 2013 Amplifying the Enterprise CIO Customer Experience Digitalization Lean Thinking Management Small IT Strategic planning Technology Tags: 2013 Planning, CIO, CIO Leadership, CIO strategy, IT and Business, Strategy, Strategy and Planning, symposium, Technology Leadership, Value of IT
by Mark P. McDonald | October 18, 2012 | 2 Comments
Digital technologies like mobile, social, analytics, big data, communications, etc. are an increasingly important part of formulating business strategy. Incorporating digital technology into strategic decisions raises a fundamental question – how do we use technology to grow the business? Executives face two basic choices in responding to that question. They can apply digital technology as [...]
Category: Digitalization Strategic planning Strategy Technology Tags: 2013 Planning, Business Strategy, Digital Edge, digitization, Strategy, Strategy and Planning, symposium
by Mark P. McDonald | September 17, 2012 | 1 Comment
Last Friday I had the honor of speaking at the Fisher Center for the Management of Information Technology at the Haas School of Business located at UC – Berkley. The event awarded the first Fisher – Hopper Prize for Lifetime Achievement in CIO Leadership. It was a great event and marked a watershed in the [...]
Category: Leadership Management Re-imagine IT Strategy Technology Tags: CIO Leadership, CIO strategy, IT Leadership, Leadership, Strategy, symposium, Technology Leadership
by Mark P. McDonald | September 13, 2012 | 5 Comments
A prior post on this blog sought to make the case that its time to think about social media marketing beyond ideas of generating attention or likes. This posts introduces a framework for thinking about social media marketing in the broader context of the customer experience. Seeing the potential of social media technology beyond marketing [...]
Category: Customer Experience marketing Social Media Social Organization Tags: customer, customer experience, Social Computing, Social Organization, Strategy, symposium
