Thriving In Dynamic Times: Turning Headwinds Into Tailwinds Part 4: Operational Efficiency – Busting the Bureaucracy
Build Organizational Muscle. As context and for convenience, here’s the original overview post in full. Picking up with the focus of this post… the key is to have a plan, know what you would do and use the crisis to advance your strength and capability. If you don’t, you’ll be weaker and hamper the resilience […]
Thriving In Dynamic Times: Turning Headwinds Into Tailwinds Part 3: Build Organizational Muscle – Reshaping the Workforce
Build Organizational Muscle As a good leader, you probably already have a good idea about upgrading the organization and a plan for improving your internal productivity. A crisis, most times, gives you license to accelerate those plans. No doubt you’ll be given financial targets to hit. Try not to have a knee jerk reaction and […]
Thriving In Dynamic Times: Turning Headwinds Into Tailwinds Part 2: Shaping Demand
Shape the Demand for Business Response & Strategic Value. This is a critical moment with an opportunity to really change the game – from what’s “important now” to what’s “urgent now and strategic over time”. The external forces and immediate business needs will dictate that you are responsive with some things necessary to scale and […]
Thriving In Dynamic Times: Turning Headwinds Into Tailwinds
Most nations and enterprises have had to endure a number of crises over the decades. Some have been massive, like the financial meltdown of 2008, or a targeted tragedy like 9/11, or even a regional hurricane. As a CIO, I experienced them all and several others in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The current Coronavirus […]
Cincinnati Talk on Lessons Learned And Timeless Principles for Transformation
Last week, thanks to my long-time friend Geoff Smith (Co-Chair of the Cincinnati CIO Roundtable), I had a chance to speak at the Greater Cincinnati IT Symposium. The Symposium overall was great, with over 300 IT leaders in attendance. I was honored to be on an opening panel and to have a chance to speak […]
Herb Kelleher Was Special; Here’s My “Herb Story”
I’ve often told the story of my first meeting with Herb. Obviously, living in Dallas since 1970, I had read about Herb, and I had seen him around town. I knew people that knew and adored him, and I had great experiences with his airline. I had met with and knew many CEO and Board […]
When Will the Stages of Change Take Place?
As I wrote in a recent blog post, Eliminating the Blind Spot Between Business and IT Leaders, establishing a simple common language can be the key to a successful IT-enabled business transformation. In this post, I’ll be focusing on the WHEN and take a deeper dive into each phase of the journey. Pacing and execution […]
Eliminating The Blind Spot Between Business and IT
For any IT-enabled business transformation to be successful, or even to get off the ground, an important partnership must be formed between business and IT leadership. One of the most common, and most basic, challenges to making this happen is having those two groups speak a common language so they can discuss complex issues and […]
Back to the Future – “Modern” Software Development
In my decades-long career in the industry, I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. I was excited to witness and be a part of some, while I couldn’t wait for others to fade away. Many of the recent trends excite and encourage me as they center around developing solid, well-engineered business solutions in […]
The CIO as the Chief Integration Officer
Over the last 100 years, business models have evolved. Much of this evolution has been driven by innovations in technology, including the automobile, airplane, television, mainframe computers and smartphones. These have enabled commerce to expand from local, to regional, to national and, more recently, to global. However, it’s not that one replaces the other, rather, […]
The 30 Game Changers in Your Organization
I previously posted that great leaders focus on setting the agenda, building a great team and delivering with consistency. However, that is only part of the challenge for a leader, because none of that matters if you can’t “sell it” and if the business won’t consume it. That’s where “Street Smarts” are required, but I […]
Leadership Matters Most
I don’t think anyone would dispute that great leadership matters, and that it matters most at critical times. I also think we can win the argument that we’re in one of those critical times right now – as technology is dramatically changing at such a rapid pace and creating disruption, change and opportunities in virtually […]
