Aligning Strategy to Business Capabilities
IT doesn’t exist as a function for its own sake, IT exists to enable capabilities that a company needs in order to fulfill its business strategy and ultimately deliver returns to investors. But all too often, the linkage between what is being asked of IT, and the value it is intended to deliver to the […]
Alignment Is Critical In Times Of Uncertainty
These unprecedented times of challenges, obstacles, and crises have produced remarkable opportunities for focus, consistency, and cooperation. Discovering innovative ways to navigate the extraordinary shifts created by a worldwide pandemic, has underscored the need for all of us, as business and IT leaders, to get on the same page. Now, more than ever, we must […]
Thriving In Dynamic Times: Turning Headwinds Into Tailwinds Part 7: The CIO’s Two Best Friends Should Be the CFO and the CHRO
As context and for convenience, here’s the original overview post in full. Although there’s a lot more to talk about, and we intend to carry on the conversation over the coming months and years, I would like to cap off this series with some thoughts on executive and cross-functional teamwork. As a CIO, I’ve always […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Journey to Becoming an Agile Business
Over the last few decades, most large and successful 20th century businesses have calcified around their legacy systems and processes. The journey to becoming more agile and nimble will require a thoughtful, well-structured, well-designed and well-executed multi-year plan. The plan needs to be focused on achieving three major outcomes – Business, Architectural and Organizational. All […]
Becoming an Agile Business
Any successful digital transformation must start with the end in mind and describe what victory would look like. In this modern era, simply stated, the Future Vision for any business leadership team should be an agile business model that can continuously innovate at speed and scale. Most businesses can look forward 3-5 years and say […]
Every Enterprise has a Choice – Transform or Decline
It’s clear to see what Amazon, Uber, AIRBNB, Apple Pay and other new world disruptors and leaders have achieved with their respective business models. These companies embody the notion of a digital business and are made for, and even have defined, the modern or digital era of business. The Challenge of Transforming into the Digital […]
Why Change?
The WHY change mandate is coming into focus for all large, legacy companies in most industries. These companies must use technology to transform into a more agile business. If they fail to do so, these companies will begin a slow decline and even run the risk of extinction. Accept that Change is Beneficial and Inevitable. […]
