Making Partnerships Work

Dateline: July 26, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Partnerships can be a tricky thing.  On the one hand, building an ecosystem of partners is necessary in today's environment.  One organization cannot provide all the services necessary for a successful business.  IT is used to working with partners to deliver the variety of systems, … [Read more...]

Change is Possible with Reinforcing Processes

Dateline: July 19, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. MIT Sloan School's Erik Brynjolfsson recently addressed a workshop of executives on how to increase the chances of success of big analytics initiatives.  His perspective was to focus on the processes. In all the classroom discussions that surfaced around the big issues from big data — … [Read more...]

When IT Isn’t at the Table

Dateline: July  12, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Why is there still a disconnect between what IT does and what the business wants?  According to the 2013 Cisco Global IT Impact Survey many IT organizations are not as aligned with their business partners as they expect to be.  Cisco's survey asked questions of 1,300 IT decision … [Read more...]

The Importance of Your Team

Dateline: July 5, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. What makes a successful network?  The people on your team, according to Fast Company blogger Drake Baer.  His recent post for Fast Company's Dialed section, The 4 People You Need for An Awesome Network, suggests that there are 4 must-haves on your team for you (and your projects) to be … [Read more...]

Living Life by Numbers

Dateline: June 28, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Our world is becoming more numbers driven.  We've seen the trend at work, with the emphasis on analytics and the mining of data from our data warehouses.  But a recent blog by author and senior researcher at Babson Executive Education, H. James Wilson, articulates how data has begun … [Read more...]

CIOs Must Get it Right on Day One

Dateline: June 21, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP - one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Transitions are part of the fabric of organizations.  Leaders move on and new leaders take over.  A recent Harvard Business Review article, It's All About Day One,  by IMD Professors Michael Watkins and Suzanne de Janasz, and former Unilever executive Kees van der Graaf, explores the … [Read more...]

CIO’s Equation for Strategic Influence

Dateline: June 14, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP - one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Trust and influence are critical success factors for any leader, including the CIO.  A recent blog by Michael Krigsman explored ways CIO gain strategic influence inside their organizations.  His blog, CxO Talk: Trust, engagement, and influence for the CIO, suggests, The equation is … [Read more...]

Innovation Strategy at Starbucks: Fail Fast and Learn

Dateline: June 7, 2013Welcome to our Friday WRAP - one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.Innovation, particularly technology-based innovation, is the lifeblood of organizational growth and therefore a critical part of the CIO's agenda.  A recent Fast Company article, Risky Innovation: Will Starbucks’s Leap of Faith Pay Off?, by author Austin Carr, chronicles the … [Read more...]

Performance and Sustainability are no Longer At Odds

Dateline: May 31, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. A thought-provoking blog about energy efficiency and IT performance was recently posted on the CIO Insights blog network.  Sam Greengard, a professional writer, shared his thoughts on The Next Generation of Green IT, Today, green computing has gone mainstream in the enterprise. … [Read more...]

Telling The Story with Data Visualization

Dateline: May 24, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Inferring meaning from data is a problem usually solved by BI and analysis, but recently I read about using  data visualization for some large, complex problems.  Harvard Business Review associate editor Gretchen Gavett blogged about her conversation with Linda Boff, GE's executive … [Read more...]