Security and the Internet of Things

Dateline: October 31, 2014 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Tonight is Halloween, our 'holiday' to explore the scary and creepy.  In keeping with this theme, this week’s idea combines two very 'scary' topics for many IT leaders: security and the Internet of Things.  Recently, Kevin Beaver, an information security consultant and … [Read more...]

Increasing CIO-CMO Alignment

Dateline: September 19, 2014 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. This week’s idea about the alignment of CIOs and CMOs comes from a recent post on the HBR Blog Network by Mike Sutcliff, group chief executive of Accenture Digital, titled CMOs and CIOS Increasingly See Eye to Eye.   The Accenture annual survey of CIOs and CMOs found that … [Read more...]

Designing Intuitive Technology

Dateline: September 12, 2014 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. This week’s idea comes from a column titled, "The Social Business Gets Results", written by Sam Greengard at Baseline Magazine. ...in the rapidly unfolding digital age, it's clear that electronic interaction is systematically remapping and rewiring the central nervous … [Read more...]

The Case for Blank Canvas Thinking

Dateline: June 6, 2014 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. What would you do with a blank canvas, a budget and an opportunity to use whatever technology you wanted for your organization?  Recently, Disney-owned ESPN unveiled their new SportsCenter Studio in Connecticut--Digital Center 2 or DC2.  Fast Company recorded a test run of the … [Read more...]

Digital Future’s Seismic Shift

Dateline: March 21, 2014 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Starbucks has been on the forefront of the coffee wave for a long time and, one might argue, also in the lead with innovative ways to utilize digital tools to transform their industry.  We know them for the free wifi in the stores, their loyalty cards, payments from your mobile … [Read more...]

Texting and Friending are not Relationship Builders

Dateline: February 21, 2014 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. This week's thought comes from a blog I ran across recently by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey, wine entrepreneurs and authors of the Barefoot Spirit (based on their successful brand, Barefoot Wine).  Although they wrote this blog a while ago, their message is just as … [Read more...]

Why Social Business Initiatives Fail

Dateline: November 8, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Getting social business initiatives right is hard. According to Boston College Associate Professor Jerry Kane, who quotes from a recent Gartner study, 80% of social business initiatives will deliver disappointing results. Professor Kane's recent blog at Sloan Management … [Read more...]

CIO’s Role in Social Business-What You Can Do Today

Social business is increasing, not decreasing, in importance for CIOs.  We've discussed the CIO's role in social business in several blog posts (see here, here and here for some of this discussion).  Recently, the former editor of eWEEK and executive editorial manager of eWEEK Labs, Donna Donston-Miller, shared her thoughts on how CIOs can show social business mettle.  She suggested 5 very … [Read more...]

Digital Competency is Critical for Success in the Creative Economy

Forbes contributor, Steve Denning, recently interviewed Haydn Shaughnessy, co-author with Dr. Nick Vitalari of The Elastic Enterprise (mentioned earlier in this blog here).   Denning suggests that: The Elastic Enterprise is one of at least twenty-four books of a management canon that spells out the implications of coping with the emerging Creative Economy of the 21st Century. In effect, a … [Read more...]

Onboarding New IT Staff

Dateline: April 26, 2013 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. In preparing for a client engagement, I ran across a blog about how social tools can change the employee onboarding process.  The blog, Social Tools Can Improve Employee Onboarding,  was written by Karie Willyerd,  the coauthor of The 2020 Workplace and  Vice President of Learning … [Read more...]