The Temptations of Technology

epearlma@yahoo.com — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:00:00 +0100

As technologists, we have all been using and or promoting the use of technology for years, some of us for decades. Whatever your view of the merits of technology for getting work done, finding information or communicating to co-workers, friends and family, we can all agree that our lives have changed dramatically and permanently from the digital revolution that started decades ago.

Increasingly, I've been reading books and articles that express a growing discomfort with s [...]

Translating Techno Speak Into Businessese

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:00:00 +0100

One of the most difficult issues technologists face is explaining the need to replace legacy IT systems to business people. A major hurdle is that technologists and business people frequently speak different languages. Technologists often talk about the technology in far more technical terms than business people can understand or care about, while business people prefer to talk about gross margins, new revenue streams, innovation and expanding markets.

It's not a surprise tha [...]

How To Be the Bearer of Bad News

epearlma@yahoo.com — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:00:00 +0100

Delivering bad news is something that most people are not good at. Either we're trying to ease the pain of the message for the recipient or trying to protect ourselves from that person's wrath. It's a human impulse to shield those we care about from distressing information and it's equally human to avoid being the bearer of unpleasant news.

This same behavior can be observed in the business and IT worlds. Research conducted by Jaclyn Jensen of George Washington Un [...]

Kill a Project - Kill Motivation?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:00:00 +0100

Many people who make their living in scientific fields would classify themselves as rational beings, people who make decisions based on facts. But in reality, many situations are not so cut and dry. Often choices need to be made about situations that involve elements you can't control, like the economy, the price of goods and services you buy, the weather, customer attitudes, employee loyalty.

"I don't think rationality is the golden standard," says Dan Ariely, [...]

Are You Frustrated By Incoherent Corporate Strategies?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 22:00:00 +0100

Do you ever feel pulled in too many directions at once? If you do you are not alone. A recent Booz & Company survey of more than 1,800 executives found that almost 2/3s said their biggest frustration is having too many conflicting priorities.

Added to this problem is the existence of incoherent strategies that don't differentiate the organization or don't align with corporate goals. More than half of executives (56%) said that their biggest challenges are ensuring tha [...]

Is Your Information Strategy Deeply Flawed?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:00:00 +0100

Many of us get the evil eye from spouses when we can't stop clicking away on our Blackberries or other smart devices. This is particularly vexing at meals or other times that should be family time. None of this is surprising, it's easy to understand how annoying this is and how it interferes with interpersonal relationships. But what about at work? It's okay to show how efficient we are at multitasking by taking our electronic devices everywhere, right?

Should Tablets Replace Your PCs?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

Last week I wrote about Deloitte's prediction that PC sales will be overtaken by sales of smartphones, tablets and non-PC netbooks in 2011. On Information Week recently, Bob Evans wrote about the end of the PC's dominance and the rise of the iPad and consumer-written apps. His colleague, Alex Wolfe, wrote that "desktops and laptops, as a mode of user engagement are the past, not the future."

With some 43 million iPads predicted to sell this year (up from 14 mill [...]

The Era of the PC is Over

epearlma@yahoo.com — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has just released its tenth annual Predictions for the next 12-to-18 months. Here are three of the key findings they say will impact the Enterprise:

More than half of computing devices sold globally will not be PCs; smartphones, tablets and non-PC netbooks will outsell PCs. What does this mean for IT departments? Deloitte says, "The cost of managing a mixed network of both PCs and non-PCs is likely to be much higher than standardizing on one or the othe [...]

Can Your Strategy Pass the Test?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

Executives come up with new strategies all the time. Some are good, many are fair, and some are downright poor. How do you know the difference? Three McKinsey & Co. strategists-Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit-came up with 10 questions to test your strategy.

According to a 2010 McKinsey survey of 2,135 global executives, few strategies (about one third) can pass even three of the tests. How well would your company's strategy do? Take the test and find out. While [...]

CIOs Using IT For Global Good

epearlma@yahoo.com — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

We all know how IT can be used to increase productivity, profits and performance. CIOs who have been busy helping businesses and non-profits excel over the years through the use of IT can now turn their capabilities towards helping people in need. A two-year old, non-profit organization, CIOs Without Borders , started by CIO Atefeh Riazi, is dedicated to using technology to make medical knowledge available to communities in which people routinely suffer from preventable (or easily curable) disea [...]

Organizations Behaving Badly

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

The popularity of the television show The Office and the comic strip Dilbert can be attributed to their spot-on satires of life in corporate America. Let's face it-it's fun to make fun of the absurdities that go into organizational behavior. For a time I used to save memos from the executives that ran various companies I was employed at. Corporate-speak was endlessly amusing, except when it turned into policies that were counterproductive.

Recently I came across a l [...]

Guilty People Make Great Leaders

epearlma@yahoo.com — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

You have to love this research: The Harvard Business Review reports that new research demonstrates that "people who are prone to guilt tend to work harder and perform better than people who are not guilt-prone and are perceived to be more capable leaders." The research was conducted by Francis Flynn, the director of the Center for Leadership Development and Research at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

The study was done with about 150 people that worked in th [...]

Can Staff Be Managed Virtually?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

A friend recently filled me in on a career decision she is facing. Her boss is leaving the organization they both work for and wants her to throw her hat in the ring for his position. He clearly believes she is the best person to replace him. She is all for it, except for one consideration. The management position is based in Philadelphia and she lives in New York. My friend isn't willing to move, but wonders if a weekly commute would be workable? We both know that it might work out at first [...]

Hold On To Your Job--Become a Great Boss

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 22:00:00 +0100

If you have made it through this year with a good management job, a sense that next year will be as good or better, and with a belief that the future looks rosy, consider yourself lucky. Many people have not been so fortunate this year and are looking towards a future that is uncertain. But being in a strong position today is no reason to rest on your laurels. There's always room to grow as a manager. Most managers, however, stop improving. "Most bosses reach a certain level of proficie [...]

The Critical Role of Women in Group Performance

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 22:00:00 +0100

I just read an article about group performance in the October issue of Science Magazine. A group of academics from Carnegie Mellon and various MIT entities studied whether there is something called collective intelligence that exists in groups of people - just as it exists in individuals -- and makes it possible to predict the group's performance on a variety of tasks. The results of two studies they conducted support their hypothesis that collective intelligence - the authors call it t [...]

Can We Finally Get IT Leadership Right?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:00:00 +0100

Charlie Feld's been around IT for a long time-44 years to be exact, starting at IBM in 1966. He was the CIO of Frito-Lay in the 1980s and started his consultancy, the Feld Group, in 1992 (purchased in 2004 by EDS, became part of HP in 2008, and is now independent again). After his stint at Frito-Lay he became known for a framework for IT-enabled business transformation that he created while there.

Now he has a new book, "Blind Spot: A Leader's Guide to IT-Enabled Bus [...]

The Rise of the Cloud: What's Happening Around the Globe?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:00:00 +0100

In 2009 the Accenture Institute for High Performance surveyed business leaders from 669 large organizations in nine countries and over 20 industries about their use and plans for cloud computing. The results were just released in a report entitled "Cloudrise: Rewards and Risks at the Dawn of Cloud Computing " written by Jeanne Harris and Allan Alter.

It wasn't a surprise that security is the number one concern of executives, but there were some other signi [...]

Tech Sectors Jobs Make a Comeback-Where Are They?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:00:00 +0100

A recent article at Bloomberg Businessweek notes that the tech sector added 47,000 jobs so far in 2010 due to demand for tech products in Asia and Latin America. This represents a 15% growth spurt compared with an 11% jobs growth in the economy overall this year. The article also notes that in some tech industries, salaries are beginning to inch up too. They quote a survey from PayScale that finds that information, media and telecom professionals have seen a slight rise in pay this year. [...]

Is Your IT Lean and Nimble?

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:00:00 +0100

IT management models have come and gone as IT's role in the enterprise has moved from mostly support to being a critical partner with business in increasing productivity and innovation. Three McKinsey & Company thinkers-Roger Roberts, Hugo Sarrazin and Johnson Sikes-have laid out their view of a new management model for IT that requires broader leadership, governance and organizational changes, as well as different management skills. This model incorporates two facets the authors call F [...]

How to Add Structure To Social Media

epearlma@yahoo.com — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 23:00:00 +0100

For companies that are still questioning the value of giving employees the freedom to use social media at work, some new thinking on the subject might give them reason to re-examine their policies. Tom Davenport, an IT and management professor at Babson College, well-known for his books on analytics says he is becoming convinced that the way to gain value from social media is to "combine computer-based sociality with computer-based structure."

Personal com [...]

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