Ellen Pearlman has been writing here about why IT budgets are not going to innovation.

Could it be that IT leaders are being too passive?

Innovation takes salesmanship. Or saleswomanship.

 

There's an interesting article in Silicon.com which draws from a CIO "jury" of a dozen CIOs and IT leaders. The article explores whether mega-IT projects like multi-year customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource management (ERP) deployments have gone the way of the dodo bird or still have a chance of being approved and deployed within cost-conscious and time-sensitive business environments.

The "jury" has ruled that there is still a place for mega-IT projects - by an 8-4 margin -- so long as the efforts are well-managed and deliver repeatable benefits along the way.

When I began my conversation with Jim Anderson, founder of Blue Elephant Consulting who has worked with CIOs for over 20 years, I had just a single question: What is the deal with CIOs?

 

If I had to classify myself as either a spender or a saver, I’d have to admit I’m a spender. I’m not a lavish spender mind you, but my general view towards money is it’s there to accomplish certain goals (both practical and pleasurable) and since you never know what the future holds, you might as well spend it while you can. I’ve never created a budget and, therefore, never tried to follow one.

 

 

The Financial Times' Jillian Tett, in her book Fool's Gold about the financial crisis, describes Jamie Dimon's first visit to the bank's offices in London. He headed first to Bournemouth, the location of the bank's IT operations.

"There he convened a town hall and spent a couple of hours discussing the bank's IT infrastructure.