The eWorld Radar

Towards a Digital Future

The rules are changing. Life in a post industrial economy will be different.

As with any revolution there will be winners and losers.  But don’t think you are safe if you are a knowledge worker or a technologist. 

If your role fits neatly into a job specification / repeatable business process then you should consider yourself ‘at risk’.

Artistry and influence will be key worker 3.0 competencies. Diligent work ethic on its own just won’t cut it.

Ade McCormack

PS. I've been short listed for the Computer Weekly social media awards (two categories):

• CIO / Director
• Best use of social media (individual)

Click here to look at the short lists and use your vote.

Computer Weekly Blog Awards

Just to let you both know, I have been shortlisted in a couple of the Computer Weekly blog award categories:

• Best use of social media (individual)
• CIO/IT Director.

You know what you have to do. Click here.

 

Talent scout or immigration control?

Recruitment seems increasingly more about ensuring candidates meet set criteria than on spotting rough diamonds.

In a post industrial world creativity is needed. And so the recruitment function needs to adjust its practices accordingly.

Should the IT function be a factory?

Given the extent that organisations rely on IT, one would hope that the processes for developing and delivering the associated services ran in a predictable manner. This suggests a factory model and thus the aim is to continuously focus on efficiency with the end game being total automation.

This is the preferred model for technology management. The question is whether the CIO wants to preside over a factory. Surely a lab or studio would be more fulfilling?

A creative approach to IT is likely to be where the real value in having an IT function resides. Stretching the technology, the IT staff and the organisation by pushing technology innovation to the limit strikes me as much more fulfilling.

As technology management gets sucked into the Cloud perhaps the CIO can reinvent the IT function as more of an avant-garde art house a la Andy Warhol’s Factory of the sixties.

In today’s terms this might be called an innovation centre. However the focus needs to be on fearless unfettered creativity, not on slightly shinier versions of what the users already have.

Ade McCormack

Alignment versus entwinement

The next time your senior management talk about business-IT alignment, highlight the fact that alignment implies that the IT function needs to be a well behaved supplier, as opposed to a badly behaved one.

Pushing the alignment agenda will guarantee that your IT function will:

• Remain a victim of business strategy.
• Continue to take a reactive project-oriented approach to business requests.

We need entwinement, which implies that the IT function is a strategic partner to the organisation. With such a model the IT function will:

• Be a co-creator of business strategy.
• Become a proactive demand driven service provider.

So please let’s drop all talk of alignment if the intention is to maximise the ROI of the IT function.

Ade McCormack

Recruiters - Understand IT Fundamentals

Take a look at our sample IT fundamentals e-learning module, which forms part of the IT Recruiter Academy service.

Click here to start learning.

Ade McCormack

CIO: Clouded Vision

Be aware. Harvard Business Review has just discovered the Cloud. HBR is important and it is often the thought source that flows through the c-suite’s collective head and on down through the organisation. Whether the source is correct or not is academic. HBR is highly influential.

Over the last few years CIOs have reached a degree of comfort in respect of embracing the Cloud, recognising that the it is generally not suitable for every situation, not least the  matter of legacy systems.

The CFO will be very keen on anything that:

• Offloads fast depreciating ‘assets’ from the balance sheet.
• Avoids cash outflow spikes.
• Dampens the financial risk associated with owning an IT function.

So now that HBR has blessed the Cloud model, expect to feel the heat of your CFO’s enthusiasm to move everything into the Cloud.

You might want to remind him that a similar enthusiasm was expressed for outsourcing after the dotcom crash. And that outsourcing everything including one’s controls was not a smart idea.

Click here to read the HBR article:

Ade McCormack