“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” So goes an ancient Japanese proverb. As a CIO, you know better than most how important it is to balance vision and action: Even the best plan can fail because of poor execution. From digital transformation to cloud migration or organizational optimization, the... more
“Humans, particularly those who build things, only listen to leading indicators of good things.” –Ben Horowitz, Author, The Hard Thing About Hard Things Most management books are about the author’s successes—great decisions, great hires and great outcomes. The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by top VC and former CEO Ben Horowitz, goes the other way.... more
In March, I attended the WSJ CIO conference in San Francisco and the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) ignited the most passionate discussions. I was surprised how many people were in the Steve Wozniak (“the future is scary and very bad for people”) and Elon Musk (“the biggest existential threat to mankind”) camps. I think... more
Remember the late 1990s and early 2000s? Back then, CIOs and business leaders were making their mark by implementing ERP software. This software automated key business functions like finance, HR and the first wave of cheap, easy-to-deploy niche applications which specialized in specific business processes not adequately covered by ERP. Companies spent a ton on... more
No one hides in a bunker for five months to avoid cold-and-flu season. And most people wouldn’t confine themselves to bed for four weeks over a sprained ankle. It would be ridiculous to disrupt your life to such degrees. You’ve got stuff to do. So you bulk up on hand sanitizer or elastic bandages and... more
CIOs will have to master of both the business innovation and technology dimensions of digital transformation to be successful Building a solid data management foundation is essential.
Would you believe that my CFO walked into my office today and asked, “How am I doing? Hey, are we aligned?” Or that the head of sales came in a half-hour later and asked the same thing? Of course you wouldn’t. They don’t operate that way. Yet we CIOs seem to run around worrying about... more
Today, successful organizations are focused on how they can digitally transform their business most effectively. This modernization is having a profound effect because traditional industries are being disrupted by new entrants with a digital, rather than capital and people intensive business models. Additionally, brand new companies can start and grow very quickly when their product... more
77 percent of companies are either looking to invest in data management and architecture solutions for the first time or want to replace an existing solution that does not scale to meet business needs. The proliferation of data generated by enterprise applications, consumers, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has facilitated an unprecedented opportunity for... more
In my discussions with CIOs in the #CIOChat, it looks like big data is moving out of something CIOs were comfortable experimenting with and into something where CIOs expect concrete business returns. As a result, CIOs are starting to worry about the impact of big data on organizational and cultural design. At the same time,... more