Links for Sunday May 25 2014
The new CIO challenge: Assembling the right combo of human and machine smarts
Quote: Business peers are tech savvy, customers are plugged into your business like never before and digital disruptors are everywhere. Being a successful CIO in the digital enterprise is not about separating from your peers and customers, conference organizers said — it’s about effectively recognizing and integrating their strengths into your IT strategy.
Even Sweatshops are Getting Automated. So What’s Left?
Quote:The research is clear that technological progress has greatly benefitted people in the developing world so far. I wonder, though, if automation and deindustrialization might be creating a ‘silicon ceiling’ on growth — a situation in which even low wages are no longer an attractive alternative to technology. If so, the global shift away from labor and toward capital will only accelerate.
Quote: When an employee or consultant asks you what you mean when you say “innovation”, it’s not a throw-away line or a philosophical debate. Defining and understanding the difference between innovation as a strategy, as a discrete, one time project or as a capability or discipline has implications. Words matter, especially words that have hazy definitions that we allow others to define for us. Executives, senior managers and innovators, pay close attention. Define what innovation is, what it means, its purpose and goals, before anything else, or you too will end up a victim of the hype cycle.
Quote: The bigger these clouds get (whether public or private), the more likely it is that additional resources will be there when an individual customer needs them. The bigger these clouds get (whether public or private), the greater the purchasing power and the more useful the economies of scale. Amazon’s data centres are probably bigger than those of most individual corporations, so Amazon has an advantage there. But that’s all it is – an advantage. Not a lock on the right to be called ‘cloud.’
Why the Human Story Will Always Beat Brand Storytelling
Quote: However, the “problem”, for want of a better word, with emotional marketing is it treads a very fine line between being authentic, and being a slickly-produced video or narrative for a new product. Get this part wrong and the connection you’re looking for is broken. A real human story, on the other hand, doesn’t suffer from this – because we know it’s real, and that’s where the power comes from.
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