Links for Feb 20 2011
- A System for Speaking IT Truths to CEOs – Robert Plant on the Harvard Business Review
Quote: One of the protocols that’s used for teaching medical students how to break bad news goes by the (perhaps unfortunate) acronym SPIKES (setting up the interview; assessing the patient’s perception; obtaining the patient’s invitation; giving knowledge; addressing the patient’s emotions; and establishing a treatment strategy). I was so taken with it that I’ve adapted it for my exec ed classes to help CIOs learn how to speak difficult truths more easily and effectively.
- On pricing power by Seth Godin on Seth’s Blog
Quote: The goal, no matter what you sell, is to be seen as irreplaceable, essential and priceless. If you are all three, then you have pricing power. When the price charged is up to you, when you have the power to set the price, there is a line out the door and you can use pricing as a signaling mechanism, not merely a way to make a living.
- Jack Griffin’s Ouster: Lessons from a Failed “Change Agent” by Julia Kirby on Harvard Business Review
Quote: The abrupt departure of Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin after less than six months on the job has the media world buzzing. Now, to be sure, the media world likes nothing better than talking about itself, so the story is probably getting more play than it would if he’d been ousted from a job in the, say, cement business. But that’s just as well, because in it is a cautionary tale for new leaders in any industry.
- Why the “P Principle” Applies to Modern IT by Jake Sorofman on rPath’s Closing the Gap
Quote: If you think about it, enterprise IT has a strong genetic connection to manufacturing—and IT organizations today look a whole lot like manufacturers circa 1998. Today, the expectation is for flexibility, speed and scale, while also fundamentally altering the economics of what it takes to achieve these ends.
- Egypt’s CIO lesson: We use IT tools in ways unintended by toolmakers – TotalCIO
Quote: The truth is that tools take on a life of their own once put in the hands of human beings, who, by nature, are innovative. People are hard-wired to adapt tools in ways the toolmaker never intended — sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad.
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