Articles on Strategy

Your 18-month technology roadmap assumes certainty that doesn't exist. Plan for capabilities instead of tools, and build plans that survive reality.

Cloud migrations, CDO hiring sprees, and AI pilots all followed the same pattern: unanimous agreement, then expensive reversals. Consensus is a warning sign.

An automated lighthouse on the Oregon coast taught me something about automation, human judgment, and the work that still matters most.

Your LinkedIn feed isn't market intelligence — it's curated noise. How social media echo chambers distort executive decision-making.

Companies racing to implement AI are making more decisions, but worse ones. Speed without direction just means reaching the wrong destination faster.

It seems like people are always looking for the 'next big thing.' They want that 'big' thing to get the 'big' improvement for themselves or their

Big data isn't the answer. Big data is a just one more tool that can be used in the toolbox that an organization can use to improve.

The technology debate is usually the wrong debate. Focus on what value you will deliver with whatever technology you have or might acquire.

Are CEO's and CIO's aligned when it comes to digital transformation? based on an IDC survey, the answer may be no.

Focus on what the data tells you, not the data itself. If you cannot turn data into information and knowledge, your data initiatives will fail.

Big data doesn't have to require big projects, big budgets or big teams, especially when starting out.

A nice short post over on Farnam Street today highlights the various traps that people and companies can find themselves in when they begin looking at

If you’ve spent any time within IT over the last few years, you’ve probably heard the term ‘cloud’ more than you really wanted to. The cloud has become

Some say the IT group and CIO are irrelevant. I disagree. The New CIO can make IT more relevant than ever before.

Do you want to be a supply chain CIO focused on operations or a Strategic CIO focus on adding business value?

A while back I wrote a piece titled The Strategy Disconnect where I wrote: Millions can be spent on the ‘perfect’ strategy, but if that strategy isn’t

Convergence delivers fast, efficient implementation of processing power, storage, and networking in a contained system that can be managed together.

Big data is complex and difficult, but with proper planning and strategic thinking, you can prepare for many of the challenges you will face.

While doing a bit of research on the role of the CIO for an article I was writing earlier this week, I ran across this definition of Chief Information

Sponsored by Dimension Data. I just finished reading through the Dimension Data Secure Enterprise Mobility Report.The report is a nice report on how

The cloud is quite hyped these days - and rightfully so. The cloud brings quite a bit of productivity and cost savings to organizations as well as a

I just finished reading Using an Internal Social Network to Solve Real Business Problems by Nichole Kelly over on Social Media Explorer. When I started

Originally published on Its All About Recovery as Do the Hard Work Today for an Easier Tomorrow. Two years ago, you and your team spent a great deal of

Don't Let Strategy Become Planning - Roger Martin - Harvard Business Review Quote: To make strategy more interesting — and different from a budget — we

Links for February 5 2012 covering Leadership, Community, Technology and more

As a consultant, its my job to help my clients understand their options.  Its also my job to help them understand which of those options are best and

I'm a huge fan of Amazon. Over the years, more and more of my purchases have moved to Amazon. I've bought books, coffee, electronics, camera equipment and

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP. Note: I love technology...believe me I do.  I just really liked this photo :) I Just finished

CIO's Must Make Enterprise Architecture a First Class Citizen by Mike Walker Quote: I wouldn't necessarily make everyone use an architecture method as

In the IT world, we tend to take a single-minded approach to our technology platforms.   We have email systems. We have web systems. We have HR and

Strategy...its a word that conjurs up a lot of images...some good and some bad. There are a lot of people writing and talking about strategy. There are

If you're organization is like most, you've got a lot of legacy IT systems.   Most of those legacy systems require a lot of maintenance. Most of those

I had a conversation two weeks ago with a colleague who was taking over the social media, marketing and PR responsibilities for a small but growing

I've been reading Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath (amazon affiliate link).   If you haven't read the

Improve end-user workforce productivityEarlier this week I wrote a post titled "The relationship between the CIO and CMO?" where I reported on a survey

If you don't know, my passion outside of technology, entrepreneurship and writing on this blog is photography.  I've recently been spending even more time

A few weeks ago I wrote about The diminishing role of IT and the CIO.  That post struck a nerve with quite a few readers so I wanted to expand on the

In my article titled Technology Selection and Cultural Fit, I argue that cultural fit is an important aspect to consider when undertaking Technology

In a previous article titled The Future of IT & the CIO - Redux of the DoDo I pointed to some survey results that should be alarming to most IT

Mark McDonald, of Gartner, offers some excellent tips for IT planning for 2011 in a post titled Three things to think about as you plan for 2011.  In the

Strategy. That one word can send shudders through many folks.  That one word has made millions and millions for consulting companies and consultants. Can

Short answer?  Nope. Long answer?  Read on :) Vince Kellen does a great job arguing the point in a post titled "Echolalia: The CIO is Dead! Long Live the

Too Big to Trust? Or Too Untrustworthy to Scale? by Charles H. Green on Trust Matters Preach it Brother Edelman by Robbin Phillips on Brains On Fire Blog

A few weeks ago I received Leadership Test: Will You Pass? (amazon affiliate link) by Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D. to review The book is a small one (~99 pages

Are you innovating or imitating? Anywhere you go these days, you'll find someone talking or writing about Innovation.  Most of  the stuff I've been

The most important thing in your company is not a thing by Mark McDonald on The Gartner Blog Network 6 Lessons for Life by Jon Gordon on Jon Gordon's Blog

The Evolution of Social Media and Business by Brian Solis from PR 2.0 Make No Little Plans – Defining the Scalable Startup by Steve Blank Amnesia is a

I've been sitting here thinking. Gene De Libero say's I'm always thinking...not sure if that's good or bad! :) What have I been thinking about?  Lots of

Storytelling on the web by Rob Mills on Carsonified Long Tail Vs. The Blockbuster by Paul Barsch on Marketing Profs Daily Fix 5 strategies for a better

Early this week, I asked a question to my readers (and myself). The question was "What's your focus?" and immediately after publishing the post, I read a

The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. As a follow-up to my

I just finished Toy Box Leadership: Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child...somewhat flawed but a good book nonetheless. Flawed may be a

The New CIO is a weekly article about the challenges facing today’s CIO as well as what can be done to prepare for future challenges. We've all heard the

Update - My original post was titled "A milestone - 4 years old". Apparently I can't count :)  I started the blog in 2006 so it's my blog's THIRD

2009 is half over and its been a pretty good year so far. What's transpired this year? In February, I put my consulting practice on hold to join the Boy

On Social Media and Culture Shift by Amber Naslund on Altitude Branding The ROI on Flexibility by Peter Campbell on Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use

I just read a great post by Jeffrey Phillips titled Intense Ambiguity that really brought into light what it's like working for a boss or organization

Why Your Corporate Message Isn’t Being Heard by Jason Falls on Social Media Explorer The 7 Sins of Customer Service by Valeria Maltoni on Conversation

One of the most visited posts on this blog is titled "The Problem(s) with Linear Thinking".   That one post makes up for a good amount of monthly visitors

What happens when you create the best strategic plan in the world but don't have a plan to implement it? Lots of wheel spinning and very little progress.

Hello everyone...I'm back from my trip to Orlando...links are lite this week due to being away from the computer. Enjoy the few I do have. How the Cloud

Image via Wikipedia Tracie and I spent Good Friday at the Dallas Arboretum (jump over to my photoblog - OneFour Photography - for some photos).  The trip

Oracle's Profit magazine has a nice article titled "The Go Betweens: Ten Tips for Connecting Information Technology with the Business" has some excellent

In November 2008 I was asked to take a look at Leading IT Transformation: The Roadmap to Success from Oulette & Associates (O&A) and thought the

According to Information Week, the Top 10 issues for CIO's in 2009 are: Customer-Facing Innovation Attacking the 80/20 Ratio The Challenging Economy The

Positive Communication and Leadership by Stephen Smith on Slacker Manager A Lean, Scalable Requirements Information Model for the Agile Enterprise by Dean

Probability and Statistics in Project Estimating by Glen Alleman on Herding Cats ROI on Telecommuting by Jessica Lipnack on Endless Knots (thanks to Bas

In the case of this Massachusetts State Trooper, a lot. In case you are to lazy to click over, the linked story is about a Massachusetts State Trooper who

I initially said I was going to post some links every Sunday...but I'm running across some really interesting things out there. So...I'll be posting

Diamond Consultants released the results of their Digital IQ Survey recently (download the full survey here) that provides some very interesting (and

Read an interesting article on GigaOm yesterday titled "Google’s Infrastructure is its Strategic Advantage" (go read it if you haven't). This post, and

Excerpt from a paper on Information Technology Human Capital as Competitive Advantage, covering IT-business alignment and human capital management.

I'm about half-way through an advance copy of David Maister's latest book titled Strategy and the Fat Smoker and I have to say I like what I've read so

I was asked recently to describe how an organization can use its human capital to create competitive advantage. I fell into the trap of using Porter's

Organization Alignment seems like one of those 'touchy feely' things that most technical folks would rather not discuss but it's actually quite relevant

This is an excerpt of a paper I wrote while working on my MBA.

This is an excerpt of a paper I wrote while working on my MBA. One