Tag Archives: executive literacy

10 questions you should be asking about IT

I have to admit that I don’t often get excited about IT articles.  But, the recent article titled “The do-or-die questions boards should ask about technology” by Paul WIlmott, a director in McKinsey’s London office, had me at “Hello!” Now, granted, part of why I got so excited is because what Mr. Willmott writes is […]

Integrating IT

There is change in the air, and it’s not just spring time allergies.  Clients, prospects, and colleagues are all talking about technology again.  I have a theory about what is going on. Post Nicholas Karr’s famous diatribe, “Does IT Matter?” (Answer: Not really) executives across the spectrum of company size relegated IT to “plumbing” and […]

Be afraid… Be very afraid!

Once again the popular media is abuzz with stories of hacking.  Most recently the dating site eHarmony was hacked probably by the same perpetrators that hacked LinkedIn, the “corporate” social network, exposing six million user passwords. Six million! A few months earlier, SONY, the one and only, was hacked twice.  The first incident, which they […]

IT’s worst enemies?

Sometimes, it’s the Technologists! Here we are sitting around an impressive conference table at the plush headquarters of a multinational manufacturing company (names have been changed, of course, to protect the guilty) when their chief technology guy proclaims: “I want to make clear one thing from the start.  Our mandate:  Zero Impact to the Business!” […]

“Why can’t I get e-mail when e-mail is down?”

IT called the users that the email server was down. What came next was the question above from the CEO of the company to his CIO. Nope. I am not making it up. No emphasis added. Real question. Real CEO. What’s sad about this is that this executive is not alone. Testimonials of this sort […]

It’s the Technology, Stupid!

Just as the words of President Clinton still echo their fundamental truth in our country’s politics, I submit a new rallying cry to corporate America: “It’s the Technology, Stupid!” Consider this: In January of this year, Hugo Sarrazin and Andy West wrote in McKinsey Quarterly an insightful paper on “Understanding the strategic value of IT […]