(1 votes, average: 9 out of 10)
Loading ...The intrapraneurial factor
I was speaking with Professor Moren Levesque from the University of Waterloo yesterday, who specializes in issues around entrepreneurship. She identified a trend that is beginning to affect enterprises that is related to her area of study, one which CIOs would be wise to consider.
Increasingly, attitudes among younger employees within large organizations are of an entrepreneurial nature. Having been immersed in technology their entire lives, their minds move at a pace consistent with that of the digital age…in other words, lightning fast. As a result, they are apt to be a tad more restless than their parents were, eager to put thier ideas for new products and services into practice, and not afraid to bolt somewhere else if their current employer isn’t giving them the opportunity to do so.
In order to retain such staffers and not see their investment in them go to waste, executives, including CIOs, must be willing to give them perhaps more latitude and freedom that typically accorded younger employees. If not, management should not be surprised to see a few resignation slips on their desks.
This adjustment will perhaps not be easy, but it looks like offering this kind of latitude is one aspect of an IT employment landscape being turned on its head.
Posted on August 30th, 2007 by Greg Enright and filed under Innovation | 3 Comments »
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! | Technorati
(1 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...Communication is key
Effective communication between IT and other departments within the business has traditionally been a challenge, but as IT increasingly becomes more of a factor in driving more efficiency and better bottom lines, resolving the IT-Business Alignment issue becomes that much more imperative.
Let’s face it: The more in synch a manufacturing department, for instance, and an IT office are, the better the end results will be in terms of things like product development, research and actual product delivery.
It’s increasingly becoming an issue that can’t be swept under the rug, as perhaps it was in years past. No matter how painful the process may be, CIOs have to ensure that the efforts of traditional business departments are aligned as much as possible with those of the IT shop. Disconnects can result in ground lost to more nimble and cohesive competitors.
Posted on August 23rd, 2007 by Greg Enright and filed under Best Practices | No Comments »
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! | Technorati
(3 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10) Loading ...A new snail mail?
The IT industry is never short on grandiose claims of what the next big trend is, or what will turn into the next killer app, or which currently scorching technology will soon fall by the wayside. Just about everyday on our IT newswire there seems to be one, and it’s easy to discount 99 per cent of them, having seen that most of the prognostications never turn into fact.
One that I saw recently, however, jumped out at me as having a chance. The threory put forth was that e-mail would eventually be usurped within the enterprise by the variety of social networking and relatively robust Web-based collaborative tools that are forging a path through the business world.
With e-mail such a core piece of communications technology today, it seems hard to imagine it being replaced any time soon. But when you look at the trend happening around so-called Web 2.0 apps, and how in many ways they offer a more nimble and real-time way of getting ideas across and responding to others’ input, it looks like there’s a chance it could become preferable to e-mail.
Don’t expect to be uninstalling your Outlook anytime soon…but remember that business is addicted to speed, and if these new platforms can offer a decided advantage in that department, don’t be surprised if e-mail becomes the new “snail mail”.
Posted on August 9th, 2007 by Greg Enright and filed under Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! | Technorati
(3 votes, average: 9 out of 10) Loading ...ITIL insights
Version 3.0 of ITIL has been released, featuring a new emphasis on business-related corporate goals and new aspects that can help senior-level executives understand how their firm’s technology and IT practices can improve the bottom line and streamline operations.
If there’s one clear piece of advice I’ve heard from the sources I’ve talked to in tracking the new version’s release, it reads something like this: “Know your own house before you bring a new system into it.”
This means, a) having a clear idea of what you want ITIL to help you accomplish, b) understanding what tools you have and what tools you don’t have that will help you move along the prescribed ITIL deployment path, and c) perhaps the most important point, understanding what kind of a cultural effect the introduction of ITIL will have throughout the organization. Expect resistance, and, as one public-sector CIO told me recently, it’s a good idea to have a bit of a bulldog who isn’t afraid of ruffling some feathers to lead the nuts-and-bolts aspects of an implementation. You can buy the technology expertise, but you can’t purchase the passion.
Posted on August 2nd, 2007 by Greg Enright and filed under Best Practices | No Comments »
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! | Technorati
