CIO Mind

CIO Mind Moved

2006-09-09T15:09:00.000+03:00

CIO Mind moved to new home: http://ciomind.biz/

Please update your bookmarks, feeds, etc.

Enojy and see you there!

Top CIO business priorities for 2006 in Romania

2006-09-03T14:46:00.001+03:00

According to the “Romanian CIO Agenda” the top CIO business priorities for 2006 are improving business processes (top priority for 62% of CIOs); to attract, retain and grow customer relationships (selected by 48%) and to improve enterprise competitiveness (selected by 43%).

“Improving business processes” remain a priority up to 2009. ”Attracting, retaining and growing customer relationships” will have a slip in 2006 but will be back on top in 2009.
Interestingly enough “Faster innovation (shorter product/service cycles)” will enter the top for 2009.

2007 will be the year of “EU Accession” projects. Due to unclear legislation and regulations CIO will run most of the related projects during 2007.

Strategy versus Execution

2006-08-31T11:58:00.000+03:00

As a final project to my MBA, a team of six young and enthusiastic people created a strategic plan for a Romanian company. It is a very good plan (excuse my lack of modesty :-) )

We presented to the owner. And he told us:

“I did not ask for a strategy. I may not know all the nice words and theories, but you told me nothing new.
I knew my industry it is good, I know I have to produce custom structures and expand to halls. I know I should have financial reporting, I know I should have good people, I know I should have forecasts.
I am trying to get them since two years now. But nothing happened.
You show me a nice plan. Where is the rest? I need the execution!”

We still have to do the remaining 98% of the work!

“Never forget implementation, boys. In our work it's what I call the 'missing 98 percent' of the client puzzle.”
Al McDonald, former McKinsey Managing Director

Ok, ok… We are young MBAs without a lot of experience; the owner is a self-made man without any formal business education.
No big problem, we learn some more, read some more books and go back to implementation to execution…

Tough luck. It looks like we are not alone.

Everybody is good at planning and everybody fails at implementation.

“82% of Fortune 500 CEO's surveyed indicated that they feel their organization did an effective job of strategic planning. Only 14% of the same CEO's indicated that their organization did an effective job of implementing the strategy.”
Forbes Magazine

Why?
Because we watch TV
Because we read business journals
Because we read management books
Because we took an MBA

And all this create preconceived ideas

“Strategy is for C-level. Let the ‘Grunts’ handle execution.”
Lawrence Hrebiniak

The great glamorous strategic planning is for larger-than-life figure heads. They do strategy, vision… all the sexy things.
And the dull manager do the boring execution.
If one can make a GOOD plan any half brain manager will be able to implement it.

Right?

Strategy… come on…

Great strategists, give me a name.. Jack Welch right?

Jack Welch had a strategy? #1, #2, fix or sell… This a strategy? Surely that isn't a strategy, but a call to ACTION or else...

“We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.”
Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwestern Airlines

Let's see another strategies. And a very successful one:

“The last thing IBM needs now is a vision.”
Lou Gerstner

“The only way to whip an army is to go out and fight it.”
General Grant

So, boys go out and do some REAL work. Start EXECUTION!

PS: This is heavily indebted to Tom Peters post.

Stupid Idea of the Decade

2006-08-30T11:29:00.000+03:00

Tom Peters:

Managers do things right.
Leaders do the right thing.

PS: I'll be back on this.

Google vs. Yahoo! - Best Bucharest Map

2006-08-29T13:48:00.000+03:00

Update: Blogger eat my HREFs! Please copy and paste URLs in brackets. Thanks Sergey for pointing this out.

Take a look at Sergey Chernyshev (http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html#44.439998,26.1|5|2)page. At this zoom level we already lost Yahoo!.

Play a litle with zoom and see what Google maps can handle. Search for your home

May be you can see may car?

And think about it: those are freely available images. Wonder what military can see...

Vista price leaked - Forecast for Romania

2006-08-29T11:13:00.000+03:00

US$233 for a basic home edition? Auch! I wonder how much for the corporate edition.

I have to think seriously to replace some of my desktop operating systems.

Probably not for the power users, but I should really check some of the task stations.

Update: Found some more price points on Neowin.net blog:

Windows Vista Ultimate is listed at $499 Canadian which translates into
$450.36 in USD.

Home Premium is listed at $299 or $269.86 USD, Vista Ultimate Upgrade is
priced at $299 or $269.86 USD, while Home Premium Upgrade is $199 or $179.60
USD.

Some more info from ZDnet:

On the business side, Microsoft listed Windows Vista Business at a price
that equates to $341 in U.S. currency, 7 percent less than what Microsoft
charges in Canada for Windows XP Professional.

Ok, now back to Romania. Using the same method as Ed Bott (i.e. comparing Romanian and US prices on XP and appling the same precentage to Ed's prices on Vista) I expect Romanian list prices for Vista to be (in US dollars):

Windows Vista Ultimate $379/$219

Windows Vista Business $292/$197

Windows Vista Home Premium $263/$159

Windows Vista Home Basic $219/$113

Happy shopping!

New Blog: Scifi & Fantasy Romania

2006-08-29T00:16:00.000+03:00

I started a new blog and I’ll move all science fiction post there.

My MBA - 999 steps from 1000

2006-08-25T23:31:00.000+03:00

Today my team hand in our final report. Next week, on 30th we have the presentation and that’s it!

Two very long years and finally I will finish my MBA program. I took an “in action program” and I kind of miss the weekends with my family.

PS: The site of the program is here. Not a very good program but one can still learn a lot.

In 2006, 70% of large Romanian companies reported an increase of 10% or more in IT budget

2006-08-24T17:26:00.000+03:00

Bucharest, Romania: 70% of Romania largest companies’ CIOs reported 10% or more increase of their 2006 budget in comparison with 2005. According to “Romanian CIO Agenda”, the annual CIO Survey for 2007, business budgets growth is expected to continue, but IT budgets increase is expected to slow down.

The “Romanian CIO Agenda” survey is based on answers from 21 top IT executives. The respondents managed an aggregated 2006 IT budgets of EURO 220 millions and their companies have and aggregated revenues of EURO 15 billion EURO.

The survey finds that Romanian top IT executives have bigger budgets, but with pressures to contribute more to enterprise growth and effectiveness.

According to the study the top CIO business priorities for 2006 are to improve business processes (top priority for 62% of CIOs); to attract, retain and grow customer relationships (selected by 48%) and to improve enterprise competitiveness (selected by 43%).

According to the survey the 2006 technology priorities will be: business intelligence applications (BI), business process management (BMP) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) upgrades. 62% of CIOs selected BI, 57% selected BMP, and 48% selected ERP. Very close to the top three is customer relationship management (CRM) with 43%.

For the 2007 and 2009, the trends continue but the survey makes an interesting reading, most notably regarding the need for revenue growth [that raises to second place in 2007] and faster innovation, shorter product/service cycles, [that raises to third place for 2009]. In 2009 technology priorities raises corporate performance management (CPM) to first place.

About CIO Council: CIO Council Romania is the only industry association representing the interests of corporate IT clients. Members are top IT executives from major companies like British American Tobacco, CEC, ALRO, ING Bank, National Bank of Romania, Nestle, Pepsi, Petrom, Posta Romana, Raiffeisen Bank, Rompetrol, Romtelecom, Selgros, Shell Gas, Tuborg, Vodafone Romania.

The main objective of CIO Council is to promote and protect interests of IT&C corporate clients.

CIO Council will address the challenges that CIOs face professionally, including the creation and use of IT&C to achieve our companies' business objectives, the development of technically capable staff, and the promotion of IT&C as a resource in Romania.

The Change Formula

2006-08-24T10:33:00.000+03:00

The Change Formula has been stated in a variety of ways by several writers on change. One of these writers, Michael Beer, in "Organizational Change and Development" expressed it as follows:

"The difficulty of creating readiness for change, may be thought of in terms of the cost of changing to organizational members. Change will occur only when these costs are outweighed by a number of factors which can create positive motivation to change. This relationship between positive forces which support change, and the cost of change, may be expressed in the following change formula.

Ch = D x M x P > C

Where:
Ch = Change
D = Dissatisfaction with the status quo
M = A new model for managing or organizing
P = A planned process for managing change
C = Cost of change to individuals and groups

The article presents another view on the change. One should take care of “vision”, “process”, and “discomfort”. I personally prefer the process view: “unfroze-move-refroze”. It allows me to view the change as a living process to as a “frozen” formula.

Competitive advantages and resources

2006-08-23T14:08:00.000+03:00

It is tempting to create a great strategy but one should be concerned about the possibility of implementing that strategy.
It is nothing fundamentally wrong in selecting a weak CA as long as management is aware of pros and cons. There is money to be made also in the weak CA on the short term. One may say that “in the long term we are all dead”.
Different strategies come with different resource requirements. We must identify the required resources and see the resources gaps. One can not implement a strategy without a clear plan about how to fill the resource gaps.

Good Communication That Blocks Learning

2006-08-23T14:03:00.000+03:00

Chris Argyris article reminds me of “Preserve the core/Change everything else” of Jim Collins. The article is about to instill a culture of discomfort. People should have the drive to move. The harmony in an organization is like “thermal death of the universe”: everything is stopped; no molecule or atom is moving. The harmony is the biggest enemy of an effective organization.

I am applying it everyday. In my organization, I maintain a certain degree of conflict. I encourage people to question each and every “sacred cow”. I encourage them to challenge every proposal and every decision including my own. Everybody knows he must fight for his ideas. Of course, the degree of conflict must be controlled. Personal attacks are strictly forbidden.

“Esprit du corps” must balance this perpetual conflict state. Everybody must feel like belonging to an elite organization, must be very proud of being part of the organization.

I know it is a difficult balancing act but is the only way I found to create an agile and alert organization.

2006-08-21T11:04:00.000+03:00

Software reliability

2006-08-19T10:11:00.000+03:00

One of the best quotes about software:

"Software can easily rate among the most poorly constructed, unreliable and
least maintainable technological artifacts ever invented by man -- with perhaps
the exception of Icarus' wings. "

People Motivation

2006-08-18T22:34:00.000+03:00

You have to check this Dilbert cartoon. Another PHB stroke of genius.

Cyber Fridge

2006-08-17T00:41:00.000+03:00

Gee, I always waited for the day when my mom will call me to put a service pack to her fridge. Oh, joy the day is here.

Knight in search for a cause

2006-08-17T00:33:00.000+03:00

With very few dragons and no “damsels in distress” modern knights faces a serious challenge: finding a challenge.

Pieter Hintjens is a happy knight: he found his challenge. Peter fights to retire the CAPS LOCK key.

Peter says: “And so I have launched CAPSoff, a campaign to change the world, one key at a time. We're going to start with the CAPS LOCK key, which is fat and useless and has no friends, so should be an easy target. Maybe after that we can gang up on the SysRq key.”

Yes, we have to change the world, and we have to start one-step at a time. And getting rid of CAPS LOKS key looks like a good, small starting point.

2006-08-16T23:41:00.000+03:00

Management and Public Administration

2006-08-10T15:02:00.000+03:00

I wonder how many moths (or days) would last a company managed like public administration before going bankrupt?

It looks like the last century of management research pass through public administration without leaving any traces. There are so many low-hanging fruits to be picked!

CIO & Romania

2006-08-07T17:47:00.000+03:00

I compared the web dynamics for CIO and Romania. For the general interest I use Google Labs Trends and for the blogs I use IceRocket.

While in web searches “Romania” tops “CIO” (see this page), in blog posts it is almost a draw: in the last 3 months there were 22,545 posts with CIO and 25,658 with Romania (see this page). Only a 14% difference!

I prefer to post only the link to queries, due to possible copyright issues with the original charts.

Politics And The English Language

2006-08-07T15:57:00.000+03:00

Thanks to Dragos Manac for pointing me to this excelent 1946 article of George Orwell: “Politics And The English Language”. Everything is still perfectly true. The article is the best short manual for the young writer.

Pygmalion effect

2006-08-07T15:18:00.000+03:00

In management there is a pair of theories: Theory X and theory Y

Theory X management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can. Because of this workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed.

Theory Y management assumes employees are ambitious, self-motivated, anxious to accept greater responsibility, and exercise self-control and self-direction. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work activities.

I have managed people for more than 12 years and in my opinion both theories are self-fulfilling prophecies.

If you believed in people they will reward you for your trust. I always said the people are "innocent unless proven guilty”. When I meet someone I start by trusting him and in 12 years of work experience I was very rarely wrong. It’s like your trust shape people behavior.

What you give is what you get.

GPS for Sony digital cameras

2006-08-04T16:32:00.000+03:00

I am a fan of various gadgets. Sony announced a cool gadget: a device that lets you plot your digital images to a map.

Quote from the press release:

“Using time and location recordings from Sony’s GPS-CS1 GPS device and the time stamp from a Sony digital still camera or camcorder, photo buffs can plot their digital images to a map and pinpoint exactly where they’ve been.
The 12-channel GPS unit is 3-½ inches long, weighs two ounces, and is sold with a carabineer to easily attach to a backpack or a belt loop.
[…]
To arrange your pictures geographically, import the logged data from the GPS device, using the supplied USB cable, and then download the digital images to a computer. The supplied GPS Image Tracker software synchronizes the images on your digital camera with the latitude, longitude and time readings from the GPS-CS1 device.

Once synchronized, your photos can become virtual push pins on an online map by activating the Picture Motion Browser software bundled with the latest Sony cameras and camcorders released after July. You can easily add new photos and coordinates to the mapping web site, courtesy of Google Maps, and showcase years of globe-trotting.”

I do have my shares of pictures (see some of my pictures here) I would like to put on the map. Combined with Google Earth it would be a great show for the family and friends.

Unlucky me, I have a Cannon camera, so I have to wait. :-(

Crap Circles

2006-08-03T12:56:00.000+03:00

I am still digging through old articles. I just found a “cool” one about presentations. I was published in November 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review.

The article is about never ending circles that are poisoning every presentation.

A short quote:

“[..] a Boston-based software company helpfully illustrates the stages of its application management life cycle. Through some trick of causality, termination leads to deployment. This may be a good model from a consultancy’s standpoint—when a client’s projects end, they start again—but if you’re paying the tab, you probably want the project to actually end when it’s terminated.”

And the picture:

Next time when you see a presentation guiding you in circles, stop for a second and ask if this really makes any sense.

As Gardiner Morse said:

“Though you’ve seen a million of these, you’ve probably never thought much about them. That’s because, like optical illusions, they play on your expectations and trick you into seeing something that isn’t there: If one arrow leads to the next, then of course the steps follow. But once you start examining these ubiquitous diagrams, you’ll be amazed by what you don’t see.“

Built to Flip

2006-08-01T13:20:00.000+03:00

For the readers of “Built to Last”, be sure to check Jim Collins’ article in Fast Company magazine.