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The 2012 Election is Over, But...

Even though the e-ink on the ballots is just beginning to dry, today alone I've already seen talk about a possible run for the Commander in Chief in 2016 by both Clinton and Ryan.   As I sit in Albany, NY in between meetings a block away from many state government buildings to type this, I am not shy about saying that I abhor politics and politicians in general.  But it's not them per se that bothers me as much as it is their utter lack of ability to deal with the biggest plagues this country has seen during the past 4 1/2 years since the great depression. Long Term Captial Gains In recent months, there was much ado about long term capital gains tax rates, which was hard to escape when people like Warren Buffet said (paraphrased) that there was something wrong when he's paying a lower effective tax rate than his administrative assistant.  And who can forget the ballyhoo surrounding Mitt Romney's tax returns, especially after it was revealed that his effective tax

A Tale of Tails

Every weekday morning, my family goes through the same routine:  I get up first and head downstairs for coffee; then our 4 year old wakes up and kicks my wife out of bed; at 8 am, I let the dog out back to relieve himself and get his morning meal ready while he is doing so; etc. This morning, I observed something rather fascinating about our dog's behavior.  Due to the layout of our house and the orientation of the back deck, when I let him back in he takes off like a rocket.  Because we have hardwood floors, he can't turn at that speed and has to take a very circuitous route to get to the kitchen where his breakfast awaits.  I found this amusing because this is not an uncommon behavior in the professional world either. Over the years, people often question what is more important:  design or execution .  I first encountered this seemingly philosophical (using that term very loosely) subject in college, where my professor in VLSI design stated unequivocally that a good desig

Staying Ahead of the Wave of Irrelevance

Nicholas Carr wrote in the May 2003 edition of the Harvard Business Review that " IT doesn't matter ."  (The full text of the article was provided online in 2007 by Mr. Carr if you wish to read it in its entirety.)  Recently, this article was resurrected for a discussion on LinkedIn after which input was solicited by the group of CIOs and senior IT people that were members of this particular group. Predictably, everyone said " yes, IT does matter! "  Well, almost everyone did: I was the lone contrarian, which is humorous considering that IT paid my bills for 18 years, and now that I'm involved with sales to IT groups it continues to do so albeit in a more circuitous fashion.  Am I biting the hand that feeds me? As a disclaimer, I had not read the article before this question was asked of the group nor had I read (although my management has been strongly hinting for over a year that I should) his book The Big Switch (link to Amazon).  You would think,

Personality Resonance

My grooming preferences are standard fare:  I shave my head; my facial hair is typically in a crescent moon shape (half goatee); my clothes are business casual leaning toward the "I look like I make more money than I do" look; etc.  Occasionally, I'll change the shape of my facial hair, but the rest typically does not vary much. "Where are you going with this," you ask. Last week, I had a meeting with the Global PMO group of a large medical device company.  On the morning of the meeting I explicitly decided to not shave my head.  In fact, I hadn't shaved it in a week and there was already close to 1/8" of an inch of growth. The questions that I am sure are burning in your minds are, "Why would I go against my normal preparation routine? And why are we still talking about grooming?" Although I run the risk of stereotyping, I knew that the group of people I would be meeting with were conservative in their demeanor.  This is partially due

The CIO - Technology-oriented Businessman or Business-oriented Technologist?

Recently, a question was asked:  should a CIO have a technology background? This, of course, sparked an intense yet cordial and respectful debate on what type of CIO is the most effective.   Some argued that having a technology background was essential because - "duh!" - the CIO is managing technology.  Others argued that technology means nothing without it being surgically delivered to meet one or more business initiatives.  Therefore, they continued, the technology knowledge by itself isn't as useful as an in-depth understanding of how the business operates so that it can most effectively make use of technology to further its goals. Let me ask this question of you:  does the paintbrush or the painter wielding the paintbrush actually paint a room? I'm being disingenuous of course because the question belies my bias toward the latter, but I cannot deny that the second argument above resonates more greatly with me than the first.  I am reminded, in fact, of a dis

The Executive Relationship (Part 3 of 3)

Recap In the last part of this topic, we discussed business strategy and how budgets are tied directly to total revenues.  Finally, we started to see why Operational Strategy is crucial to the overall success of the business.  In this final part, we will define exactly what Operational Strategy is, why it exists in the first place, look at the four types of activities that are important to the CIO as part of this.  Finally, we will wrap everything up with four words that describe how a CIO approaches their responsibilities from a macro level. Revenues vs. Budgets Remember the graph from part 2 that illustrated the relationship between revenues and budgets?  When I discussed the business budget, I wrapped up the subtopic by saying that the business essentially walks away after their initiatives have been implemented and the underlying technology has been rolled out into production.  The question is then raised:  who pays for the staff to manage that infrastructure and other

The Executive Relationship (Part 2 of 3)

Recap In the first part of this topic , I described my views on the impact you can have on your ability to successfully communicate value to a CIO if you approach it from an IT strategy perspective rather than a feature / functionality perspective.  This is the way a CIO thinks (and has staff that is responsible for making their vision become reality) so matching this modus operandi allows you to get past the barriers that they naturally have because they feel you cannot empathize with what they feel is important to their success. Before we can begin to understand IT strategy, however, a few concepts need to be defined.  Most of this is common sense, but you'll see how we build upon these later. The Real Purpose of IT A common, humorous statement goes something like this:  if you ask 10 [insert profession] the same question you'll get 10 different answers. This is especially true if you ask them what the role of IT is in the business - some will say "keep t

The Executive Relationship (Part 1 of 3)

Introduction When I made the transition to a sales role in 2005 after 18 years of sitting on "the other side of the table," I was part of a team that sold a single, highly technical product.  After some time had elapsed, I had a lot of trouble comprehending how a product that had immediately recognized value by the target user community also had such a high degree of difficulty getting a check to be signed. What I discovered started me on the journey from technologist looking at the business and trying to attach myself to anything that would allow me to demonstrate value to a businessman looking at technology as a means to accomplish one or more strategic goals.  Along the way, I began to understand that if you want to catch the ear of the person signing the check, you have to be able to demonstrate financial relevance.  After all, if they are going to spend $500,000 on your solution they are going to need to believe that they will get an equal or greater amount of quant

Long time no chat!

Ash Wednesday Today marks the beginning of the season of Lent for 2012 and, in the spirit of giving up something, I've decided to give up my apathy regarding this blog.   What happened to bring that about in the first place?  To be honest, I set unsustainable expectations for myself with respect to what I wrote here.  My original intention was for this place to be a commentary on one's approach to their business and career; after I ran out of ideas for that I pivoted on the concept and instead reported on what I thought were relevant business topics; finally, the amount of effort required to dig up interesting subject matter on a regular publishing schedule became more than I was able to dedicate.  So I shut down the blog. Why Now? My intention this time is to not have a purpose necessarily.  Instead, I will write about topics that I find interesting and trust that you will find them similarly interesting.  If my trust is well placed then you will cont