The eWorld Radar

Are you amplifying the IT Value Chain?

There is a chain that runs from technology and people suppliers through the Procurement and HR functions respectively. It continues into the IT department and via the users to your organisation’s market.

Thus there are a number of actors involved in this IT value chain. They include:

• External recruiters.
• Business development staff of the IT service companies.
• HR staff.
• Procurement staff.
• Technologists.
• Users.

I would also add the IT function leadership and the senior executives associated with the organisation.

But value amplification means more than just sending the HR function a number of resumes that have the same buzzwords as those on the job specification. It means more than beating up suppliers to get the best price. It means more that having users who barely use the IT tools they are provided with because they have no real interest in ‘sweating’ them.

When this happens or worse, amplification turns into dampening. The CIO might be an easy target to blame when the investment in IT seems to deliver headaches more than anything else. And the CIO may be partially responsible but I would argue that anyone involved in the value chain has to take responsibility for this situation.

In many cases it is a lack of trust between adjoining parties in the chain. And this lack of trust in part is because many people along the chain lack both an ability to cultivate trust and a sufficiently mature understanding of IT to really add value.

With this in mind I have developed the eWorld Academy.

Take the test - Click here to see if you or your people need some game raising support.

Ade McCormack

The Inverse Peter Principle

You may be aware of the Peter Principle (more accurately a hypothesis) which suggests that people will continue to be promoted until they reach a position where they are in effect incompetent and thus do not rise further up the organisational hierarchy.

In the digital economy, this is unlikely to hold true because there will be no hierarchy. There will be experts and there will be those that align this expertise with what the market needs. The latter being an emerging 21^st century expertise domain.

This poses a problem if you are not an expert. In other words this is a problem for most of us.

Leaders who are used to setting the vision will be replaced by leaders who can infer the vision based on environmental factors including their access to expertise.

Managers who are paid to goad, charm and bully the workers into doing what is best for the company will no longer have a role where the workers are more motivated and passionate about what they do than any administrator.

Workers who operate in the traditional factory mode of doing the same stuff day in day out and whose thinking extends no further than lunch options will simply not be required. Unless they occupy niches in which there are no economies of scale on which to base the necessary investment in automation.

Thus career job number one is to reinvent ourselves as a genuine expert through acquiring the necessary skills and experiences. And to then alert the world to the new you. This may give rise to the digital economy Inverse Peter Principle, ie a race to genuine competence.

Ade McCormack

CIO Screw up Log

Some might say that this is the unofficial name for the help desk ticketing system. And to some extent they are right.

But screw up is an unkind phrase for a failure. But failure is a key element in self development. As mentioned in an earlier post, failure is crucial, mistakes are unacceptable.

I encourage CIOs to keep a log of anything that takes place during the day that doesn’t conclude in a positive manner. These might include:

• The mis-launch of a new IT service.
• The strained meeting with the CFO.
• The heated exchange with the key supplier.
• The new innovation budget allocated to the CMO, which includes a substantial allocation for technology spend (that is not under the CIO’s control).

All of these came about because of something the CIO didn’t do correctly. So rather than go on to make the same mistakes day after day, they need to be logged. Assigning severity scores to the log entries will provide the information needed to prioritise the CIO’s personal development.

If the CIO is unwilling to do this, then HR might take on this responsibility. The log can then be used as either a development tool or exhibit A in the firing process.

Ade McCormack

Performance – Perceived Emotional Cost

Most sales people know that the value they deliver is proportional to the perceived benefits. In most cases a bigger price has a value dampening effect. But most importantly, the greater the perceived emotional cost the less associated value the customer will perceive.

To be a successful worker in the industrial economy, you need to be compliant / low maintenance from a management perspective.

However in the digital economy, creativity trumps compliancy.

So it is expected that workers will be a management nightmare. This in turn means that the perceived benefits associated with you must shoot through the roof to offset this.

Mastery of your skills will of course help, but brand management is more important.

Ade McCormack

CIO: Money versus value

The economic downturn, coupled with knee-jerking CFOs, has put us all in a cost-focused frame of mind. Consequently we have taken our eye off the ball in respect of our real deliverable – value. Value can of course be delivered in the form of cost savings. Not just within the IT function but across the organisation. But the 'game changing' value comes from innovation.

So focusing on the money you don’t have is a mistake. It will simply lead to an impoverished mindset. Regardless of the economic hardship you face focus on delivering value. At the very least it moves you from victim status to empowered.

This blog was inspired by a very interesting post I have just read. Click here.