Executive Advisory Program

CIO Types

I recently had forwarded to me a piece from Dimension Data. It was one of those marketing blurbs, highlighting their CTO. This is an excerpt:

Ettienne Reinecke, Chief Technology Officer, shares his thoughts on the recession, and the three types of CIOs <…>     CIO Type A is very conservative and works in organisations that do not understand the business value of IT;  he is expected to cut costs during a recession and, if there is to be any investment at all, is permitted to invest only in IT that will deliver more savings.     CIO Type B lives in a sort of middle ground, where the boardroom has some understanding of the business value that IT can add. So, while he’s is focused on both cutting costs and investing for further savings, he is also cleaning house and preparing his company’s systems for the new projects that will make their demands on those systems when the economy turns. <…>      CIO Type C sits at the boardroom table. And he sits at the boardroom table because the business has understood that business is about process and systems - and that the person who knows most about how those processes and systems should work optimally is the one who enables them through technology.     CIO Type C therefore has already gone through the cost cutting exercise – long before the recession hit. He invested for savings, long before the recession hit. And he cleaned house. Now, continuously, he’s investing to support the business’s strategy.     CIO Type C isn’t really a CIO any more. He’s the COO of IT, in charge of executing the strategic growth plan. His business will be ready for the upturn. His business will be one of the first to profit from the upturn. His business will have happy shareholders.

So the bottom line of his comments are that a CIO's success has more to do with the business’ perceptions and expectations of IT, rather than the CIO type.  It would be more appropriate to speak to this in terms of “types of organizations”, and recognize that the true CIO (type Z) knows how to manage with respect to his corporate culture, and has techniques to help companies move between the cultures.

Inherent in his analysis is that type C is best, while I would submit that there are companies that succeed (read: make a profit within the timeframe defined by the stakeholders) with all three types of companies.  So to paraphrase:

The best CIOs have the skill
to accept the things they cannot change;
courage to change the things they can;
and wisdom to know the difference

That all said, given the context of the article I am reminded of a joke:
Did you know there are three kinds of people in the world? Those that can do math and those that can’t.

What to do when waking out of an EA induced Coma...

Posted by Mike Rollings

Architects around the world are voicing their opinions about Gartner's press release regarding a “new approach for enterprise architecture”.  Caution is best for those who are new to architecture and think this is new.  Those that have been calling for change are not fooled.

Personally, I think Gartner finally woke up to the facts of life about EA (read my post Gartner wakes out of an EA induced coma...). Their seven properties show that they are just now realizing things that have not worked -- not just now, but for years!   “Gartner said that enterprise architects must be ready to embrace the inversion of control. Where in the past, they controlled all EA decision making, they must now accept that that business units demand more autonomy". Centralized, top-down, autocratic decision making never worked! EA is about influencing better decision making with a focus on business outcomes.    

But what do you do if you wake from an EA induced coma and want to turn things around?

To start, don't be fooled by new packaging on old ideas.  As Todd Biske points out in his post, "Do we really need a term for what many of us are already doing"? 

Second, get your head out of the sand.  Michelle Tripp points out, "Our world is changing. Beyond the obvious. Beyond the Obama. Beyond the recession and drama in the Middle East. Beyond cars that look like insects and phones that measure contractions and 10 year-olds that that know brands better than college professors. Things are really, truly different." Whether or not you agree with all Michelle offered in her post, the "6 Essential Skills for Exponential Times" are worthwhile to keep in mind. I have added my own twist for architects:

Rule-Breaking: Re-examine policies, standards and other rules. Make sure that they have a clear connection to business outcomes and things you truly want and need to govern. If rules are being broken it can signal outdated thinking and the need for something different. Real collaboration provides the ability to come to a common understanding -- maybe the existing rules are only important to you. It is time for transformation and the time to question assumptions. Assumptions, feelings of futility, and other phantoms reinforce status quo and are roadblocks to transformative discussions. Stagnation - the lack of innovation and agility - happens when you become married to your phantoms.

Entrepreneurial: Seeking out new opportunities is the essence of generating value. In the post "IT Value - We Reap What We Sow"I state that value of IT comes from being transparent about your business contribution. Burton Group client should also read Establishing and Maintaining Enterprise Architecture Momentum.

Self-Educating: Yes, it is important for a person to stretch their knowledge, but don't feel you have to be the font of all knowledge. Embrace varying ideas, collaborate vigorously and respectfully, assure that you tap into the variety of perspectives that exist. Architecture is an active sport and requires broad communication and collaboration to be successful. The problems and new thinking are discussed in Enterprise Architecture Is More than Engineering  and The Anatomy of Effective Enterprise Architecture.

Bonding: INFLUENCE! If you take one thing away it should be that the lack of influence is probably a main cause of your EA coma. As for facilitating the conversation -- If you focus on the problem, examine the decisions that need to be made and by whom, you have a greater chance of matching the way you describe the issue to the audience's context. Also, I have found that the more I understand how humans perceive, learn, and make memories that it opens new avenues to help organizations change behavior.  Behavior is at the center of transformation - societal, organizational and personal transformation. Burton Group clients should read Modeling Influence and Communications.

Revolutionary: Encourage transformation and new thinking. When the assumptions fundamentally shift, incremental improvement that addresses “change” is the less-able brother of transformation. I have discussed this in respect to transformation and cloud computing. If we truly intend cloud to revolutionize IT then it must be revolutionary. Beware of new stickers that suggest doing the same thing will give you a new result.

Visionary: Help your organization create its future. Alan Kay said "The best way to predict the future is to create it". Don't wait till GAME OVER! Get connected to business outcomes and understanding the dependencies, implications and constraints.  Be a leader, be a team player, participate and collaborate.

Want a new approach for enterprise architecture?  Read Burton Group's EA research (clients only):

• Enterprise Architecture Is More than Engineering   
• The Anatomy of Effective Enterprise Architecture
• Using Metrics Effectively: Proving and Improving the Business Value of IT
• Facing the Headwind: Good Ideas for Bad Times
• Real Transformation: Why IT Change Is Not Enough
• Moving Out: The Externalization of IT
• Measuring Enterprise Architecture Success
• Modeling Influence and Communications
• Presentation Techniques: The Power of Making a Point
• Establishing and Maintaining Enterprise Architecture Momentum

What I learned during my blogging hiatus: observation #3

I am posting a series of short “What I learned during my blogging hiatus” pieces that maybe be thought provoking, and an indication of what is on my mind…

#3 : Summer reading will never be the same

Three books that I have been alternating between this summer:  The classic (and plodding) Kurzweil’s '”The Singularity is Near”, the intriguing and challenging “The Future Arrived Yesterday” by Michael Malone, and the “Tyranny of Dead Ideas” by Matt Miller, a tome that could be the bible for liberals in Washington.

Singularity…: must reading for the computer cognoscenti.  Not something done in one sitting, but a touchstone that can be read in slurps.  A book that is not only challenging in thought and word, but probably coming true as we speak.

The Future …: Malone should have stopped at describing his thesis, and saved the implementation for another book.  This is groundbreaking in terms of how he captures what is happening in most corporations (and which most are resisting through legacy inertia alone). A must read for technologists AND Human Resource types.  But take his attempt at a detail redesign of the modern corporation with a fair amount of skepticism.

Tyranny…: Recommended in a recent talk at our Catalyst conference by The CEO of Citrix (Mark Templeton).  I found Mark to be engaging and authentic.  His wholehearted endorsement of this book betrays a core that must make his peers at the country club want to revoke his membership (not unlike corporate reaction to FDR in the 30s).  This is the definitive guide to the Obama presidency, without political compromises.

The latter book was an experiment for me; I did it on the Kindle reader on the iPhone. 

Not only did I find the experience a plus over having a book in my hand, it was easily readable, even better than "paper pages” (shorter snippets that could be consumed at a sitting, and easily retrieved for picking up where I left off or rereading an idea), totally convenient -  pocket size and perfect for planes, park benches, home.  Since this was on the iPhone, it wasn’t the real Kindle (which I suspect, may provide an even better experience).  But it was good enough for me.  I may still use the physical book for the occasional fireside read, but I can easily see how most of my future reads will be on the handheld kindle-like device.  The only downside (for me) was the eBook pricing.  I found the price for eBooks to be outrageous, considering that there is no middle man, no physical distribution (paper, shipping, trucks, stores, inventory).  The cost of “Tyranny” rivaled (and often was worse than) the price of the book at the bookstore.  I think that will be the leverage – once there is a large base of eBook/kindle readers, competition will see pricing drop to app-store like levels – 99 cents and up.  I only hope that day comes sooner rather than later; IMHO that is the only factor preventing an eBook Tsunami.

Kindle/eBooks.  The new generation of e-reading has achieved singularity, arrived yesterday, and is killing a dead idea.

Glory Days

A recent NY Times piece posited that the glory days for IT are over.

Digital Domain:  Are the Glory Days Long Gone for I.T.? 

There is no question that the flashy has now become mundane.  That IT in many ways is getting closer to facilities management than it is to biotech (another has been?), or green technology such as windmills (wow- flashy?) and tide power, etc. etc.  As the article pointed out, Siebel’s perception of the facts are suspect, but that doesn’t mean he is wrong, or prescient.

But wait.  IT is in green tech power systems, and it’s in information processing, and it’s in SCADA systems, and it’s in biotech, and…

So the real question is what do we mean by glory days, and what do we mean by mature, and what do we mean by IT, and how do we measure IT.  It is definitely not a technology question.

Will  IT growth (however measured) be more closely aligned with economic growth? 

It always has been.

Will IT growth be a multiplier of most other industries average growth?

It rarely has been.

Has IT use saturated most businesses? 

If it’s not close, it will be sometime soon.

Except for (maybe even for) vendors, is IT part of the mission, or something to help accomplish the mission of a company?  Clearly the latter.

So why wouldn’t we be at a stage where things are more mundane, and the use of technology more INTEGRATED with the business, hence growing at the same rate as the business is?

From a vendor perspective, it may be declining growth rates. 

But from a business end user perspective, I think we’re in the middle-age days…so if you think your glory days were your teens-20s, when you had growth spurts, acne, bad decisions, too many choices, and disposable (kid-less) income…more power to you.  But middle age is where the rubber really hits the road, the income/productivity years, and great usage is made of new and existing assets.  Yup.  That’s where we are in IT.

The best is yet to come for companies working on solving business problems (IT) rather than selling technology (IT vendors), but, like Siebel says, it won’t last forever.

The real question in my mind is whether IT spending, on average, will go down as a percentage of total spend for a company.  And I think that is harder to answer since some of that IT spend is now part of business spend, and not just in the IT department’s budget. 

We at Burton group call that externalization, and consumerization, and democratization…trends that should be at a core of any company’s IT strategy.

And that, as they say, is the rest of the story…

Gartner wakes out of an EA induced coma...

Posted by Mike Rollings

Here is a link to a press release about Gartner's “new approach for enterprise architecture”.  I think they finally woke up to the facts of life about EA.  Their seven properties show that they are just now realizing that centralized, top-down, autocratic decision making does not work.   “Gartner said that enterprise architects must be ready to embrace the inversion of control. Where in the past, they controlled all EA decision making, they must now accept that that business units demand more autonomy".

Did centralized, top-down, autocratic decision making ever work? NO!  EA is about influencing better decision making with a focus on business outcomes.
 
Each of the seven properties are realizations of things that have not worked -- not just now, but for years! (my commentary is in italics)
 
1. Non-deterministic – Effective enterprise architects always foster decentralized decision-making to enable innovation. 

2. Autonomous actors - Enterprise architects NEVER controlled all aspects of architecture.

3. Rule-bound actors - If enterprise architects provided detailed design specifications for all aspects of the EA, they became bogged down in boiling the ocean and were grossly ineffective.

4. Goal-oriented actors – Gartner still misses the point - being business outcome focused and having a clear view of the business operating model is the key.

5. Local Influences: EA has always required the facilitation of behavior change – especially when it comes to implementing EA on projects.  Enforcement is the route to failure and collaboration has led to success. BTW, this is why Burton Group looks to sociology and other disciplines to understand human adaptation and learning.

6. Dynamic or Adaptive Systems: Responsive to change – I think John Zachman has been saying this since the 60’s.

7. Resource-Constrained Environment: Did they just realize that we are in a recession?  Many are in need of transformation and doing more with what they have.
 
Thank you Gartner for validating my claim that prevailing wisdom about EA is washed up and the pursuit of building an EA admiration society is not the predominant goal of EA.  Thank you for further illustrating that living in a mythical world where EA is king is just dead wrong.

Want a new approach for enterprise architecture?  Read Burton Group's EA research (clients only):

• Enterprise Architecture Is More than Engineering   
• The Anatomy of Effective Enterprise Architecture
• Using Metrics Effectively: Proving and Improving the Business Value of IT
• Facing the Headwind: Good Ideas for Bad Times
• Real Transformation: Why IT Change Is Not Enough
• Moving Out: The Externalization of IT
• Measuring Enterprise Architecture Success
• Modeling Influence and Communications
• Presentation Techniques: The Power of Making a Point
• Establishing and Maintaining Enterprise Architecture Momentum

What I learned during my blogging hiatus: observation #2

I am posting a series of short “What I learned during my blogging hiatus” pieces that maybe be thought provoking, and an indication of what is on my mind….

#2: The Twit Olympics….

At the 2008 Catalyst Conference in San Diego I had a rant about information overload, especially Twitter.  Just more noise on the Information Highway.  Besides inane status messages, what use could there be for twitter? Think Clifford Stoll’s “Silicon Snake Oil”from the 90s.  Part of the audience vehemently agreed, part threw tomatoes.

Well, I found a use case at a few conferences in 2009, including our own Catalyst conference.

Catalyst has multiple sessions happening simultaneously, and while sitting in one session, it is enormously helpful to hear people’s comments, real-time, about the other sessions.  Sure, they are biased comments, and filtered by the twitter-leaders, but engaging.  Snippets of synapse-catching quotes were particularly enticing like  “< this speaker> says that CIOs are like God…” .  As a CIO, I found that particularly intriguing  (although my career has been to bring more of a collaborative approach to management).

In one conference (not Catalyst), twitter posts would actually be scrolling on the screen (think Fox News) as the speaker was speaking.  That may be a bit distracting, but an interesting experiment.

Not only would one get brief status messages from other sessions, watching the Twitter feed led to interesting hallway conversations, and getting plugged into “the buzz”.   Iran was a geo-political use case for Twitter.  Catalyst, and other conferences, was a more targeted use case.  The implications (intended and unintended) are in the embryonic phase…

What I learned during my blogging hiatus: observation #1

It’s been a while since I blogged – mostly due to the Catalyst conference and workload.  But in an attempt to get back in the swing of things, I’ll be posting a series of short “What I learned during my blogging hiatus” pieces that maybe be thought provoking, and an indication of what is on my mind….

#1: and the winner is….

Apple has the mobility market.  a choke point similar to Windows on the desktop in the 80s-90s (to present).

It has become clear, through conversations and interactions:

• Palm lost it; Treo is totally disregarded by even those who have tried it.  The only hold-ons are those are enamored of its legacy UI
• Windows/MS is out of the picture entirely.  Someone in Redmond was asleep at the switch.
• The G-phone has no traction except for geekdom. A lesson for the new Chrome OS?
• Blackberry is totally running on inertia, and IT support structures – which are evolving rapidly.
• Apple has, in a short time, gathered the kind of head of steam (through apps ( mostly),  and an excellent, innovative UI; their lead has monopoly power; watch for more regulatory intervention.
• Nokia, Samsung, etc.  Good luck. Edge players, at best.  The 4B strong human phone market is large enough it will support many smaller, targeted solutions – but it will be crumbs, and irrelevant to the enterprise..

There is a risk to the iPhone – mainly security and encryption and remote administration.  But it is one most organizations are willing to take, especially the senior staff of most of those firms.

It is a reign that will last at least 5-7 years, depending on pricing and further Apple innovation.  It is also changing how we interact – even shorter messages, limited typing, more twitter like, and mucho mucho multimedia. …and it will impact the laptop market.

Look around next time you are in a public space (train station, airport, park).  The near-majority of folks are on iPhones.  Those that aren’t rue the day they can be. And new iPhone apps are exacerbating the demand.