Over a decade ago I was introduced to a book that had a major influence over my subsequent career. Strategic Planning for Information Systems by John Ward and Joe Peppard constructed a model of IT management driven by business outcome rather than technology. It's also one of the most impregnable books I've never finished. Ian's new book … Continue reading Book Review: Disrupt IT by Ian Cox
Achievements this week included: - helping eldest son to ride a bike - continued positive noises from the cuddly toy - a nice natter with Martin "boy he" Talks - interesting explorations with Richard and Tim (partly in Swindon) - getting things in place for the London Irish Centre - a fun afternoon at Connected … Continue reading Weeknote 186: connected business
In the way that only social networks allow, I got into a brief conversation this morning with Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and the person spearheading digital initiatives in the EU, and Martha Lane-Fox the digital entrepreneur. On Saturday it's International Women's Day, and Neelie tweeted: https://twitter.com/NeelieKroesEU/status/441501736147378176 My response was that, whilst … Continue reading Gender imbalance
News came out yesterday that the Visify service has been acquired by Yahoo!, and as a result is to be "sunsetted". By that, they mean turned off, shut down or stopped - take your pick. A dreadful metaphor, a software equivalent to "downsized", "right-sized" or "let go". Let's be honest, a sunset is something that … Continue reading Crap tech industry metaphors: 10 Sunsetting
The quarterly adjustments to the FTSE100 constituent members were announced today, and yet again we see the CEO community become a less socially-networked place. This is a phenomenon also seen at the last index review in December. The two new entrants to the top 100 companies, St James's Place Wealth Management and Barratt Developments, have … Continue reading FTSE100 March changes
There is news this week that retail giant (and flagbearer of alternative ownership models) John Lewis is launching its own tech accelerator initiative into what is an increasingly competitive market for helping companies with ideas. Having spent some time on the periphery of the Tech City hub in East London, it strikes me that this … Continue reading Outsourced innovation
Tomorrow I'm presenting at the 2014 Connected Business expo. If you can't be there, here's what I'll be taking about. If you are coming along, this will distinctly spoil the surprise... You can download the slides here.
The BBC's Horizon series had a cracking episode last week on the subject of How we make decisions. At the programme's core was an exploration of the work of Daniel Kahneman whose book Thinking, Fast and Slow makes a great deal more sense to me know. Kahneman's work identifies two sorts of thinking patterns that … Continue reading Recklessness
Achievements this week included: - delivering a great pitch with @AJPLaw - a fascinating consultation with a Harley Street expert (thankfully for professional rather than medical purposes) - further conversations about some office space - a few top-notch Twitter-led debates - finishing off my presentation for Connected Business next week - and topping it off with … Continue reading Weeknote 185: gaining ground
There is a wonderfully thoughtful piece that Richard Martin has published about change in organisations and our increasingly pseudo-scientific, Taylorist approaches to management in organisation that are to a great extent being driven by technology adoption. I chimed with almost all of what he wrote (and loved the borrowed phrase "I don't want to be … Continue reading People-led change
