Podcast on Business-IT Maturity Model

 
I’m very proud that Tom Parish, host and audio producer for the excellent Enterprise Leadership web site, invited me to deliver a podcast on the Business-IT Maturity model.  Just click on the blue link above my photo, or right-click to download the mp3 file.
It was a great deal of fun to do - Tom asked [...]

Confluence and the Salmon Fisherman’s Secret

 My colleague Roy Youngman just pointed out to me what salmon fishermen already know - the best place to catch King Salmon (and other varieties) is at the confluence of rivers.  Turns out, where rivers come together, the conditions are ideal for salmon fishing.
I love the analogy - where the rivers of business and IT [...]

Business-IT Confluence

 
I’ve said before, I learn so much (perhaps most?) from my clients.  I’m out at Pebble Beach for one of BSG Alliance’s Senior Executive Summit meetings.  I’ve been presenting our research on Reaching Level 3 Business-IT Maturity.  Before my session, at the opening dinner, a client was asking me about my presentation, and as I [...]

Does Your IT Strategy Have a Purpose?

 
I always enjoy reading Idris Mootee’s blog Innovation Playground.  His latest post, “Does Your Business Strategy Have a Purpose” struck a chord.
To quote Idris, “purpose  is bigger than strategy. Way much bigger. At best, strategy is just a number of smart ideas to take advantage of a market opportunity or re-configuration of the value chain. [...]

Nicholas Carr on IT in 2018

 
Nicholas Carr tends to be nothing if not controversial!  In reality, his controversy often comes from his choice of headlines, rather than the arguments he makes underneath them (e.g., the infamous “IT Doesn’t Matter” piece).
His latest post is Alan Turing, cloud computing and IT’s future, and in the post you will find a link to [...]

The “Secrets” of Consulting: Principles as a Problem Solving Tool

 
I want to continue on this ’secrets of consulting’ thread, and deal with one particular tool - principles.  Over the years, in many different situations, I’ve found this to be a remarkably powerful tool for resolving problems, clarifying positions, and, in many cases, driving significant change in behaviors.
As a tool, Principles are both easy to understand, [...]

The “Secrets” of Consulting? No, but some nuggets of wisdom!

 
Over the years, among all the other stuff that piles up in our heads, a handful or two of “nuggets of wisdom” that are easily applied to real life, and, by and large, help solve problems.   One of the more influential books in my early to mid-career was Gerry Weinberg’s “Secrets of Consulting” - a [...]

Are Your Vendor Partners Holding You Back?

 
I’ve been talking lately to CIO’s about Business-IT Maturity as part of the Reaching Level 3 multi-company research I am leading.  A recurring theme has come up enough times for me to believe it’s not an aberration. 
Several CIO’s have said to me something along the lines of, “We have several major business partners (providers of hardware, [...]

Forget Maturity Models?

 
A colleague just pointed me to a ZapThink post last month entitled Forget Maturity Models−It’s time for an agility model.  It turns out the types of maturity model ZapThink would like us to forget are CMMI and any SOA maturity model.  They don’t specifically call out the Business-IT Maturity Model that has been a recurring [...]

Business-IT Maturity - Implications of Discontinuities

Yesterday I suggested a refinement to the single, continuous “S” curve Business-IT Maturity model, to one comprised of a series of “S” curves, with discontinuities between them.  I think the refinement is more than trivial, and certainly not simply cosmetic.  I’ve blogged before on the notion of Level 2 “sticking points.”   These are behaviors and [...]