Surfing and IT Innovation

Thanks to a colleague for pointing me to a remarkable post by John Hagel entitled Innovating on the Edge of Big Waves.   Hagel explores the evolution of ‘big wave’ surfing - both from a perspective of the technology innovations (e.g., fibreglass, foam core, changeable stabilizing fins) and techniques (e.g., tow-in surfing, insights borrowed from wind [...]

Clues from Google for IT Circa 2017

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (WSJ, March 18, 2008, Business Technology page) published an interesting article, “Pleasing Google’s Tech-Savvy Staff.”  WSJ interviewed Google’s impressive CIO Douglas Merrill on “How do you run the IT department at a company whose employees are considered among the world’s most tech-savvy?”
I liked the piece for a couple of reasons.  First, [...]

Stage-Gate Development - An Example of a Level 2 Sticking Point

I posted from time-to-time on what I’ve called “sticking points” - how things that you had to do (e.g., practices, processes) to get from Level 1 Business-IT Maturity to Level 2 could trap you in Level 2 if you did not modify them, or in some cases, dispense with them entirely!  It’s not that they [...]

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, [...]

Improve or Innovate?

My last couple of posts have been on ITIL, where I presented my argument that approaches such as this (and CMMI) are necessary but not sufficient to take Business-IT Maturity to the next level.  They are necessary because they help build a solid foundation for IT operations and services.  They are insufficient because they typically [...]