Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1383
December 3, 2015
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 12/3/2015
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of the “Future of CIO” blog - The collection of blog “Sum Up” to celebrate the holiday season.
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 12/3/2015 IT Governance as Fundamental Business Necessity: Governance is like steer-wheel (governance is "steer" in Greece), to ensure enterprise running in the right direction, and well head to the destination. Corporate governance is not only about governing operations and tactical efforts. It is or should be equally about governing the evolution of the company. Otherwise, the company, no matter how good the governance is, will fail because of a lack of vision and strategic direction. And IT governance is a subcomponent of corporate governance and a fundamental business necessity, how to manage it in an effective and holistic way?
IT Paradox: Should Creativity and Process go Hand in Hand? Today, organizations have to compete on a global scale and creativity is not only valuable from a products/service standpoint, but can also add efficiency or effectiveness to IT operations, improving business-IT communication, innovate business culture, and provide for outside-the-box problem-solving capability as well.
The First Step in Agile Transformation: Lots have been said about transition and transformation to agile. Most organizations are already using agile of some form or shape. However, the business level agile transformation is a continuous journey. Like chicken and egg story. Do you first start with cultural transformation or start with agile adoption? Agile transformation is an important step in digital transformation, from doing Agile to being agile, how to manage it in a more effective way?The Five Principles to Manage Digital Workforce: People are the most invaluable asset in the business, however, in many organizations, talent management, and performance management are dysfunctional, silo, quantity-driven and short-term focused, lack of holistic approaches to managing performance, innovation, culture, and talent more cohesively. So what are the set of principles to follow in managing today's digital workforce effectively?
IT Strategy-Execution Management: The strategy is the focal point of the “Future of CIO,” and the pillar of organizational existence, its design, structure, functions, vision, and mission. A real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach based on a diagnosis of a challenge. CIOs as business strategists: How do you manage strategy execution lifecycle effectively?Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Influence
A high-influential leader is positive, full of insight, and make a continuous delivery to convey the influence.
Every human being will make influences on the surrounding via his/her aura which is the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place. Influence is not only a critical leadership capability, but also a quality every digital professional needs to build, because digital is the age of people, every person has better opportunity to be a leader in his/her own domain. Here are the three questions to assess a person’s influence.
Are you a positive thinker? Positive thinking can move the mountain, it’s a critical trait in effective leadership and indispensable power to push the human world forward. Positive thinking is like the sunshine, brighten our surrounding, warm up one’s heart and mind; positive thinking means to be cautiously optimistic, to shape the world via positive will and freedom of choices. We have that choice each day to wake up to be positive or negative. the negative mind is mumbling around "it is impossible," but the positive mind is thriving to make impossible possible. The positive mind appreciates other's strength; the negative mind amplifies other's miner defect. The positive mind competes via uniqueness; the negative mind out beats others via unprofessionalism. The amount of energy expended for both is the same, but the results from the two are so different. Therefore, positive influences start from a positive mindset.
Do you have insight to make influence sustain? Leadership is an influence. However, positive influence is very temporary from a leader who lacks vision and cognition. Insightful leaders can make a deep influence because their unique observation and clear discernment can touch the heart, not only shape the mindset. The insightful leader or digital professional has the influential intelligence and ability to influence peers as they undertake a broad range of crucial decisions involving the issues as strategy, branding, technologic vision, finance, talent management, etc. A mindset could be called influential intelligence if it can discover the patterns or inter-relationship among all those disciplines to make influence sustain. Insight is the cognitive understanding gained via the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences. These processes are analyzed from different perspectives within different contexts. Therefore, leadership influence is not about how loud you can speak, but how profound you could think.
How do you amplify leadership influence? Digital leadership amplification is based on the color of the character. Focusing on leadership style alone to attract the followers is, at best, a short-lived adventure. True leadership is a reflection of who you are at the core, your real character, from the bottom of your heart. Leadership is complex, and although it has many facets, at its core, the foundation of leadership is the character. There is absolutely no denying that. Methodologically, amplification of influence works through continuous delivery. Compared to the previous leadership style, digital leadership can not be defined by a few spotlight moments, but through the continuous delivery. Day by day should be assessed with competence, performance, potential, business results, and culture fit for the role. Leadership must be anchored to a full professionalism also made of personal qualities such as, independent judgment, critical thinking, professionalism and sense of responsibility and balance through which it becomes possible to earn the role of wise and guiding the organization in which we work and the respect and trust of others. Amplifying influence is dependent on the active coping mechanisms that you use to survive and thrive in a given set of life conditions, and in order for you to add value to people you need to become more valuable. And in order to become more valuable, you need to grow yourself.
A high-influential leader and professional operate with the core principles: Authenticity, boldness, creativity, simplicity, and speed. They are authentic. They understand themselves and have a story to tell, they have an authentic leadership brand, they build on strengths, they are comfortable with themselves, they share their leadership philosophy, they build trust, they are positive, healthy and full of insight. An influential leader inspires and influences the team wholeheartedly to achieve the goal of the organization and develop you to your fullest potential. And a high-influential digital professional is positive, insightful and bring wisdom to the workplace. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Every human being will make influences on the surrounding via his/her aura which is the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place. Influence is not only a critical leadership capability, but also a quality every digital professional needs to build, because digital is the age of people, every person has better opportunity to be a leader in his/her own domain. Here are the three questions to assess a person’s influence.Are you a positive thinker? Positive thinking can move the mountain, it’s a critical trait in effective leadership and indispensable power to push the human world forward. Positive thinking is like the sunshine, brighten our surrounding, warm up one’s heart and mind; positive thinking means to be cautiously optimistic, to shape the world via positive will and freedom of choices. We have that choice each day to wake up to be positive or negative. the negative mind is mumbling around "it is impossible," but the positive mind is thriving to make impossible possible. The positive mind appreciates other's strength; the negative mind amplifies other's miner defect. The positive mind competes via uniqueness; the negative mind out beats others via unprofessionalism. The amount of energy expended for both is the same, but the results from the two are so different. Therefore, positive influences start from a positive mindset.
Do you have insight to make influence sustain? Leadership is an influence. However, positive influence is very temporary from a leader who lacks vision and cognition. Insightful leaders can make a deep influence because their unique observation and clear discernment can touch the heart, not only shape the mindset. The insightful leader or digital professional has the influential intelligence and ability to influence peers as they undertake a broad range of crucial decisions involving the issues as strategy, branding, technologic vision, finance, talent management, etc. A mindset could be called influential intelligence if it can discover the patterns or inter-relationship among all those disciplines to make influence sustain. Insight is the cognitive understanding gained via the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences. These processes are analyzed from different perspectives within different contexts. Therefore, leadership influence is not about how loud you can speak, but how profound you could think.
How do you amplify leadership influence? Digital leadership amplification is based on the color of the character. Focusing on leadership style alone to attract the followers is, at best, a short-lived adventure. True leadership is a reflection of who you are at the core, your real character, from the bottom of your heart. Leadership is complex, and although it has many facets, at its core, the foundation of leadership is the character. There is absolutely no denying that. Methodologically, amplification of influence works through continuous delivery. Compared to the previous leadership style, digital leadership can not be defined by a few spotlight moments, but through the continuous delivery. Day by day should be assessed with competence, performance, potential, business results, and culture fit for the role. Leadership must be anchored to a full professionalism also made of personal qualities such as, independent judgment, critical thinking, professionalism and sense of responsibility and balance through which it becomes possible to earn the role of wise and guiding the organization in which we work and the respect and trust of others. Amplifying influence is dependent on the active coping mechanisms that you use to survive and thrive in a given set of life conditions, and in order for you to add value to people you need to become more valuable. And in order to become more valuable, you need to grow yourself.A high-influential leader and professional operate with the core principles: Authenticity, boldness, creativity, simplicity, and speed. They are authentic. They understand themselves and have a story to tell, they have an authentic leadership brand, they build on strengths, they are comfortable with themselves, they share their leadership philosophy, they build trust, they are positive, healthy and full of insight. An influential leader inspires and influences the team wholeheartedly to achieve the goal of the organization and develop you to your fullest potential. And a high-influential digital professional is positive, insightful and bring wisdom to the workplace. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three Aspects to Run IT as an Innovation Engine
Running IT as an innovation engine needs to close three gaps: leadership gap, collaboration gap, and implementation gap.
At industrial era, the majority of IT organizations are perceived as a support and maintenance center by their business partners, with a lower level of maturity. Nowadays information is the lifeblood, and the emergent technology is more often the business disruptor. And due to the changing nature of information & technology, IT is always in the changing environment creating unexpected situations and requiring quick and appropriate responses based on the conditions, IT needs to run as an innovation engine and leading their companies’ digital transformation in a proactive way.
Leadership innovation: The spirit of the organization is from Top” ~Peter Drucker. One of the most appropriate titles of CIO is Chief Innovation Officer. CIOs generally have a greater opportunity to stand out and take a lead in driving innovation across their companies. Though every executive should make their voice heard on this front, have an opportunity and responsibility to participate in the innovation dialog and to come up with innovative ideas, most of the functions can make process innovation within their division. IT, on the other hand, has much more of an opportunity to enable incremental top-line and bottom-line value across the business, not just within IT, but cross-organizational scope; from innovation management perspective, the innovative leadership team should well mix the innovator personas: movers and shakers, thought leaders, critical thinkers, experimenters, reframers, set the right tone to inspire the new thinking and encourage the new way to do things and lead enterprise-wide innovation management.
Process Innovation: IT is at the unique position to oversight business process and set the right policy for their business’s technology and information usage. Therefore, IT also plays a critical role in business process innovation and strike the right balance between innovation and standardization. Standardization is inside-the-box (ITB), and Innovation is outside-the-box (OTB). Hence, organizations indeed need both, and, in fact, cannot realistically exist without a healthy balance of both. That balance, ought to actually be strongly in favor of standardization at the vast majority of the time! Think 80:20 rule here, although the golden ratio may vary based on the culture, capability and overall maturity of an organization. IT should enable business innovation with disciplines and the right tools (such as collaborative platform, analytics tools., etc) at the organizational scope. CIO is also at a unique position to align process, technology and people, from generating ideas on applying technology and data assets to drive value, the oversight is needed in managing innovation life cycle. Also, share those ideas with business colleagues in a non-threatening manner that will resonate with them.
Culture Innovation: Innovation is not just about technology, Innovation is not always equal to the latest gadget, it’s about people, culture, partnership, manners, etc. Isn't that what innovation is all about: do it better, differentiate yourself from your completion, run, grow and transform the business. So educate IT team on the business and encourage them to engage with business counterparts in a value-oriented manner. Building an environment where the only thing you get fired for is not asking hard questions. Often the most disruptive person is the one you want to harness, channel the energy, enthusiasm, and ideas. many legacy businesses come with a legacy mindset, the old way to do the things, lack three elements to spark innovation: vision, passion, and progression. Employees don’t have the sense of urgency to adapt to the changes or think differently (nonlinear or different angle). But an innovative culture encourages their people to see the old problems from every direction and find different solutions.
Running IT as an innovation engine needs to close three gaps: leadership gap, collaboration gap, and implementation gap. Develop a deep understanding of the business value chain, competitive landscape, business processes and capabilities, revenue models, P&L drivers, and balance sheet strengths and constraints. In many organizations, IT is the custodian of solutions and data assets that can be applied in new and different ways to generate massive business value that far exceeds what other functions can incrementally bring to the table. And an innovative IT is high-performing, high-capable, and high-mature to leapfrog their business’s digital transformation.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
At industrial era, the majority of IT organizations are perceived as a support and maintenance center by their business partners, with a lower level of maturity. Nowadays information is the lifeblood, and the emergent technology is more often the business disruptor. And due to the changing nature of information & technology, IT is always in the changing environment creating unexpected situations and requiring quick and appropriate responses based on the conditions, IT needs to run as an innovation engine and leading their companies’ digital transformation in a proactive way.
Leadership innovation: The spirit of the organization is from Top” ~Peter Drucker. One of the most appropriate titles of CIO is Chief Innovation Officer. CIOs generally have a greater opportunity to stand out and take a lead in driving innovation across their companies. Though every executive should make their voice heard on this front, have an opportunity and responsibility to participate in the innovation dialog and to come up with innovative ideas, most of the functions can make process innovation within their division. IT, on the other hand, has much more of an opportunity to enable incremental top-line and bottom-line value across the business, not just within IT, but cross-organizational scope; from innovation management perspective, the innovative leadership team should well mix the innovator personas: movers and shakers, thought leaders, critical thinkers, experimenters, reframers, set the right tone to inspire the new thinking and encourage the new way to do things and lead enterprise-wide innovation management.
Process Innovation: IT is at the unique position to oversight business process and set the right policy for their business’s technology and information usage. Therefore, IT also plays a critical role in business process innovation and strike the right balance between innovation and standardization. Standardization is inside-the-box (ITB), and Innovation is outside-the-box (OTB). Hence, organizations indeed need both, and, in fact, cannot realistically exist without a healthy balance of both. That balance, ought to actually be strongly in favor of standardization at the vast majority of the time! Think 80:20 rule here, although the golden ratio may vary based on the culture, capability and overall maturity of an organization. IT should enable business innovation with disciplines and the right tools (such as collaborative platform, analytics tools., etc) at the organizational scope. CIO is also at a unique position to align process, technology and people, from generating ideas on applying technology and data assets to drive value, the oversight is needed in managing innovation life cycle. Also, share those ideas with business colleagues in a non-threatening manner that will resonate with them.
Culture Innovation: Innovation is not just about technology, Innovation is not always equal to the latest gadget, it’s about people, culture, partnership, manners, etc. Isn't that what innovation is all about: do it better, differentiate yourself from your completion, run, grow and transform the business. So educate IT team on the business and encourage them to engage with business counterparts in a value-oriented manner. Building an environment where the only thing you get fired for is not asking hard questions. Often the most disruptive person is the one you want to harness, channel the energy, enthusiasm, and ideas. many legacy businesses come with a legacy mindset, the old way to do the things, lack three elements to spark innovation: vision, passion, and progression. Employees don’t have the sense of urgency to adapt to the changes or think differently (nonlinear or different angle). But an innovative culture encourages their people to see the old problems from every direction and find different solutions. Running IT as an innovation engine needs to close three gaps: leadership gap, collaboration gap, and implementation gap. Develop a deep understanding of the business value chain, competitive landscape, business processes and capabilities, revenue models, P&L drivers, and balance sheet strengths and constraints. In many organizations, IT is the custodian of solutions and data assets that can be applied in new and different ways to generate massive business value that far exceeds what other functions can incrementally bring to the table. And an innovative IT is high-performing, high-capable, and high-mature to leapfrog their business’s digital transformation.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
December 2, 2015
Digital CIO’s Agenda VIII: IT Strategy-Execution Management
Strategy execution is no longer linear steps, but an iterative continuum.
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom.
The strategy is the focal point of the “Future of CIO,” and the pillar of organizational existence, its design, structure, functions, vision, and mission. A real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach based on a diagnosis of a challenge. CIOs as business strategists: How do you manage strategy execution lifecycle effectively?
IT Strategy-Execution Management IT Strategy as an Integral Part of Business Strategy : The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! The objective of the IT strategy is not just to be aligned with business strategy, but the IT strategy is an integral part of business strategy. IT strategies, services, and solutions, absolutely need to be able to respond in an agile way and change themselves! In detail, how to craft a good strategy, and how to execute it effectively?
IT Strategy Planning Scenario: Preparing a strategic plan is important as it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. This direction must allow for economic, market or customer change and let business adapt swiftly. Alternatives and adaptation are the keywords to survival. To put another way, strategic planning simply answers the two questions: Where will you compete and what do you need to do to win? Now information and technology leads to disruptive innovation more often than not, so CIO as a strategist: What’s your strategy scenario?
Is IT Strategy Equal to Digital Strategy: The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! The current strategy making methodologies are out of date mainly because digitalization is driving unpredictability, demanding a more rapid strategy methodology that quickly can adjust to new market conditions. So how relevant is the Digital Strategy for the organizations today? And is IT strategy equal to digital strategy?
Do you have Enterprise-Wide Data/Information Strategy: Data is life blood in modern businesses today, however, from industry survey; a very real gap exists with just over one-third of respondents having an enterprise-wide information management strategy in place currently. What’s holding these organizations back from building out an enterprise-wide information management strategy? What’s needed to close the gap? Also keep in mind, data/information strategy needs to be the key element of the IT strategy, which is also an integral component of the overall corporate strategy.
CIO as Strategist: Is One Page Strategy Practical: For many organizations, the business strategy documents are “shelf-ware”, not shareware. Albert Einstein’s simplicity principle: Keep things as simple as possible but not simpler; should also be applied to strategy making, but is one-page strategy practical or too empty.
Five Key Factors in Strategy Execution. Strategy execution is difficult. A recent executive survey indicated that execution excellence was the number one challenge facing corporate leaders globally. Statistically, about two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel, and what are the key factors to lead the effectiveness of strategy execution?
How do you Measure Success of Strategy Execution Program?
The purpose of the strategy is obviously to enable the organization to reach its strategic objective or vision. So, to measure the strategic execution is about how well organizations actually reach that goal or vision. What are the multifaceted aspect or logical steps to measure the success of your strategy execution program?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.Digital Master Featured URLs:Digital Master Author Home PageDigital Master on Future of CIO BlogGoodreads Author’s Home PageDigital Master at FlipboardDigital Master at TwitterDigital Master on LinkedinDigital Master on Google BookDigital Master Introduction, Fun Quiz on SlideshareDigital Master Introduction on Youtube
Digital Master Online Order Links:Digital Master on AmazonDigital Master on B&NDigital Master on Apple iTunesDigital Master on LuLuDigital Master on Google BooksDigital Master on KOBODigital Master on FeedbooksDigital Master on BOLDigital Master Introduction on the Book Marketing Network
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. The strategy is the focal point of the “Future of CIO,” and the pillar of organizational existence, its design, structure, functions, vision, and mission. A real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach based on a diagnosis of a challenge. CIOs as business strategists: How do you manage strategy execution lifecycle effectively?
IT Strategy-Execution Management IT Strategy as an Integral Part of Business Strategy : The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! The objective of the IT strategy is not just to be aligned with business strategy, but the IT strategy is an integral part of business strategy. IT strategies, services, and solutions, absolutely need to be able to respond in an agile way and change themselves! In detail, how to craft a good strategy, and how to execute it effectively?
IT Strategy Planning Scenario: Preparing a strategic plan is important as it points the organization in a direction where it can maximize its value position and reap as many benefits as possible. This direction must allow for economic, market or customer change and let business adapt swiftly. Alternatives and adaptation are the keywords to survival. To put another way, strategic planning simply answers the two questions: Where will you compete and what do you need to do to win? Now information and technology leads to disruptive innovation more often than not, so CIO as a strategist: What’s your strategy scenario?
Is IT Strategy Equal to Digital Strategy: The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! The current strategy making methodologies are out of date mainly because digitalization is driving unpredictability, demanding a more rapid strategy methodology that quickly can adjust to new market conditions. So how relevant is the Digital Strategy for the organizations today? And is IT strategy equal to digital strategy?
Do you have Enterprise-Wide Data/Information Strategy: Data is life blood in modern businesses today, however, from industry survey; a very real gap exists with just over one-third of respondents having an enterprise-wide information management strategy in place currently. What’s holding these organizations back from building out an enterprise-wide information management strategy? What’s needed to close the gap? Also keep in mind, data/information strategy needs to be the key element of the IT strategy, which is also an integral component of the overall corporate strategy.
CIO as Strategist: Is One Page Strategy Practical: For many organizations, the business strategy documents are “shelf-ware”, not shareware. Albert Einstein’s simplicity principle: Keep things as simple as possible but not simpler; should also be applied to strategy making, but is one-page strategy practical or too empty.
Five Key Factors in Strategy Execution. Strategy execution is difficult. A recent executive survey indicated that execution excellence was the number one challenge facing corporate leaders globally. Statistically, about two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel, and what are the key factors to lead the effectiveness of strategy execution?
How do you Measure Success of Strategy Execution Program?
The purpose of the strategy is obviously to enable the organization to reach its strategic objective or vision. So, to measure the strategic execution is about how well organizations actually reach that goal or vision. What are the multifaceted aspect or logical steps to measure the success of your strategy execution program? Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.Digital Master Featured URLs:Digital Master Author Home PageDigital Master on Future of CIO BlogGoodreads Author’s Home PageDigital Master at FlipboardDigital Master at TwitterDigital Master on LinkedinDigital Master on Google BookDigital Master Introduction, Fun Quiz on SlideshareDigital Master Introduction on Youtube
Digital Master Online Order Links:Digital Master on AmazonDigital Master on B&NDigital Master on Apple iTunesDigital Master on LuLuDigital Master on Google BooksDigital Master on KOBODigital Master on FeedbooksDigital Master on BOLDigital Master Introduction on the Book Marketing Network
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three “O” Elements in Running a Digital IT
IT plays a pivotal role in orchestrating business’s digital transformation.
IT is at the cross road, how can IT organizations build solid value proposition, and moved up its maturity to become the game changer and digital business catalyst in their companies. Besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, triple “A”s - Automation, Analysis, and Agility, triple “C”s - Change, Collaboration, and Cloudification, triple “P”s - Principle, Process, and Performance, triple “E”s Enablement, Exploration, and Effectiveness & Efficiency, triple “V”s - Vision, Value, and Variety, triple “F”s - Fast, Flow, and Flexibility; triple "T" factors - Transformation, Transparency, and Talent Management; triple “S” factors: Strategy, Speed, and Simplicity; triple “D” factors - Data, DevOp, and Design; triple “Q”s - Quality, Quantity, and Questioning; triple “G”s - Gap minding, Governance, and Gauging Performance; triple “W”s -Workforce analytics, Water-Scrum-Fall hybrid model, and Wisdom management; triple “R”s - Re-imagining, Revenue-Driven, and Risk Management; triple “K”s - Knowledge Management, “KISS” Principle, and KPI, here we introduce three “O” factors in running a high-performing digital IT.
Orchestrating Digitalization: The CIOs have to master at conducting such a hybrid digital orchestra. The "conductor" has to lead the in-house musicians and has to take into account the time lag (a fraction of a second) of the orchestras on another continent. This looks more and more like the situation faced by business and other organizational leaders. They have to keep the in-house order, and must, simultaneously, coordinate with distant contributors; otherwise the "music" will jar the ears. So the role of a team/business leader is to orchestrate, not to manipulate, and the fact that he/she wouldn't be able to create a 'symphony' without the full participation of his/her team members. The conductor shall harmonize the symphony via effective governing approaches. The role of the CIO and its place in the governance chain is very mixed in different organizations. Somewhere in the governance chain ‘IT’ needs to be translated to ‘business.’ It is important for the CXOs to work with these roles in a business planning and support capacity to ensure that the information and IT services being delivered are what is needed for the business to play their music. In high mature organizations, IT governance is converging with business governance and CIOs successfully conduct the music of ‘balance’ to inspire innovation and enforce standards as well.
Optimization: IT management innately knows the top challenging problems and processes to slow down the speed and stifle innovations. But why don't more leaders make targeted time to review, examine, and adjust the processes and systems? A perception of high workloads can also lead to nonoptimal responses. Pausing to create a list to adjust via human workflow to process automation can be thoughtful and rewarding. Unfortunately often in IT there is the presumption of being able to do everything by yourself or with excel at the same old software. IT department is less open to trying new stuff because they think it is risky to leave the known for the unknown. It 'a process that must begin by the CIO (top-down) that forces IT optimization from his/her team to have realistic and reliable data in order to be able to decide. The pervasive digitalization or IT consumerism require the balance of “old experience” and “new way to do things,” the “learning and doing." Instead of just cost cutting, IT needs to have long term perspective of cost optimization via consolidation, modernization, and integration. Thinking outside the box though delivers far better results. First, the best time to lower legacy cost is at the time of the technology replacement or upgrade. Look for a replacement that offer the automation, orchestration or virtualization benefits. Increase visibility and transparency of the legacy environment through big data collection; this will provide insight into how to improve efficiency, reduce errors, and optimize costs.
Outside-in: Digital is the age of Customer-centricity. It is the era of consumerization of IT, IT organizations need to be more aware of how to empower users before they ask for it. There is a method, albeit a bit self-serving to those pushing it, called user-centric IT. It is the outside-in lenses to see IT management from customers' view, instead of just IT operation perspectives. IT's customers include both internal customers and external customers. The hard core of IT is becoming more and more ubiquitous and as a result, CIOs need to transform IT from a controller to a business enabler, from inside-out IT view to outside-in customer point of view, to empower users with the right tools and information to make decisions at the right time; IT also needs to be transformed from an order-taker to rule co-maker, not just fix the problems to keep the light on; but also set the governance principles, not rigid processes, to improve IT and overall business maturity for the long term.
IT continues to grow in importance to organizations, both operationally and as a competitive advantage, and it plays a pivotal role in orchestrating business’s digital transformation. IT mission is to serve customers and being customer-centric, that means both internal and external clients. IT also needs to relentlessly optimize business capabilities, processes, and cost, to manage business complexity and improve organizational agility, effectiveness, and maturity.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
IT is at the cross road, how can IT organizations build solid value proposition, and moved up its maturity to become the game changer and digital business catalyst in their companies. Besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, triple “A”s - Automation, Analysis, and Agility, triple “C”s - Change, Collaboration, and Cloudification, triple “P”s - Principle, Process, and Performance, triple “E”s Enablement, Exploration, and Effectiveness & Efficiency, triple “V”s - Vision, Value, and Variety, triple “F”s - Fast, Flow, and Flexibility; triple "T" factors - Transformation, Transparency, and Talent Management; triple “S” factors: Strategy, Speed, and Simplicity; triple “D” factors - Data, DevOp, and Design; triple “Q”s - Quality, Quantity, and Questioning; triple “G”s - Gap minding, Governance, and Gauging Performance; triple “W”s -Workforce analytics, Water-Scrum-Fall hybrid model, and Wisdom management; triple “R”s - Re-imagining, Revenue-Driven, and Risk Management; triple “K”s - Knowledge Management, “KISS” Principle, and KPI, here we introduce three “O” factors in running a high-performing digital IT.Orchestrating Digitalization: The CIOs have to master at conducting such a hybrid digital orchestra. The "conductor" has to lead the in-house musicians and has to take into account the time lag (a fraction of a second) of the orchestras on another continent. This looks more and more like the situation faced by business and other organizational leaders. They have to keep the in-house order, and must, simultaneously, coordinate with distant contributors; otherwise the "music" will jar the ears. So the role of a team/business leader is to orchestrate, not to manipulate, and the fact that he/she wouldn't be able to create a 'symphony' without the full participation of his/her team members. The conductor shall harmonize the symphony via effective governing approaches. The role of the CIO and its place in the governance chain is very mixed in different organizations. Somewhere in the governance chain ‘IT’ needs to be translated to ‘business.’ It is important for the CXOs to work with these roles in a business planning and support capacity to ensure that the information and IT services being delivered are what is needed for the business to play their music. In high mature organizations, IT governance is converging with business governance and CIOs successfully conduct the music of ‘balance’ to inspire innovation and enforce standards as well.
Optimization: IT management innately knows the top challenging problems and processes to slow down the speed and stifle innovations. But why don't more leaders make targeted time to review, examine, and adjust the processes and systems? A perception of high workloads can also lead to nonoptimal responses. Pausing to create a list to adjust via human workflow to process automation can be thoughtful and rewarding. Unfortunately often in IT there is the presumption of being able to do everything by yourself or with excel at the same old software. IT department is less open to trying new stuff because they think it is risky to leave the known for the unknown. It 'a process that must begin by the CIO (top-down) that forces IT optimization from his/her team to have realistic and reliable data in order to be able to decide. The pervasive digitalization or IT consumerism require the balance of “old experience” and “new way to do things,” the “learning and doing." Instead of just cost cutting, IT needs to have long term perspective of cost optimization via consolidation, modernization, and integration. Thinking outside the box though delivers far better results. First, the best time to lower legacy cost is at the time of the technology replacement or upgrade. Look for a replacement that offer the automation, orchestration or virtualization benefits. Increase visibility and transparency of the legacy environment through big data collection; this will provide insight into how to improve efficiency, reduce errors, and optimize costs.
Outside-in: Digital is the age of Customer-centricity. It is the era of consumerization of IT, IT organizations need to be more aware of how to empower users before they ask for it. There is a method, albeit a bit self-serving to those pushing it, called user-centric IT. It is the outside-in lenses to see IT management from customers' view, instead of just IT operation perspectives. IT's customers include both internal customers and external customers. The hard core of IT is becoming more and more ubiquitous and as a result, CIOs need to transform IT from a controller to a business enabler, from inside-out IT view to outside-in customer point of view, to empower users with the right tools and information to make decisions at the right time; IT also needs to be transformed from an order-taker to rule co-maker, not just fix the problems to keep the light on; but also set the governance principles, not rigid processes, to improve IT and overall business maturity for the long term. IT continues to grow in importance to organizations, both operationally and as a competitive advantage, and it plays a pivotal role in orchestrating business’s digital transformation. IT mission is to serve customers and being customer-centric, that means both internal and external clients. IT also needs to relentlessly optimize business capabilities, processes, and cost, to manage business complexity and improve organizational agility, effectiveness, and maturity.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three Ingredients in Great Leadership
Vision, intention, and wisdom need to be woven seamlessly to build great leadership.
As businesses and the world move deeper and deeper into the digital world of VUCA -volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, while company boundaries are blurred and the world is so hyper-connected, who leads whom? How can leaders make a positive influence and regain the trust of the society? How can they harness the creativity and passion of the workforce in pursuit of competitive advantage & unique difference in the global stage? What are the most important ingredients in great leadership?
Vision: Vision is to serve as a leadership enabler, to clear the path - whether that be the elimination of obstacles or to provide coaching and guidance. Visionary leadership navigates the organization forward and prepare effectively and efficiently to absorb and accept change in all its forms. In such organizations, change does not disrupt and interfere with business as usual; because they have abilities to evolve, adapt and innovate. Leaders have a vision and mission. The vision of leadership is to discover the potential people have, guide and support them on their way. They motivate people to do their best. It is a benefit for an organization when a leader is in a manager’s position. The vision of being a leader is being able to demonstrate that real leadership is not about how much power one can wield, but how much "power" one can delegate and still accomplish great things. Relinquishing power means trusting that your "followers" can accomplish much, knowing that you are one of them and not necessarily above them and that our interests are, hopefully, mutual and supporting of one another. Imagine empowering people around the world, inspiring integrated leadership, positive change and peace of mind today; creating a better quality of life and future for all.
Intention: Being a leader takes one to have a desire to do better than others while creating themselves a platform of influence in wherever they are. The intention of great leadership is to make positive influence without affecting anyone in any negative way. The intention of a good leader is to enable a leadership culture at all levels within your organization and beyond. At broader scope, the intention of leadership is to bridge the gaps and make a better world. Becoming a leader is a process of becoming your true authentic self in all that you are today. So rather than looking for examples of leaders out there, look within yourself and ask: Am I the person/leader I wish to see in the world? The intention is to be courageous enough to become an effectively humble leader. The intention for becoming a leader is to facilitate and encourage, as change is often an uncomfortable, yet necessary part of reaching and maintaining success. The intention of great leadership is to support effectiveness and achievement of final results, to ensure positive and inspiring working culture, to motivate and to lead more effectively.
Wisdom: Vision guides you through, intention motives you forward. Only wisdom can transcend leadership from good to great. The significant tasks of leaders are making decisions, wisdom has to do with the soundness of judgment. And the greatness of leadership often depends on how wise the leader make decisions. Wisdom mainly consists of having experience and yet knowing when to discard that experience, when you come across new knowledge - new frontiers to existing knowledge. Wisdom is a full set of learning, unlearning and relearning. Plus an open mind -wisdom is a function of knowing what you don't know and keeps curiosity to know more. We can say that great leaders failed many times and kept getting up. Persistence, tenacity, and conviction can lead to eventual greatness and has in many cases of great leaders. These are commendable qualities in a great leader.
Vision, intention, and wisdom need to be woven seamlessly to build great leadership. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to align your own actions and beliefs with your own vision and intention. Everyone wants to be persuasive when advocating their position. One needs to speak the language of the audience in order to reach them. This is why character and courage are so important to help one keep their eye on the goals; to view power only as a means to achieve and not an end in itself. The authenticity of your vision and intention is reflected in your action. Open mind, empathetic communication, modeling, enabling, supporting, humble correction and guidance in furtherance of the goal are all components of great leadership.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
As businesses and the world move deeper and deeper into the digital world of VUCA -volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, while company boundaries are blurred and the world is so hyper-connected, who leads whom? How can leaders make a positive influence and regain the trust of the society? How can they harness the creativity and passion of the workforce in pursuit of competitive advantage & unique difference in the global stage? What are the most important ingredients in great leadership?
Vision: Vision is to serve as a leadership enabler, to clear the path - whether that be the elimination of obstacles or to provide coaching and guidance. Visionary leadership navigates the organization forward and prepare effectively and efficiently to absorb and accept change in all its forms. In such organizations, change does not disrupt and interfere with business as usual; because they have abilities to evolve, adapt and innovate. Leaders have a vision and mission. The vision of leadership is to discover the potential people have, guide and support them on their way. They motivate people to do their best. It is a benefit for an organization when a leader is in a manager’s position. The vision of being a leader is being able to demonstrate that real leadership is not about how much power one can wield, but how much "power" one can delegate and still accomplish great things. Relinquishing power means trusting that your "followers" can accomplish much, knowing that you are one of them and not necessarily above them and that our interests are, hopefully, mutual and supporting of one another. Imagine empowering people around the world, inspiring integrated leadership, positive change and peace of mind today; creating a better quality of life and future for all.
Intention: Being a leader takes one to have a desire to do better than others while creating themselves a platform of influence in wherever they are. The intention of great leadership is to make positive influence without affecting anyone in any negative way. The intention of a good leader is to enable a leadership culture at all levels within your organization and beyond. At broader scope, the intention of leadership is to bridge the gaps and make a better world. Becoming a leader is a process of becoming your true authentic self in all that you are today. So rather than looking for examples of leaders out there, look within yourself and ask: Am I the person/leader I wish to see in the world? The intention is to be courageous enough to become an effectively humble leader. The intention for becoming a leader is to facilitate and encourage, as change is often an uncomfortable, yet necessary part of reaching and maintaining success. The intention of great leadership is to support effectiveness and achievement of final results, to ensure positive and inspiring working culture, to motivate and to lead more effectively.
Wisdom: Vision guides you through, intention motives you forward. Only wisdom can transcend leadership from good to great. The significant tasks of leaders are making decisions, wisdom has to do with the soundness of judgment. And the greatness of leadership often depends on how wise the leader make decisions. Wisdom mainly consists of having experience and yet knowing when to discard that experience, when you come across new knowledge - new frontiers to existing knowledge. Wisdom is a full set of learning, unlearning and relearning. Plus an open mind -wisdom is a function of knowing what you don't know and keeps curiosity to know more. We can say that great leaders failed many times and kept getting up. Persistence, tenacity, and conviction can lead to eventual greatness and has in many cases of great leaders. These are commendable qualities in a great leader.Vision, intention, and wisdom need to be woven seamlessly to build great leadership. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to align your own actions and beliefs with your own vision and intention. Everyone wants to be persuasive when advocating their position. One needs to speak the language of the audience in order to reach them. This is why character and courage are so important to help one keep their eye on the goals; to view power only as a means to achieve and not an end in itself. The authenticity of your vision and intention is reflected in your action. Open mind, empathetic communication, modeling, enabling, supporting, humble correction and guidance in furtherance of the goal are all components of great leadership.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
December 1, 2015
CIO’s Digital Agenda VII: Setting Principles to Run a High-Effective IT
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with about 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Principles are general rules and guidelines, intended to be enduring and seldom amended, that inform and support the way in which an organization sets about fulfilling its mission. The style of the principle should be short and recognizable. Its definition describes "what" the principle means in the language understood by stakeholders. The motivation describes "why" the principle is important to achieving the organizational mission. The implications describe "how" the principle changes behavior.
Setting Guiding Principles to Run a High-Effective Digital ITSeven IT Leadership Principles - First People – Then Process – Then Technology in that order. Develop and nurture a high-performing IT team.. Strive to be leaner and more business-focused.
How to Set Guiding Principles for an IT Organization? - Principles are statements of values. Things that define why one make a decision one way or another. These core decision values guide the behavior of individuals within an organization. Thus, guiding principles need to be defined as core decision values, "why we make decisions the way we do."
Is Agile a set of Principles or Practices? Agile originally started out as a revolution against rigid, dogmatic practices, but the ironic is that the way some people practice Agile has come full circle back to that rigid adherence to the mechanics of how practices are implemented and have lost sight of the original intent of Agile. So here is an interesting debate: Is agile a set of principles or practices?
IT Governance Principles: Is Simplicity the Key? A simple definition of IT Governance is how to manage IT - "… the leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure the organization’s IT sustains and extends the organization’s strategies and objectives." (Governance Institute). There is nothing simple about managing IT, you can wish the complexity away, but since the complexity is the result of human nature, wishing and achieving are two entirely different things. However, governing the delivery does not have to be too complex. So how to govern IT effectively, what are IT governance principles, is simplicity the key?
The Principles to Define KPIs. Key Performance Indicators are set based on how the company goal/objective, business units or project defines success. Each of these entities has the different experience, strengths, skills, people and resources available to them and would deploy their blueprint differently to achieve their strategic mission. It’s almost impossible to measure performance effectively unless the organization has a clearly defined business focus and narrow, specific target goal. What are the principles to define KPIs?
What's your # 1 Culture Change Principle? Culture is the collective mindset and corporate habit. Changing culture is just like to change one’s habit, it takes both discipline and persistence; besides practices, what are the key culture change principles?
The Five Principles to Manage Digital Workforce-People are the most invaluable asset in the business, however, in many organizations, talent management, and performance management are dysfunctional, silo, quantity-driven and short-term focused, lack of holistic approaches to managing performance, innovation, culture, and talent more cohesively. So what are the set of principles to follow in managing today's digital workforce effectively?Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify your voice, deepen your digital footprints, and match your way for human progression.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three “K”s in Running a Digital IT
IT needs to bring insight, speed, and flexibility to help manage business complexity more effectively.
There is an inherent conflict if IT views its primary objective as standardization, rationalization, and consolidation, but nowadays at the era of digitalization, IT also means innovation, integration, and intelligence, etc. Trust is the key, which means IT needs to behave more like an integral part of the business. Besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, triple “A”s - Automation, Analysis, and Agility, triple “C”s - Change, Collaboration, and Cloudification, triple “P”s - Principle, Process, and Performance, triple “E”s Enablement, Exploration, and Effectiveness & Efficiency, triple “V”s - Vision, Value, and Variety, triple “F”s - Fast, Flow, and Flexibility; triple "T" factors - Transformation, Transparency, and Talent Management; triple “S” factors: Strategy, Speed, and Simplicity; triple “D” factors - Data, DevOp, and Design; triple “Q”s - Quality, Quantity, and Questioning; triple “G”s - Gap minding, Governance, and Gauging Performance; triple “W”s -Workforce analytics, Water-Scrum-Fall hybrid model, and Wisdom management; triple “R”s - Re-imagining, Revenue-Driven, and Risk Management; here we introduce three “K” factors in running a high-performing digital IT.
Knowledge Management (KM): Knowledge Management is the discipline of exploiting information, people, processes, mindset and collective experience, thereof, that will lead to or support the development of new skills, innovation, and understanding which in turn improves business output or business requirement. IT is critical Knowledge Management enabler. IT is generally the tools (hardware, software) that are used to enable Knowledge Management. Think of the large volumes of data & Information captured within areas of the enterprise (Marketing, Sales, Product, Support, Legal, Finance, HR, etc.); think of all the collection, coordination, categorization, mappings, and meaning that is all derived from modern IT; think of the persistence, recollection, and constant movement of large volumes of what people know, in all directions. The greatest advancements in KM in the last half century, are "all" tied to advancements in technologies and how they're used. All the knowledge in the world will not do anything unless it happens to be followed as a process enabled by IT. In the same way, every process in the world of business without the appropriate enhancement of knowledge will become out of context and pointless.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Key Performance Indicators are indicators to identify if the adopted strategy, operation, and process, etc. is working toward the objective. As such, you don't "adopt" a KPI to "achieve an outcome," you adopt a strategy or operational workflow to achieve the outcome, and you define KPIs to monitor the progress and performance. That’s the name KPI –Key Performance Indicators stand for. Business should be able to define and align Operational KPIs to Strategic KPIs for successful tracking of the effectiveness of Strategic KPIs. The effective way to track the achievement of strategic goals is to cascade those down throughout the organization with the use of operational KPIs. It is imperative that you link lower level metrics with higher level strategic objectives. That’s what most of the strategy management methodologies are all about, for example, linking your key performance indicators to other performance indicators which should link all the way back to your transactional metrics found in your source systems. Selecting the right measure and measuring it right are both art and science. KPIs influence management behavior as well as business culture, and poorly designed or implemented KPIs can be very damaging the "culture of the team" and the quality of business execution.
“KISS” - Keep it Simple Principle: Simplicity brings speed, clarity, flexibility, and productivity. It instill a management culture within IT and drive it through the organization, consolidate, integrate and optimize IT asset accordingly. Certainly the KISS principle (Keep it simple stupid!) is one to follow wherever possible. In a corporate world, you will find the attitude of complicating things in systems and procedures and people love to hang on to the complications and express how they are experts in dealing with complications. Logically, simplifying the complicated thing is an optimal and smart choice. Overcoming complication and managing complexity become one of the biggest challenges in business today. Excessive IT complexity limits innovation and historical lack of success in IT project compounds the situation. To break the mold, IT needs to rethink itself as an innovative and business leading organization composed not only of technical ‘gurus’ but rather of business ‘gurus’ who also happen to be technically proficient..
Although by nature technology is complex, IT needs to bring insight, speed, and flexibility to help manage business complexity more effectively. Business needs IT to provide better information and sufficient knowledge to achieve improved profitability, IT provides a nervous system to the business. IT also needs to measure the right things and measure them right, always keep the end in mind - to improve the business’ bottom line and top line growth.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
There is an inherent conflict if IT views its primary objective as standardization, rationalization, and consolidation, but nowadays at the era of digitalization, IT also means innovation, integration, and intelligence, etc. Trust is the key, which means IT needs to behave more like an integral part of the business. Besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, triple “A”s - Automation, Analysis, and Agility, triple “C”s - Change, Collaboration, and Cloudification, triple “P”s - Principle, Process, and Performance, triple “E”s Enablement, Exploration, and Effectiveness & Efficiency, triple “V”s - Vision, Value, and Variety, triple “F”s - Fast, Flow, and Flexibility; triple "T" factors - Transformation, Transparency, and Talent Management; triple “S” factors: Strategy, Speed, and Simplicity; triple “D” factors - Data, DevOp, and Design; triple “Q”s - Quality, Quantity, and Questioning; triple “G”s - Gap minding, Governance, and Gauging Performance; triple “W”s -Workforce analytics, Water-Scrum-Fall hybrid model, and Wisdom management; triple “R”s - Re-imagining, Revenue-Driven, and Risk Management; here we introduce three “K” factors in running a high-performing digital IT.Knowledge Management (KM): Knowledge Management is the discipline of exploiting information, people, processes, mindset and collective experience, thereof, that will lead to or support the development of new skills, innovation, and understanding which in turn improves business output or business requirement. IT is critical Knowledge Management enabler. IT is generally the tools (hardware, software) that are used to enable Knowledge Management. Think of the large volumes of data & Information captured within areas of the enterprise (Marketing, Sales, Product, Support, Legal, Finance, HR, etc.); think of all the collection, coordination, categorization, mappings, and meaning that is all derived from modern IT; think of the persistence, recollection, and constant movement of large volumes of what people know, in all directions. The greatest advancements in KM in the last half century, are "all" tied to advancements in technologies and how they're used. All the knowledge in the world will not do anything unless it happens to be followed as a process enabled by IT. In the same way, every process in the world of business without the appropriate enhancement of knowledge will become out of context and pointless.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Key Performance Indicators are indicators to identify if the adopted strategy, operation, and process, etc. is working toward the objective. As such, you don't "adopt" a KPI to "achieve an outcome," you adopt a strategy or operational workflow to achieve the outcome, and you define KPIs to monitor the progress and performance. That’s the name KPI –Key Performance Indicators stand for. Business should be able to define and align Operational KPIs to Strategic KPIs for successful tracking of the effectiveness of Strategic KPIs. The effective way to track the achievement of strategic goals is to cascade those down throughout the organization with the use of operational KPIs. It is imperative that you link lower level metrics with higher level strategic objectives. That’s what most of the strategy management methodologies are all about, for example, linking your key performance indicators to other performance indicators which should link all the way back to your transactional metrics found in your source systems. Selecting the right measure and measuring it right are both art and science. KPIs influence management behavior as well as business culture, and poorly designed or implemented KPIs can be very damaging the "culture of the team" and the quality of business execution.
“KISS” - Keep it Simple Principle: Simplicity brings speed, clarity, flexibility, and productivity. It instill a management culture within IT and drive it through the organization, consolidate, integrate and optimize IT asset accordingly. Certainly the KISS principle (Keep it simple stupid!) is one to follow wherever possible. In a corporate world, you will find the attitude of complicating things in systems and procedures and people love to hang on to the complications and express how they are experts in dealing with complications. Logically, simplifying the complicated thing is an optimal and smart choice. Overcoming complication and managing complexity become one of the biggest challenges in business today. Excessive IT complexity limits innovation and historical lack of success in IT project compounds the situation. To break the mold, IT needs to rethink itself as an innovative and business leading organization composed not only of technical ‘gurus’ but rather of business ‘gurus’ who also happen to be technically proficient..Although by nature technology is complex, IT needs to bring insight, speed, and flexibility to help manage business complexity more effectively. Business needs IT to provide better information and sufficient knowledge to achieve improved profitability, IT provides a nervous system to the business. IT also needs to measure the right things and measure them right, always keep the end in mind - to improve the business’ bottom line and top line growth.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Innovation as a Strategic Capability
Innovation is a unique business capability to reinvent business, but not to reinvent the wheels.
Innovation becomes simply "creating value by solving simple or complex problems." Today, innovation can happen anywhere, anytime; it expands both horizontally and vertically. It’s the state of mind to think and do things from a new angle, it’s the business’s unique capabilities to gain a competitive advantage in the face of fierce competition and business dynamic. Generally speaking, innovation is to connect à solution to an unmet need, usually creating a win-win situation for both parties in term of value creation.
Innovation is one main instrument to implement your company´s strategy. If you really innovate, you will differentiate your company at the same time. Innovation is costly most of the time. That is why you should really concentrate innovation on the main issues of your strategy. As you innovate, you might find helpful changes to your strategy. Innovation is similar to as "the sum is larger than its parts." At today's modern organizations, it is essential for developing a company strategy that encourages realistic innovations which will prove successful in the market. From leadership/management perspective, creativity is a basic competency for leaders and managers. Creativity requires thinking, imagination, and planning. Innovative thinking turns ideas into action, put creativity to work, craft innovation as a strategic capability, and develop strategies for innovation.
The word innovation can be described as a join of two keywords "in" and "novation." The “novations” are described as the act of either: replacing an obligation to perform with another obligation, or adding an obligation to perform; or replacing a party to an agreement with a new party. So being innovative is being in “novation”! Innovation involves people at all levels and they are the ones that innovate- the primary "actor." Process underpins business capabilities, and innovation is a unique business capability. Processes are just series of tasks which may or may not be innovative, therefore, they should be mainly about system or common cause variation rather than special cause variation.
The output from the process is innovation. Innovation has more enriched context today than ever: Innovation is how to transforms novel idea or knowledge into business value. The output from the process is the innovation. The exercise of deciding just what innovation is within each organization IS the single most critical activity of an innovation effort. Because how an organization orchestrates to generate ideas, manages the activities, measures the results, etc. is determined by how that organization has decided to craft the innovation effort. There are many areas within a company where the innovation process can be applied to create value, from communication innovation to culture innovation, from process innovation to business model innovation; from product innovation to service innovation, the innovation context goes beyond the traditional scope, and innovation is not just your R&D department's business anymore, it is an ongoing business capability.
Innovation is a unique business capability to reinvent business, but not to reinvent the wheels. Innovation is about reinventing the business direction and purpose at any time. It defines strategy, profitability and relevance at any given time. If you do not, you become commoditized and just like so many others who offer the same product or service. Innovation allows one to stand out and above the rest.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Innovation becomes simply "creating value by solving simple or complex problems." Today, innovation can happen anywhere, anytime; it expands both horizontally and vertically. It’s the state of mind to think and do things from a new angle, it’s the business’s unique capabilities to gain a competitive advantage in the face of fierce competition and business dynamic. Generally speaking, innovation is to connect à solution to an unmet need, usually creating a win-win situation for both parties in term of value creation.
Innovation is one main instrument to implement your company´s strategy. If you really innovate, you will differentiate your company at the same time. Innovation is costly most of the time. That is why you should really concentrate innovation on the main issues of your strategy. As you innovate, you might find helpful changes to your strategy. Innovation is similar to as "the sum is larger than its parts." At today's modern organizations, it is essential for developing a company strategy that encourages realistic innovations which will prove successful in the market. From leadership/management perspective, creativity is a basic competency for leaders and managers. Creativity requires thinking, imagination, and planning. Innovative thinking turns ideas into action, put creativity to work, craft innovation as a strategic capability, and develop strategies for innovation.
The word innovation can be described as a join of two keywords "in" and "novation." The “novations” are described as the act of either: replacing an obligation to perform with another obligation, or adding an obligation to perform; or replacing a party to an agreement with a new party. So being innovative is being in “novation”! Innovation involves people at all levels and they are the ones that innovate- the primary "actor." Process underpins business capabilities, and innovation is a unique business capability. Processes are just series of tasks which may or may not be innovative, therefore, they should be mainly about system or common cause variation rather than special cause variation.
The output from the process is innovation. Innovation has more enriched context today than ever: Innovation is how to transforms novel idea or knowledge into business value. The output from the process is the innovation. The exercise of deciding just what innovation is within each organization IS the single most critical activity of an innovation effort. Because how an organization orchestrates to generate ideas, manages the activities, measures the results, etc. is determined by how that organization has decided to craft the innovation effort. There are many areas within a company where the innovation process can be applied to create value, from communication innovation to culture innovation, from process innovation to business model innovation; from product innovation to service innovation, the innovation context goes beyond the traditional scope, and innovation is not just your R&D department's business anymore, it is an ongoing business capability.
Innovation is a unique business capability to reinvent business, but not to reinvent the wheels. Innovation is about reinventing the business direction and purpose at any time. It defines strategy, profitability and relevance at any given time. If you do not, you become commoditized and just like so many others who offer the same product or service. Innovation allows one to stand out and above the rest.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
November 30, 2015
The Talent Management Brief of the “Future of CIO” Nov. 2015
Make qualitative assessment about character, mindsets, potential, multidimensional intelligence and culture effect.
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with 2370+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom, to inspire critical thinking and spur healthy debates.
People are always the most invaluable asset in businesses. “Hiring the right person to the right position at the right time,” is the mantra of many forward-thinking organizations. The question is how would you define the right people? How do you define wrong, average, mediocre, good, great or extraordinary person? Or put simply, for what should they be right? How to fill skill gaps by setting the principles and taking practices to manage talent more scientifically?
IT Talent Management Brief Nov. 2015IT Skills Gap According to industry surveys, IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today, what are exactly the skills gaps and what are the resulting symptoms? For example, business have job openings, but cannot find people with the right skill set; or the talent they current have do not have the right competencies to adapt to the changes; or their business partners do not understand IT. Sometimes, the gaps people usually pick are not root causes they are symptoms of specific best practices not being used. So what are the organizational best practices/ways that have been deployed to close the gap?
How to Attract, Develop & Retain the best IT Talent? Talent development and management are perhaps one of the most critical practices in business today, and developing & retaining IT talent is even more challenging due to the CHANGE nature of IT, the smartness and sensitivity of IT workers, the complexity of multi-generational, multicultural, and multi-tasking workforce, only insightful leaders can tackle it with mindfulness and skills.Data-Driven Talent Management. Information is the lifeblood of digital business, and makes an impact upon all different aspects of business, especially in talent management space, as people are the most invaluable asset in business, rather than following traditional subjective HR model, forward-looking organizations shall experiment, develop and mature data-driven talent management for leaping through digital transformation.
The Principles and Practices to Encourage Creativity As businesses get more cut-throat in the face of fierce competitions and unprecedented changes, this puts stress on the labor force that is not conducive to creative, experimental thinking. As a business leader, what are the common solutions to encourage creativity? Will you allow people to make mistakes? Spend time on something with no guarantee of ROIs? Work on what interests them? Which type of work activities, roles, industries, require great deals of creativity? How do you, as leaders involve all people in creative thinking and actions? And how can you help improve the harvest of the creative seeds? Doesn't the real solution to innovation, creativity begin with inquiry? Would it not be prudent to focus on ensuring all levels of the organization are well founded on asking learning questions?
Digital Talent Management Next Practice: Character and Mindset Assessment. Talent performance and potential assessment and management are critical for business’s long-term success because people are always the most invaluable asset in business. However, the traditional performance management approaches more focus on measuring behaviors and the quantitative result, with ignorance of qualitative assessment about character, mindsets, potential, multidimensional intelligence and culture effect. In order to manage people as human capital, rather than just cost or resources, talent managers need to do self-checking: For what purpose are you assessing mindsets? For selection? For promotion? For leadership development? Is it job-related and relevant? does it really matter for what purpose you're assessing? Can you measure a person’s character or mindsets (the varying thought processes)? Can the purpose be an excuse for higher or lower qualitative capability of the assessor? Or put simply, how to take more objective and innovative approaches to measuring talent as deep as in mind level and as profound as at character base?
Talent Management Next Practice #2: "Hiring for Digital Minds" “Hiring for Minds” is the extended and detailed next practice of “Hiring for Character,” "Hiring for Attitude" and “Hiring for Potential” philosophy and methodology. Many hiring managers aren't comfortable with evaluating “mindset,” or just lack the skills to evaluate it properly, and instead they rely on the answers the candidate gives to the more concrete skills inquiries. However, the mind is the innovation engine of any human progress, but also the root cause of almost all human problems. So more specifically, how can managers leverage talent assessment methodology and tools, talent development plans and practices to evaluate and build the right sets of digital minds, capabilities, and skills in order to compete for the future?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with 2370+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom, to inspire critical thinking and spur healthy debates.
People are always the most invaluable asset in businesses. “Hiring the right person to the right position at the right time,” is the mantra of many forward-thinking organizations. The question is how would you define the right people? How do you define wrong, average, mediocre, good, great or extraordinary person? Or put simply, for what should they be right? How to fill skill gaps by setting the principles and taking practices to manage talent more scientifically?
IT Talent Management Brief Nov. 2015IT Skills Gap According to industry surveys, IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today, what are exactly the skills gaps and what are the resulting symptoms? For example, business have job openings, but cannot find people with the right skill set; or the talent they current have do not have the right competencies to adapt to the changes; or their business partners do not understand IT. Sometimes, the gaps people usually pick are not root causes they are symptoms of specific best practices not being used. So what are the organizational best practices/ways that have been deployed to close the gap?
How to Attract, Develop & Retain the best IT Talent? Talent development and management are perhaps one of the most critical practices in business today, and developing & retaining IT talent is even more challenging due to the CHANGE nature of IT, the smartness and sensitivity of IT workers, the complexity of multi-generational, multicultural, and multi-tasking workforce, only insightful leaders can tackle it with mindfulness and skills.Data-Driven Talent Management. Information is the lifeblood of digital business, and makes an impact upon all different aspects of business, especially in talent management space, as people are the most invaluable asset in business, rather than following traditional subjective HR model, forward-looking organizations shall experiment, develop and mature data-driven talent management for leaping through digital transformation.
The Principles and Practices to Encourage Creativity As businesses get more cut-throat in the face of fierce competitions and unprecedented changes, this puts stress on the labor force that is not conducive to creative, experimental thinking. As a business leader, what are the common solutions to encourage creativity? Will you allow people to make mistakes? Spend time on something with no guarantee of ROIs? Work on what interests them? Which type of work activities, roles, industries, require great deals of creativity? How do you, as leaders involve all people in creative thinking and actions? And how can you help improve the harvest of the creative seeds? Doesn't the real solution to innovation, creativity begin with inquiry? Would it not be prudent to focus on ensuring all levels of the organization are well founded on asking learning questions?
Digital Talent Management Next Practice: Character and Mindset Assessment. Talent performance and potential assessment and management are critical for business’s long-term success because people are always the most invaluable asset in business. However, the traditional performance management approaches more focus on measuring behaviors and the quantitative result, with ignorance of qualitative assessment about character, mindsets, potential, multidimensional intelligence and culture effect. In order to manage people as human capital, rather than just cost or resources, talent managers need to do self-checking: For what purpose are you assessing mindsets? For selection? For promotion? For leadership development? Is it job-related and relevant? does it really matter for what purpose you're assessing? Can you measure a person’s character or mindsets (the varying thought processes)? Can the purpose be an excuse for higher or lower qualitative capability of the assessor? Or put simply, how to take more objective and innovative approaches to measuring talent as deep as in mind level and as profound as at character base?Talent Management Next Practice #2: "Hiring for Digital Minds" “Hiring for Minds” is the extended and detailed next practice of “Hiring for Character,” "Hiring for Attitude" and “Hiring for Potential” philosophy and methodology. Many hiring managers aren't comfortable with evaluating “mindset,” or just lack the skills to evaluate it properly, and instead they rely on the answers the candidate gives to the more concrete skills inquiries. However, the mind is the innovation engine of any human progress, but also the root cause of almost all human problems. So more specifically, how can managers leverage talent assessment methodology and tools, talent development plans and practices to evaluate and build the right sets of digital minds, capabilities, and skills in order to compete for the future?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
