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Social Media Fads and the Risk to the Enterprise
Social Media Fads and the Risk to the Enterprise

Social Media Fads and the Risk to the Enterprise

By Bill Wood|March 17th, 2010|

Today's IT landscape is filled with hype around Web 2.0. While collaboration is a key forward-looking initiative for any organization, social media requires a specific purpose and goal. Without a clear direction and purpose for social media initiatives, they are at best a distracting fad, and at worst an enterprise disaster. When I look at today's social media applications, I see them as a fad. Popular today, and they will be around for a while, but like all social outlets they are waiting for [...]

Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior
Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior

Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior

By Bill Wood|March 11th, 2010|

Great companies are almost always run by great management teams. And great management teams know that the only way to improve a process is to start by measuring it. Good metrics should also be actionable and drive successful behavior. In this post, I reveal how to figure out which metrics matter the most, and how to design them in such a way as to drive behavior that will lead to the results that you want. This post is applicable to any kind of business. In a follow-up post, I will use th [...]

CIO, CFO, and CEO Alignment – Why ROI is Lacking from Today’s System Landscape
CIO, CFO, and CEO Alignment – Why ROI is Lacking from Today’s System Landscape

CIO, CFO, and CEO Alignment – Why ROI is Lacking from Today’s System Landscape

By Bill Wood|February 17th, 2010|

The first part of this series looked at the proper relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO. In today's business environment, the CIO role is already challenging and gaining in difficulty. Today's CIO must not only keep up with technology and business process improvement, but also become a "mini-MBA" in applying technology solutions to forward-looking business strategies, including customer acquisition, customer retention, revenue growth and profitability. Although it is a monumental task, it is [...]

What Is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?
What Is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?

What Is the Proper Relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO?

By Bill Wood|February 8th, 2010|

The CIO role in business has been changing almost as quickly as technology itself. In the past focusing on business processes and automation was enough to satisfy the business needs for operational excellence. As long as they did so successfully, the CIO received carte blanche, often having large budgets and significant latitude in applying them. However, those days are quickly fading. Today, many IT departments and IT organizations are becoming internal vendors to internal customers with “char [...]

Business and IT Alignment – Integrating Technology and IT Spend with Business
Business and IT Alignment – Integrating Technology and IT Spend with Business

Business and IT Alignment – Integrating Technology and IT Spend with Business

By Bill Wood|February 5th, 2010|

Aligning technology to business requirements is based on a few underlying assumptions that are often lacking from SAP projects. Those assumptions are 1) the business actually knows what their requirements are, 2) the project scope includes those requirements, 3) the right management and internal employees are committed and engaged, and 4) the system integrator you select has consultants with the required experience. Often, I see businesses fail to look beyond operational excellence areas of the [...]

Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation
Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation

Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation

By Bill Wood|December 2nd, 2009|

What are the Apple Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs focused Apple innovation on competitive pressures and value propositions. He relentlessly focused organizational energy on customer-centered innovation and customer experience. In a nutshell, his innovation secret (if it can be called that) was the relentless pursuit of improving customer experience. As early as 2002, Steve Jobs told the world about his competitive strategy. During his statement, you can tell he was carefully evalu [...]