Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

The IT industry has always claimed its importance to the business. Computers and software are depicted in various ads as the corporate savior, the Wunderwaffe, or the "Ultimate Answer to All Management Problems." IT professionals have the privilege of working with truly exciting technology.

In the last couple of months, two of IBM's principal competitors in the mainframe business, Amdahl and Hitachi, both announced that they intend to withdraw from the market for large-scale mainframe computers.

Project management frameworks are usually thought of as a structure for managing complex projects. Risk management is typically considered to be a part of the overall project management approach -- an exercise in which risks are identified, mitigation tactics are applied, and contingency plans are developed.

The Cutter Technology Council's Assertion #22 reads: "Privacy will become one of the major constraints on the speed with which e-business replaces traditional business interactions." The purpose of this Executive Update is to consider whether there is evidence of this trend in industry today.

Have you ever been associated with a project where the execution was flawless, but yet you were unable to achieve the business objectives? I have -- as a member of a cross-functional project team, whose charter was to design an electronic business solution for a retailer with hundreds of stores across the Midwestern US.

A couple weeks ago, I received an intriguing e-mail from a total stranger in the northwestern US: