Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

The beginning of 2008 started off with the French bank Société Générale reporting that a low-level employee, Jérôme Kerviel, had executed a series of "elaborate, fictitious transactions" that cost the bank more than €4.9 billion, the largest loss ever recorded in the financial industry by a single trader.

Among other things, 2008 was the year that models died on Wall Street. After decades, the "quants" were just as surprised as everybody when the market started down and, instead of pulling out, just kept on going south. For years, the idea of "program trading" has gained a bigger and bigger foothold in the world of high finance.

The beginning of 2008 started off with the French bank Société Générale reporting that a low-level employee, Jérôme Kerviel, had executed a series of "elaborate, fictitious transactions" that cost the bank more than €4.9 billion, the largest loss ever recorded in the financial industry by a single trader. However, Kerviel's escapade pales in comparison with those of investment advisor Bernie Madoff, who admitted in early December to defrauding his clients of upward of US $50 billion in a "giant Ponzi scheme" for years.

This Advisor looks at debriefing the unsuccessful bidders after a competitive bidding process has closed. This is often treated as an optional process -- and is usually one to be avoided. However, if done well, with the right intent, it is a valuable exercise for all, and can also create support for your future bidding opportunities.

This Advisor looks at debriefing the unsuccessful bidders after a competitive bidding process has closed. This is often treated as an optional process -- and is usually one to be avoided. However, if done well, with the right intent, it is a valuable exercise for all, and can also create support for your future bidding opportunities.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) -- and even divestitures -- represent opportunities to reengineer technology acquisition, deployment, and support. Like other major corporate events (such as missing earnings estimates five quarters in a row), M&As can be exploited to make decisions that somehow get endlessly tabled in the routine ebb and flow of many companies.

Part I of this two-part Executive Update series took you through the core competencies of the first phase of the outsourcing lifecycle: the architect phase. 1 The architect phase is where the deal is put together in a strategic sense, cumulating in the detailed contract, the

New Year's resolutions are annoying. Most of us make them and break them almost immediately. Is it easier to make professional New Year's resolutions, or will they, like all the personal ones we make every year, fall victim to the same forces that derail our best intentions?