Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

The novel A Tale of Two Cities 1 begins with the oft-quoted line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." Although these words were written to describe the situation prior to the French Revolution, the same words could apply with equal force to the situation consumers face today with respect to protection of their private information.

Cultural misunderstandings can bring globalization to a halt! OK, that statement is a little dramatic, but you may have had this type of confusion bring some of your projects to a halt. Knowing how to avoid cultural communication misunderstandings is a competitive advantage. Thus, this Executive Update reviews three main global communication styles and offers steps on how to use this knowledge to reduce cultural snafus.

One of the most persistent truths of information technology is the phenomenon called lock-in. Lock-in describes the fact that technology platforms do not naturally interoperate and that as users make commitments to specific platforms, they are "locked-in" to their decisions. This concept has collected a lot of dust over the years seeing as IT managers have endured this reality since the beginning of automation.

Over the past year, I've seen a lot in business technology discipline (or not). I spent a day at a large enterprise where they explained how they had implemented 11 ERP systems and multiple instances of them. When I got up off the floor and promised them huge savings by reducing the variation in their back-office environment, they told me that they really weren't interested in the savings because they would require too many meetings, too many arguments, and -- well -- just too much discipline.

Two tragedies struck in recent weeks: the loss of 49 lives at a Kentucky airfield and the loss of one life off the coast of Australia. Both episodes made the news as evidence of risks taken, perils faced, and lives lost. For those who missed the events, the 27 August crash of a Comair Canadair Regional Jet at the Lexington, Kentucky, USA, airfield claimed 49 lives. The jet was on the wrong runway and literally ran out of road.

In this Advisor on agile integration, I return to the organization; specifically to improving organizational performance. One question that comes up often, particularly with large IT organizations is, "How do agile methods fit with our CMMi initiative?" In answering this question, we first need to look at the larger issue of improving overall organizational or enterprise performance.

Over the past few years in the system integration arena, I have seen that the concept of earned value management (EVM) offers a widely accepted project management technique for many US federal government agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Several years ago, I attended a meeting in an unfamiliar building with a group of unfamiliar people. I sat at the meeting table, and the person to my right began talking. It was obvious that this person was in charge by his demeanor. He seemed to know most if not all of the people in the room and all about the subject of the meeting.

I was lost. As I said earlier, I didn't know who this person was, I didn't know who the other people were, and I was ignorant of the subject of the meeting.