Sam Gordon's US CIO Practice Journal

It is better to incur a mild rebuke...

Fri, 22 May 2009 10:28:01 +0000

than perform an onerous task.

Every technology leader professes to be a change agent these days. They know without being one they won’t get a seat at the top table or be able to position technology strategically within their business. It’s old news though and enlightened leaders have run on a platform of change for years. However, still many change programs fall flat on their face and in the process discredit the technology function and everything it is striving to be.

Its hard to distill something as complex as organizational change into a simple formula for success, but one of the guiding principles I often still see neglected is “Pain or Gain”. That is: unless the change you are proposing removes significant pain or gives significant gain, it is unlikely to get off the ground. Humans are after all pragmatic animals and generally follow the path of least resistance. They are loathe to invest time or energy in anything that does not remove pain or enable them to gain.

So what does this mean for technology leaders? Think about how you position change and what it means in real terms for those that it impacts. Unless incentives are aligned with objectives, as some New Yorkers might say “fugheddaboutit”!

An example: You propose new processes for managing IT investment that creates a greater level of upfront analysis, more “checkpoints” to be approved and a higher level of business engagement. In this instance you might well get resistance from those used to allocating investment dollars with a less controlled approach, or business leaders used to allowing IT to manage investment without much of their involvement. Selling it on the benefit of an improved process that makes it easier for you to monitor, track and prioritize investment is not necessarily a benefit to those who are not measured directly on these metrics. What do they care if it makes your life easier? Chances are it is an unwanted distraction and more work for them.

However there is way to sell this:

The Pain: You often find you don’t get what you need from IT and solutions that are delivered don’t address your most critical business issues and often cause a lot of additional processes that have little value add. This new approach will greatly reduce the likely hood and therefore “pain” of this currently, too common scenario.
The Gain: we will validate investment more thoroughly and use technology to help solve your most critical business issues. You may spend more time now but you will spend far less time over the lifecycle because we have done a lot of the heavy lifting upfront and the gain from the output will be much greater business benefit.

I am simplifying this but I still meet leaders who get animated about the beauty of processes they tried to bring in and the grand change program they had planned.. and then express frustration that the business “wasn’t ready” or “didn’t want to invest the time”. The CIO who is a change agent won’t use that explanation. They will understand that the key to selling change is to understand the benefit to the audience and know how to position it in language they understand. I recall a quote from a facetious but apposite character called Henry Sugar who appears in a Roald Dahl book: “It is better to incur a mild rebuke than perform an onerous task”. Very true! People will avoid the onerous task like the swine flu; but in business the stick rarely works so make sure the carrot is clearly labeled pain and gain.

The Technology Behind the CDO/Subprime Meltdown

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:15:49 +0000

There has been no end of analysis about the causes of the current financial crisis and, in particular what kicked off the CDO/Subprime meltdown. The CNBC "House of Cards" documentary is a great way to get the basics covered in a relatively un-taxing 2 hour program. However, there has been little commentary on the technology that actually enabled the products to be created, sliced, diced and sold so easily.

Clearly technology is always only as positive, useful or dangerous as those that wield it.. but it does enable many things to happen that otherwise might not have transpired. Appreciate I might win a prize for stating the obvious with that comment but please bear that in mind when you read the following article from the latest edition of New York magazine. It is an account from one of the individuals who built the software which grew to become the de facto standard for the CDO market.

http://nymag.com/news/business/55687/

Englishman in New York: Year # 3

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:20:08 +0000

They say you can take the boy out of London but you can never take the London out of the boy. So three years into my US adventure I have to ask myself, is that true? or have I "gone native" in more ways than I thought.

Some of my early observations after moving here that you may have read in previous blog postings is that people in the US tend to be much better at networking, pitching their skills and experience.. and keeping their shoes polished! (I termed this as polish your network, polish your pitch, polish your shoes). Three years in, and after a recent business trip back to London, they definitely still stand:

1. I have been to many a networking event in the UK where people seem to hug the walls rather than getting out and meeting people. There is a perceived “cheesiness” that I have heard many British people espouse about networking… So tell me why you wouldn’t want to meet some of your peers who may be able to help you achieve some of your objectives?! or might actually be interesting people! This reticence is not always the case, of course, but I continue to find the forthright nature of networking in the US to be a positive thing. Perhaps it is because the US is still relatively young country, and self styled “land of opportunity”, where people want to get on and seeing people succeed is a positive thing. In the UK we seem to love the underdog.. until they are famous when we have an absurd turnaround and want them to fall flat on their face.. just to keep them grounded! So while I have winced at the odd cheesy intro here, overall I feel there is a lot we can learn from our transatlantic cousins in terms of building relationships that are mutually beneficial.

2. Polishing your pitch to me means being able to clearly articulate what you are good at and the intrinsic value you can bring to a given environment or set of business challenges. The majority of IT leaders I meet here have this down to a fine art.. and many of their counterparts in the UK do too.. but I have a stronger sense that people know what you need to get out of a conversation and lay it out for you; there is less of a pre-amble. Sometimes in the UK people are so nervous about being perceived as arrogant that they don’t sell themselves well enough. Yes it can be a fine line, but if you are aware of it then you will generally keep on the right side of that line (especially if you were once an underdog that has fallen from grace and was taught a good lesson in the process).

3. I commented in one of my first blogs that people here seem to have an obsession with having impeccably polished shoes and the number of shoe shine stands in NYC is testament to this. If I ever get bored of headhunting then I may set up a shoe shine business in the UK as we could definitely do with more per capita. Again, don’t misunderstand me.. there are plenty of polished shoes in London but the importance of needing to dress like a CEO if you want to be a world class CIO seems to resonate a little more over here than in the UK . And never get an American started on the state of British peoples teeth! I thought that this was a cliché until watching US TV became more the norm and I then went back to the UK and couldn’t work out what was wrong with the TV.. until it dawned on me.. half the presenters had crooked teeth!

Apart from these initial observations, others that are of note (in no particular order):

* Convenience. While I spend a lot of time traveling (which is never technically convenient), the time I spend in NYC is very easy.. taxis are cheap and plentiful and you can get from one side of town to the other very quickly, especially when you know which route to direct the driver.

* Can do culture. I know "yes we can" is motto of the moment but it's definitely something easier to sell here as culturally, Americans have faith in their ability to overcome objectives. Sometimes this can lead to a more gung ho approach and less planning.. but there is less "analysis paralysis" and meetings for the sake of meetings than I experienced in the UK.

* Tech Savvy Executive IT Leaders who are proud of it. I know I have mentioned this before but there is definitely less stigma here attached to a CIO who still "gets" technology. Sometimes I have the impression in the UK that it is seen as a weakness to remain tech savvy as you rise the career ladder.. as if business savvy and technology ability should be mutually exclusive. Of course you don't bore the COO with new features of your blade servers but being tech savvy is still vital in my book. Would you trust a CFO who said that they didn't really know much about the numbers these days?! IT leaders all over the world need to get over the fact that some people don't understand technology, are fearful of technology or don't see it as strategic to a business. You won't elevate your position to the top table unless you embrace the strategic value that you can bring to helping to solve business problems. By telling somebody proudly that you are more of a business person than a technology person immediately raises a red flag.. do you think the VP of Marketing says they are more of a business person than a marketeer? To be treated as an equal you need to act like one or they will be saying "methinks he/she does protest to much" as you leave the room. (sorry slight tangent vent there - to bring back on message.. I see more pride and less apologies here than I saw in the UK where many IT Directors seemed to accept their perceived position as second class corporate citizen and well you know that will become a self fulfilling prophecy).

Language barriers. Winston Churchill once said of the British and Americans that "English is the common language that separates us". Ain't that the truth! While I have tried to assimilate and use some expressions that will better resonate with the audience (still pronounced in my proud London accent though, I hasten to add) every week I will still get tripped up on something. Unfortunately some of them are not repeatable here but innocent things can cause much amusement for my colleagues. And on the subject of humor there appears to be a weird and unexplainable intersection of comedy shows that work in both the US and UK... and those that don't. I have persevered with Saturday Night Live but don't think it will ever make me raise a smile.. but 30 Rock has made me laugh as hard as repeats of Monty Python.

So looking back on my time here so far, the biggest impact the US has had on me is the culture of self-belief, positivity and the ability of the country to re-invent itself. I miss sarcasm, pub lunches and buildings over 100 years old in equal measure.. but wherever I live in the future, I hope I have some of those classic American characteristics in the people around me (regardless of where they come from).

Recalling another famous quote from Mr Churchill: "Americans invariably do the right thing.. after they have exhausted every other conceivable option"... On that note I tend to disagree, as in my experience they tend to do the right thing just as often as we do.. but afterwards smile with a better set of teeth ;-)

How not to annoy a recruiter

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:07:53 +0000

I recently read an interesting post on CIO.com about frustrations that some recruiters are feeling in the current market. It is fair to say that I have experienced some of these myself! But, as I learnt during the last downturn following the dot com crash, when things turn around, some of those people who were laid off and persistent job seekers suddenly land great jobs - and it's not always the ones you think. So... while it may mean you spend even more time on calls with people who you are not immediately able to help.. show some empathy.. they could be a big client of the future and aside from that, you should feel good about giving some positivity to people who are temporarily down on their luck!

http://advice.cio.com/meridith_levinson/how_not_to_piss_off_a_recruiter

Welcome to my world: Chapter 1

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:24:35 +0000

So without bearing my soul ala Jerry McGuire’s “Mission Statement” memo he left for his colleagues.. I am going to start an occasional journal entry titled "Welcome to my World". Keep the violins away, it’s not going to be a sob story or moan about how tough my job is.

Executive Search is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest professions to work in and the sense of satisfaction in overcoming the challenges that one will face in this business is what gets many of us out of bed in the morning. These observations are by no means exclusive to this industry but I hope this insight from the inside, whether you are a client or candidate, may help you to achieve a successful outcome on your next recruitment exercise.

Advice for surviving 2009

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:03:03 +0000

A belated happy to new year. I have got mine off to a cracking start having been practically housebound for a few weeks following a back injury. New years resolution for me is: if a chiropractor tells you that you have a slightly strained back and should take it easy for a few weeks.. don’t spend three hours at a bowling alley directly afterwards. It is quite possible that you will turn a minor aliment into a herniated disc and spend a month in agonizing pain. I will never ever be unsympathetic to people with back pain again..it really does feel like a constant weight bearing down on your shoulders (metaphorically that is.. it actually felt like somebody lancing my sciatic nerve with a knitting needle).

Going into 2009 though, many people will feel like they have a weight bearing down on them because, let’s face it, we do live in pretty uncertain times.

Outsourcing Continues Apace.

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:02:37 +0000

It is no coincidence that as the downturn in the economy bites we are seeing increases in demand for outsourcing. Most firms don’t make an outsourcing decision based solely on cost, but in the current atmosphere of gloom and naval gazing, most businesses are certainly focusing on what their core competence is (or should be) and outsourcing things that are not.

While most of you probably associate my firm Harvey Nash with Executive Search we have also been a player in outsourcing now for many years. We boast an impressive client list that includes the likes of Hearst and MSNBC and on November 11 we finalized a $65m IT outsourcing contract with Alcatel-Lucent. This deal adds not only another office to our global network, but also adds world-class wireless technology research and development capabilities to our IT services offering. It’s a landmark win for us and something we are celebrating internally, full details: read online in our press release here.

Also, you may be interested to read a market expert’s comments on the deal. Anthony Miller, a leading analyst on the IT recruitment and outsourcing market. Anthony comments “…the key significance of the deal is that it cements ‘real’ IT services as a core component of Harvey Nash’s business proposition.” His full thoughts on this deal can be read in full here: http://hotviews.blogspot.com/2008/11/harvey-nash-wins-its-biggest_11.html

Next blog will be back to usual irreverent musings on subjects like sushi, urban living and CIO issues.. but in the meantime I am raising a glass to a notable success story during challenging times.

History is the Best Judge of Success

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:53:31 +0000

Apologies for the lack of journal entries recently. The global financial/economic crisis produces many challenges in Executive Search. Even when you are at full capacity working on retained assignments (as we are) it gets more challenging to engage candidates in a recruitment process as they are, understandably, nervous about moving. And unless you are trying to headhunt Marty McFly the "what are you chicken?!" line doesn’t get many executives to change their mind ;-) Yep, if I had a dollar for every time I have heard "better the devil you know" in the last month, I could have made a sizeable contribution to the bailout fund!

But one of the things about executive recruitment is there is never a perfect scenario of supply, demand and positive market sentiment.. that’s one of the many challenges and complexity of the role and ultimately our client pay us for our expertise in getting results regardless of the market conditions - and in a perverse way it’s actually one of the challenges that I enjoy about this career.

The current crisis has led me to draw parallels between how we are, and how we will, judge the “success” of our leaders in charge of the current rescue effort and how we assess the effectiveness of an executive appointment – and most of my knowledge here of course relates to technology leaders.

At the moment there is an ongoing, fierce debate (or rather multiple debates) over how to handle the crisis. Suddenly history’s view of the Greenspan “put: is being re-written by many - unthinkable mere months ago that he would one day publicly apologize for mistakes made! This was after all the man who was heralded as a savior of the world economy in previous down cycles. The simple truth is that, in the heat of a crisis it is not always possible to know what the right answer is or what the long term consequences of decisions made will be.

Let’s take the example of a CIO. Company A hires Bob Fixit (the names have been changed to protect the guilty) to turn around their IT function. The IT group is in disarray: projects are over-budget, the business has lost faith in the IT department and the previous CIO has been hastily retired to “special projects”. Bob joins and slashes the IT budget on average 15% every year. They cancel the majority of projects and instead focus on enhancing existing systems and his new team of account managers build strong business relationships with key executives. The business loves Bob and after four years when he gets headhunted to another firm they are sorry to see him go. However Bob helps hire the new CIO and leaves them with a new person as the business is about to launch a major new business unit which has a multimillion dollar IT investment to support it.

Unfortunately, and unbeknown to the business, Bob had cut costs to the bone by relying on patching up old systems behind the scenes. Much needed upgrades had been held back and instead of incremental improvements the band aids had been applied. Now the new business unit IT costs were more than doubled and the launch of the new unit was now set back 12 months, costing the business a valuable market opportunity.

A more nimble competitor was therefore able to gain first mover advantage and the opportunity cost was now many times the savings that Bob had made in cost reduction. Suddenly history was judging a previously lauded CIO very differently. This is not to blame Bob solely, he is a self styled cost cutter and that’s what the business thought they wanted.

So, the phrase “be careful what you wish for” certainly applies. What seems like the right move in the heat of a crisis is not always the best option. To help mitigate your risk it is best to get counsel from somebody who has seen various crisis unfold and can advise accordingly. In the current economic crisis with few modern day parallels there are not any easy reference points post the Great Depression.

Luckily it isn’t your job to solve that one but if you have some concerns about the technology leadership in your company you might want to take some sage advice before you act – me or my industry peers would be a good start. As one thing you can be sure of.. history sometimes has a real sick sense of humor!

Obama and McCains Technology Personas

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:45:39 +0000

I recently read this article which compares the current US presidential candidates to their technology company personas. Regardless of any political affiliations it makes for an interesting read.

and if Senator Obama wins, may I express my interest in taking on his CTO search

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0808.thompson.html

The end of Summer Fridays

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:50:48 +0000

When I moved to the US a couple of years ago I learnt quite a few new words/expressions in the workplace. Some of these made sense immediately ("lock it down" - I’ve seen enough episodes of 24), some only made sense after I had seen a ball game ("knocking it out of the park") and some only made sense after a few weeks of summer had passed: "Summer Fridays".

Summer Friday in London means that if you’re lucky you will be able to stand outside the pub at 5 O’clock and enjoy your pint in the beer garden, or more likely the patch of pavement/sidewalk outside your favorite watering hole. In the US it means that between the national holidays of Memorial Day (end of May) and Labor Day (end of August) Fridays take on a whole new meaning...

This is how it works.. there is an unwritten rule in many, many companies that on a summer Friday it is perfectly acceptable to either "work from home" (no disrespect to home based workers who have their office base in their residence..I am talking about working from home in the loosest sense of the term) or slope out of the office anytime after lunch with a nod and wink, and not come back. Some companies have an official policy also that you finish with a half day or at least a few hours earlier. Now most Americans only receive 10-15 day vacation entitlement so it is no surprise that people take advantage of any opportunity to gain additional time off.

My recruitment perspective #1 is that it is essential to take your full vacation entitlement. Everyone needs time off to recharge physically and mentally. Apart from that there is just too much of the world to see and limited time to see it. Even if you are the type like me who likes to stay on top of work with a blackberry never out of sight, it’s certainly more fun checking your email while having sushi at Tsukiji market in Tokyo, chilling on the beach at Byron Bay or tucking into Steak Frites at your favorite bistro in the Marais. Quite often those who achieve the most at work are those who achieve the most outside of work, and there is nothing like going away to get fresh perspectives.

My recruitment perspective #2 is that in the US this Summer Fridays act as proxy vacation for what I consider to be a
rather parsimonious vacation entitlement, at least by European standards. Therefore people who get the opportunity to take them should feel happy doing so.

My recruitment perspective #3 is that if you have managed to keep your UK vacation entitlement largely intact when moving to the US and you actually want to get hold of people on a Friday afternoon as you are in the office working - forget it! Save your expenses, blog writing and other frivolous work activity for those Fridays between Memorial and Labor days - good luck getting any headhunting done.

So when I hit send on this post it will be approaching 12 noon and I will be leaving to join the hordes of New Yorkers racing for the beach and enjoying the official end of summer that the Labor Day weekend heralds. At precisely the same time in London, five hours ahead, my friends will be leaving their offices to join the hordes at the pub and praying that they get two pints in before it rains.. Long live Summer Fridays!

Paying for Good Service

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:50:57 +0000

There are many things an IT organization can learn from the service culture of other industries.

I found a stunning example recently while having breakfast at a posh hotel in "Englands prettiest village". I was back in the UK for quick visit to a friends wedding in Castle Coombe which deservedly gets the aforementioned title. Having become accustomed in the last couple of years to the superb service one usually receives in NYC, I was reminded of how poor the UK can be in comparison. In New York it is perfectly acceptable to ask for food to be prepared exactly as you want it. "sauce on the side?" no problem, "ham placed either side of the tomatoes in your sandwich so the bread doesn’t get soggy" sure, that makes sense, no problem. (okay so the last one is a little extreme but I have seen a friend do it before without a raised eyebrow from the guy in the deli) and this is a culture that is pervasive at all levels, swanky bars to cheap delis. So in an expensive hotel you would expect that a request to have an egg poached instead of fried and bacon well cooked would be easy to accomodate? Oh no.. not only did the waitress recoil as if I had asked her if I could borrow her car for the weekend she didn’t even acknowledge the request with anything apart from a huff and stormed off to the kitchen to burden the chef with this clearly unreasonable request. The breakfast when it came as requested was pretty good but the waitress behaviour still did not leave a nice taste.

So this got me thinking why is the service in NYC better and what can other service organization learn from this? The first misconception is that there is an innate service culture in the US. The reality is there is a "tipping" culture. In New York and most major metro areas it is customary to tip 20% as a standard for good service and indeed professions that get good tips rely on this for a large chunk of their wages. Therefore there is a clear incentive to give good service.

In applying this to the IT industry, anybody that has a role with a high degree of customer contact should be highly motivated to provide an outstanding service - and I don’t just mean on the helpdesk. Certainly it helps to hire people with a natural inclination to good service but unless their reward structure is significantly enhanced by good service then you will find it hard to replicate exceptional service across the team. Sure there are other ingredients necessary for a high performance team but I feel that reward for good service, aligned to teamwork that promotes shared objectives, is a clear incentive not just to perform well but to really ’go the extra mile’ and exceed expectations.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has implemented an aggressive bonus culture that enabled high performers to significantly over achieve against their benchmark compensation and what outcomes it had for their team. Perhaps we can discuss it over breakfast.. I can’t promise a setting as postcard perfect as Castle Coombe but they will certainly make your eggs as you like them

Talent is your best business strategy

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:00:44 +0000

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the sushi bar the other week...

I was in LA on business and heading to my second favorite sushi spot for lunch (the favorite in case you are wondering is Ajisai on North Palm Ave near the corner of Santa Monica - one of the best and off the radar sushi spots I have ever had the pleasure of eating at). The second favorite spot is on Sunset Blvd near the famous book store Book Soup. As I approached Book Soup I saw a swarm of paparazzi around the door and screams of "Paris, Paris!”. A few seconds later Ms. Hilton emerged from the store and jumped into her Escalade Hybrid; the rabid paparazzi in a frenzy around the car and then jumped into their less chic cars in hot pursuit.

As I sat down to enjoy the omakase I thought... looking at the extent to which we pursue those of questionable "talent" (sorry Paris) - how many people/companies pursue the real talent with such zeal? It reminded me of a recent article in the LA Times which quoted Edwin E. (Ed) Catmull, President of Pixar " Talent is your best business strategy". Just a clever sound-bite or is there some substance to it? I am inclined to believe that if more businesses pursued this goal, not only would they be much more successful but they would probably save money.

Often we see companies shirking away from hiring top talent because they don’t want to pay the higher salaries, lose somebody who "grows out of the role too quickly" or "don’t feel they should have to sell the organization" to them. In response, and exploring some other themes, please consider some of the following:

1. The difference between the top producers in most businesses and the average employee is significant. You probably have a small number of real "stars" who make a contribution far beyond most of their peers. Imagine what you could do if you had more of these people?

2. Top talent tends to excel in more than just one area - and often areas outside of their direct remit. The best Program Manager, for example, may also be some of the best ambassadors for your IT organization through the visibility of the work they do and their successful execution of projects means you reduce support calls to your helpdesk.

3. Two plus two does not always equal four. Just because you hire two software engineers does not mean you double your output. Great engineers will produce a lot more in output and quality. Less is very often more, if the quality of less is very high - and you won’t end up paying the salary of four engineers for two really good ones who are perhaps paid 20% above market rate.

4. It is good to hire people smarter than you. They will make you look better and give you better career opportunities in the future through your enhanced achievements (they may end up taking your job but that’s a calculated risk).

5. Good people attract good people and the more you have the easier it will be to hire other smart people… and the less you have the harder. Once the rot sets in, it becomes difficult to arrest the decline of your ’talent bar’

6. Business strategy and operational excellence become a lot easier with a bunch of smart people on your side. They will figure out a lot of the stuff themselves that the less able will need help/babysitting to get through.

7. Your work environment will be more fun and you’ll have less trouble delegating.

8. A downside risk is the more talented the harder you have to work to make sure the personalities gel and their values are aligned to collaboration and shared team goals; it’s no good having a team of highly talented but machiavellian staff as they will just work against each other for personal gain.

9. If the majority of your team are not people that you would "hire in a heartbeat" again, perhaps you need to think about whether you have really tried hard enough to secure the talent you need.

10. As global competition for top performers heats up, it will get even harder to attract the best people. The current malaise in global economy means you have a great opportunity now to start attracting people by being more aggressive in securing top people, at a time when others are scared to be bold.

And yes, you have to "sell" the opportunity to the candidates... at every stage of the process. When it comes to fighting for the best people, some companies have the tenacity of the paparazzi... and they are often the ones who have a share price that is out performing the market.

Timing for CIO's is just like London Buses

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:12:55 +0000

There is a famous expression about London buses that "you wait ages for one to turn up and then three arrive at the same time". It’s true, even with former Mayor Ken’s dramatic improvements to bus provision in the City. I remember when I lived in a converted warehouse in an old industrial hinterland in SE London - a nice 20 minute ’stroll’ from the tube station - and relied on the bus, or expensive London cabs every evening. You would be waiting at the invariably wet, windswept bus stop for ages for one to arrive and then three No 1’s would come simultaneously. (and anyone thinking living in a edgy, far flung warehouse district is cool, well it sounds good in theory and supposedly good for your street cred, just don’t expect anyone to come and visit you).

Musing over this phenomenon the other day I got to thinking that apart from buses, lots of things tend to come in threes: bad news, blown light bulbs, CIO departures (and associated recruitment assignments). Over the last 6 months there have been a number of high profile CIO departures and, some might say, a bit of musical chairs at the top... and musical chairs it is as somebody invariably doesn’t get a seat and disappears to be an interim manager, re-invent themselves in a different guise or live out their days on a ranch in the country (or a SE London warehouse depending on your persuasion - both good for a hermit lifestyle). It’s quite obvious that one person leaving creates a spot behind them but it is interesting to see how quickly that generates a flurry of movement - and this tends to happen for a more intense period once a year. It suggests, and our research supports, that most IT Execs are actively keeping their eye on the market and are ready to move quickly for the right role. In some industries they know that the top jobs don’t come around that often so they need to take the opportunities when they can - especially if not completely happy in their current spot.

So if you are a CEO/COO/CFO with a talented CIO, or a CIO with a leadership team you need to keep intact, make sure you are close to them and they are happy and appropriately awarded. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the good ones are keeping close to market changes and will be ready to strike out for a great opportunity... and that next game of musical chairs may come just at the time you can’t afford to lose them (just like you wait longest for the buses when you are in the biggest rush). Which brings me back to the London bus...

Discussing the above over a pint with a friend in my local the other week, a slightly intense looking guy sitting at the bar joined in the conversation (he works in mortgage backed securities I later learned, and is clearly feeling the pressure as evident by the intense look and velocity of his alcohol consumption.) "There is a good reason why buses come in threes and it’s easily explained". So for the price of a beer he explained this age old myth... If there is a slight delay to a single bus (bus no 1) then as it reaches the bus stop there are more people waiting for it than usual. At each stop it arrives at more people get on and off which further delays its progress and causes greater build up of passengers en route. The bus behind in the schedule (bus no 2) has less people to pick up as more than usual are on the first bus and the bus behind that (bus no 3) sails through with very few passengers so it catches up with the other two and at some point on the route, all may arrive at the same bus stop within moments of each other. Eureka! "But why does it happen on the day you are late to meet the in-laws?" I asked our new friend... he shook his head and turned intensely back to his pint.

Finally, the reason for a lack of blog postings in the past month or so also relates to three big projects falling on my lap at the same time (not unrelated to some of the above activity) so I hope to rectify with three (almost) at the same time over the next week, this being the first. The next two are:

* Talent is Your Best Business Strategy: what we can all learn from Pixar’s CEO.

* Lessons from the British ’Service Culture’ for IT/Business Relationship Management

Interpreting CIO adverts

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:16:20 +0000

I have recently collaborated with CIO magazine on an article examining ways to "read between the lines" of job adverts.

http://www.cio.com/article/417216/How_to_Read_Ads_for_CIO_Jobs/1

What LA freeways and your IT infrastructure have in common...

Thu, 22 May 2008 16:50:36 +0000

I travel to LA on business most months and naturally spend a few hours every day in the car.. and on many journeys stuck in traffic. For Angelenos it is just part of everyday living and many would think nothing of sitting in traffic for an hour en route to the gym. But they probably wouldn’t wait in line for an hour at a "no reservation" restaurant in Manhattan on a Tuesday night or stoically sit out in a beer garden in a t-shirt on a freezing cold day in June because it "should be" summer in London. Some of the many idiosyncrasies that define city living in different places. Los Angeles was a "city" that grew up alongside the inexorable rise of the automobile and therefore is really built for it with no mass transit system that is feasible to use for 99% of journeys. In many ways LA personified/personify’s (depending on your point of view) the American dream of car centric suburban living - with the added benefit of all year round sunshine. This means that, rather than a true city with a obvious center, Los Angeles is, as the author Dorothy Parker famously stated "72 suburbs in search of a city". So as the LA metro area has, and continues to grow (mainly outward) traffic continues to grow. But this post is not about the traffic, it is about the conditions of the road infrastructure...

Crumbling and historically under invested infrastructure is turning into a major political issue in the US.. and came sharply into focus last year with the collapse of a major road bridge in Minneapolis. Many commentators are comparing the spanking new roads being built in Asia and the Middle East compared to the "Third World quality" roads that some perceive in some US cities. As I hurtled down the 5 (interstate 5) to my morning meeting with traffic already building up at 6 am, I was reminded of the poor state of many freeways in LA with potholes that make you fear for your tires (US spelling for those in the UK)..and life.. Not all roads in LA are bad though.. if you head West on Sunset Blvd the second you see the brown and yellow "welcome to Beverly Hills" sign the road turns from bumpy pot-holed and gray to perfectly smooth black tarmac! Go figure! The Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is now facing a multi-billion budget deficit coupled with an ongoing economic slowdown...fixing those roads may not be a priority or even an option (the schools budget is already being squeezed). This is a good analogy for IT infrastructure and associated investment cycles...

As IT Infrastructure is often the "hidden" part of an IT organization (ie the users don’t interact directly with it) it can sometimes be an area of under-investment or the first place where budget cuts bite. Many IT Infrastructure leaders will know that they are often asked to do more with less and patch up ageing infrastructure so that the IT budget can be deployed to areas that have greater visibility to the business. Behind the scenes there may be daily fire fighting to keep this infrastructure working and the business may not see it... but this is a very dangerous game to play. By not investing sufficiently in infrastructure you are potentially storing up problems for the future and will also making it harder (and more expensive) to quickly deploy new services in the future if you have an old and inflexible platform. During the last recession many IT leaders took the decision to hold off on infrastructure investment in the face of significantly reduced budgets and job insecurity for all. When investment dollars started flowing again many had to a significant ramp up period while they got their infrastructure ready. This in some cases placed an unacceptable delay on deployment of new products and services and some businesses missed windows of opportunity. In the worst case scenarios the constant "holding together with band aids" of infrastructure meant that some infrastructures suffered serious outages and became very unreliable which caused serious credibility issues for CIOs and in some cases cost their jobs. Like those filled in potholes.. they will work for a bit but you have to resurface the road completely at some point.

I hear some of you say..well who wants to go to the board to get approval for major infrastructure investment when times are tough? My response is that smart CIOs should, wherever possible, build an ongoing program of incremental infrastructure investment and refresh into every budget cycle. If you have a predictable spend then it means you can better engage with partners/vendors and gain preferential pricing (due their visibility of ongoing deal flow) and your IT organization can better plan for the future. A rolling refresh will make it easy to attract and retain talent in your infrastructure organization too as they see you as a dynamic firm with ongoing opportunities to learn new skills. Finally, you probably won’t have to go through a wholesale infrastructure refresh as you will have been gradually replacing equipment as you go.

So when you go to make that business case to the CFO maybe you should use that analogy.. but don’t bother if they live and work in Beverly Hills - they won’t be nearly as sympathetic!