It's hard to place a value on knowledge management systems. Their ability to generate income is often measured indirectly; their links to cost savings frequently seem tenuous. The return on investment is hard to quantify. Too often, the case for implementing a system to leverage intellectual capital and expertise rests mainly on intuition: It seems like a good idea.
It's always about the stars, the A players on the fast track to bonuses, promotions and glory. IT leaders will do nearly anything to get them -- and keep them. But what about the rest of us?
In January 2001, three stories by Computerworld US mentioned a chief technology officer, or CTO. In January 2003, 26 stories did. The CTO is clearly becoming more common, but it's a difficult role to pin down. CTOs can be technology gurus, visionaries, infrastructure experts or policy enforcers, and contrary to popular belief, they don't usually work for the CIO.
Everyone has seen it: the IT project that takes on such a life of its own that it becomes virtually impossible to stop, even though all signs point to its ultimate failure. How do projects create this kind of momentum, and why is it so difficult to pull the plug on a clear loser? In this month's Harvard Business Review, Isabelle Royer, an assistant professor at the University of Paris, Dauphine, blames an irrational optimism that blinds everyone involved to the reality of the project. Royer recently spoke with Computerworld to explain the origins of this "collective belief" and suggest ways that IT project teams can avoid it.
In IT, talented young people can move up fast -- too fast, says Kathy E. Kram, professor of organizational behavior at the Boston University School of Management. Aggressive young managers promoted before they've had enough time and experience to develop emotional maturity to match their technical skills are almost sure to derail somewhere along the line. In a recent Harvard Business Review, Kram and co-authors Kerry A. Bunker and Sharon Ting suggest five strategies for boosting emotional competencies in rising stars and helping those who are already paying a price for emotional deficits.
Most large companies don't have succession plans, and even those that do don't plan as deeply through levels of staff as they should. "Companies focus on hiring processes, getting people, ratcheting up and down," says Jason Richardson, president of Cutting Edge Information Inc., a research firm in Durham, N.C., that studied succession plans in 42 companies, most in the Fortune 500. This focus is wrong, he adds. "If you're shifting people in and out without a plan, you won't maintain performance, and you won't get better."
If you're having trouble sparking innovation in your company, maybe it's because your focus is too narrow. In October's Harvard Business Review, Darrell Rigby, director of Bain & Co.'s survey on management tools and trends, and co-author Chris Zook suggest that looking outside your company for ideas can increase innovation while helping you better define your core business. Rigby spoke with Kathleen Melymuka from his Boston office.
If you're an IT manager, you need to know what skills your staffers possess. Without a proper skills assessment, how can you go about planning projects, changing strategy, outsourcing work, and training or downsizing staff?
Managers hate to give negative feedback, and many defeat the purpose of a feedback discussion with employees by setting up a confrontation. So says Jean-Francois Manzoni in the September issue of the Harvard Business Review. Manzoni, the associate professor of management at Insead in Fontainebleau, France, and the director of the Insead-PwC Research Initiative on High-Performance Organizations, says taking a different approach to giving feedback can make those discussions -- and your employees -- more productive. He discussed his ideas with Kathleen Melymuka.
A year ago, Catherine Brune realized that her IT group was being left out of the loop. "Our business partners would decide on some software, and we'd get stuck in the middle and know it was going to create havoc, but by then it would be too late," says Brune, vice president of technical shared services/field support at Allstate Insurance Co. in Northbrook, Ill. "We were never at the table. The business had already decided, and we'd be stuck trying to integrate it. We were letting the horse out of the barn way too often because we didn't have a good connection with our business partners."
Many IT people swear they do their most creative work under pressure. And many IT managers use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur creativity. But research published in August's Harvard Business Review indicates that the opposite may be true.
Few companies have the staff power to manage all their IT suppliers well, but it's essential to manage at least the strategic ones. By focusing your efforts on the handful of relationships that really matter, experts say you can reap financial and technological rewards.
Feel that your boss or colleagues just aren't listening, no matter how skillful your argument? You may be focusing too much on content and not enough on how you deliver your message, writes Gary A. Williams in this month's Harvard Business Review. Williams and Robert B. Miller, who are CEO and chairman, respectively, of Miller-Williams Inc., a San Diego-based customer research firm, studied the decision-making styles of more than 1,600 executives and found five distinct types.
Feel that your boss or colleagues just aren't listening, no matter how skillful your argument? You may be focusing too much on content and not enough on how you deliver your message, writes Gary A. Williams in this month's Harvard Business Review. Williams and Robert B. Miller, who are CEO and chairman, respectively, of Miller-Williams Inc., a San Diego-based customer research firm, studied the decision-making styles of more than 1,600 executives and found five distinct types.
Galactic IT Vice President Anthony Okrongly recently harnessed Web technology to automate and scale up the traditional employee suggestion box. Galactic offers trips, merchandise, gift certificates and other noncash incentive programs that firms can use to reward their employees. It designed the Ideaworks program as a way for its clients' employees to earn rewards by submitting cost-saving or revenue-generating ideas via the Web -- an intranet suggestion box that pays off.