Archive for December, 2008

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What Is The #1 IT Skill That A CIO Needs To Have?

Monday, December 29th, 2008

CIOs Need One Critical Missing Skill In Order To Make Good Decisions

CIOs Need One Critical Missing Skill In Order To Make Good Decisions

Today’s CIOs are expected to have many more sets of skills than those that they followed did. One can only suspect that the CIOs of tomorrow will be faced with even higher expectations. Cloud computing, outsourcing, insourcing, business alignment, top line growth, bottom line growth – which one is the most important to know the most about? It turns out that the answer is none of these.

A little secret that nobody ever talks about is that the higher in an organization that you rise, the less “real work” you actually get to do. Many first time IT managers struggle with this new reality – they are the ones who can’t help but do the work of those that they mange.

Jack Welch probably said it best in his biography Jack: Straight from the Gut when he said that as CEO of GE, really all he was able to do was to hire and fire people and approve budgets – that’s it! CIOs are in the same situation, so what is the #1 skill that they must have?

Simple, the ability to reach conclusions when all that they have to work with is ambiguous evidence. Think about it for a moment, all of the information that a CIO gets has been heavily filtered by the rest of the IT organization. If there are any unpopular opinions, then they have probably been censored before reaching the CIO. An slanted or partisan viewpoints have been masked as objective arguments. There is even the possibility that honest mistakes have been made.

CIO’s need to have a type of analytical rigor that will allow them to make sense of the information that is presented to them. This is the skill that will allow them to sort through all of the information that crosses their desk and will allow them to dive down and finally get to the real story.

The big question for tomorrow’s CIOs is how can you get the bottom of things when all that you have to work with is incomplete information? How can you present yourself to your colleagues and to your IT department as an authentic IT leader in such a way that others will be willing to follow you?

One of the most dangerous things that can mislead a CIO is his/her own opnion. Sure we all have an opinion; however, if we pre-judge a situation and reach our own opinion too quickly then we can find ourselves falling into a pattern of belief. We may do this because it’s simple to do or because it fits some particular social need.

However, the problem with our opinions is that they don’t necessarily have to be true. If a CIO chooses to believe something because of just the information that has been presented to him/her, then its going to be very hard to get him/her to surrender that belief.

Too many of us like to say that we keep an open mind when we really don’t. In order to be an effective CIO both today and tomorrow, we’re going to need to make sure that we work very hard to make good decisions. This means that we’ve got to realize that we will never have complete information. What we need to do is find ways to use the partial information that we have to get to the bottom of the issues. Then, and only then, will we be effective CIOs.

Have you ever had to make a decision without all of the information that you needed? How did you go about reaching a decision? Was it the right decision? What would you have done differently if you could go back and make that decision again? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in CIO, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Merry Christmas – Take The Week Off!

Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Here's Hoping That You Name Shows Up On The "Nice" List This Year!

Here's Hoping That You Name Shows Up On The "Nice" List This Year!

Loyal readers & subscribers, here’s hoping that this upcoming Christmas season week is a great week for you – I’m taking it off! Blogging will resume next week…

Everyone seems to celebrate something different this week, but I’m hoping that no matter how you choose to spend your time you enjoy yourself. The world can wait, let’s spend time with friends and family and we’ll get back to the madness next week.

Have a happy and safe week no matter where you are and we’ll talk next week.

- Dr. Jim Anderson

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

What Toyota Can Teach IT About Dealing With Change

Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Toyota Has Developed Three Ways Of Dealing With Growth And Change

Toyota Has Developed Three Ways Of Dealing With Growth And Change

It may seem odd to to be talking about growth during this time of economic downturn, but once this cycle is done you had better have a good plan for learning to deal with growth. IT has always been about change, but that doesn’t mean that IT leaders are any better than anyone else in dealing with constant change (and growth).

We’ve been talking about Toyota lately and interestingly enough they have a great deal that they can teach IT about how to deal with change and growth. They realize that as an organization becomes larger, communication is one of the first things that will start to deteriorate. After this, it starts to become more difficult to coordinate operations and projects that stretch across the entire company.

In order to deal with problems such as these, Toyota has implemented three separate “forces of integration” that have allowed Toyota’s IT department to be able to keep its focus on Toyota’s mission. These three forces are the founder’s original values, how they manage promotions, and their use of open communication. No high-tech stuff here, but perhaps they still have something to teach IT departments…

The values that have been handed down to Toyota by their founders include the famous kaizen (continuous improvement), respect for fellow employees and what they can accomplish, the power of teamwork, the spirit of humility, the importance of putting the customer first, and finally, just how important it is to see something with your own eyes.

Developing the next round of IT department leaders is done differently at every company. All too often, firms use the “up-or-out” approach – either you get promoted or you eventually get shown the door. This is not the way that Toyota runs their business.

Toyota actually still has a basic guarantee of lifetime employment for its workers. Employees who are under performing are not terminated, rather they have their capabilities upgraded through on the job training. At Toyota, IT workers are asked to think as if they were really operating at two levels above their current rank. This allows all employees to have more context added to their perspective.

Open communication is critical to everything that Toyota does. They have actually been able to accomplish what every IT department would like to do: have information flow freely both up and down the hierarchy as well as across both seniority and functional boundaries.

In the 21st Century, Toyota still feels that human to human networks are of the highest importance. Executives go to the lowest levels in the company and have discussions with the workers there in order to understand what is going on.

At Toyota it’s ok for IT workers to speak up when they disagree with what someone is saying – even if it’s their boss. The ultimate assignment for every employee is to do what they think is right – not just what the boss is telling them to do.

In the end, Toyota is a hard company for any IT department to try to emulate. The reason for this is because Toyota’s success does not just come from doing (or not doing) any one thing. Instead, it’s really about a culture that Toyota has created that allows all of its departments to be a success. Even though it may seem impossible to replicate this environment in your IT department, keep in mind that at Toyota they view trying as the greatest achievement and failure is just one step towards success.

Does your IT department have any values that it has inherited from past management? Do you work with employees that are not ready to be promoted in order to get them ready – or do you just let them go? Would you say that your IT department has open flows of communication? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in business advantage | 2 Comments »

How Toyota Can Teach IT To Keep Things Fresh

Monday, December 15th, 2008
Toyota Has Several Ways That It Uses To Keep Employees Engaged

Toyota Has Several Ways To Prevent Processes From Becoming Stale

Despite all the talk about innovation these days, we know how things really are. It’s way too easy for us to set up IT processes and procedures that we use to run our IT shops and then over time they become part of a larger “That’s The Way We Do Things Here” culture.

The problem with this is that over time things change. Solutions that were once the best way to do things may no longer be the correct way to be doing something. However, we get caught in our ways and that starts to slow the whole IT department down and then the whole company.

Toyota has found a way around this problem that we can all learn from. They’ve come up with innovative ways to keep their IT employees constantly thinking about how the company can reach out and get new customers, enter new market segments, enter new geographic regions. Additionally, employees are challenged to consider better ways for the company to go after competitors, as well as how to create new ideas and come up with new and better practices.

How does Toyota accomplish all of this? One way is that they set nearly unattainable goals for the company. These goals are what push the company to overcome its existing routines and achieve new levels of performance. One such goal is stated as delivering “a full line in every market”. This is nearly impossible for Toyota (or any car company) to do, but it does a great job of making all employees feel as though they are working together to achieve a common goal.

Toyota’s goals are vague – on purpose. Goals like “create a cleaner car” don’t have clear, nailed-down requirements. By doing this Toyota ensures that employees won’t be able to look at a goal and say to themselves “that goal doesn’t apply to me”. Instead, vague goals result in multiple departments ending up working together in order try to achieve the goals.

What’s interesting about Toyota’s cars which are sold globally is that they aren’t modified to meet local needs. Instead, Toyota takes the time to customize its products to meet the level of consumer sophistication that is found in each country.

IT needs to adopt this way of thinking: how can we modify the way a user interacts with an application to reflect what department they are in? Finance may need sophisticated reporting tools, but sales probably does not.

One of Toyota’s greatest strengths is that it has built a culture in which there is an eagerness to take risks. This excitement about trying new ways to accomplish tasks is what allows Toyota to overcome those things that are blocking it from achieving its almost impossible goals.

Unlike so many other companies, Toyota is not constantly “betting the farm” on massive new projects. Instead, they have adopted a process by which they come up with big plans that they then go about implementing by taking a series of small steps.

This approach coupled with a philosophy of never giving up has allowed Toyota to be successful. When Toyota was developing an environmentally friendly car, they had a lot of failures – engines wouldn’t start, batteries died, etc. However, they never gave up and the Prius was eventually created. Even this car is not the final result, but is rather a stepping stone towards where Toyota wants to get to.

Toyota’s embrace of experimentation has not been done willy-nilly. Rather, they have a structured process called Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) that is baked into their business processes. What makes Toyota different is that employees are encouraged to speak up when something fails or when they run into a unsolvable problem. Toyota’s culture of open communication has a great deal to teach all IT departments.

Does your IT department encourage employees to try new approaches to problem solving? Have you created an environment in which employees feel free to speak up when they run into a problem that they can’t solve? Do you consider your goals to be achievable or impossible? Is this a good thing? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in innovation | No Comments »

Why Toyota’s IT Department Is Broken & Why That’s Ok

Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Toyota Departments Do Six Things That Sure Seem To Be Strange

Toyota Departments Do Six Things That Sure Seem To Be Strange

Over at Toyota, they have a habit of doing things differently than everyone else. This might be one of the reasons that Toyota is such a successful company. Their IT department, just like the rest of the company, looks like it on the brink of failure even as the company does better and better in the marketplace. How can this be?

If you look at the numbers, Toyota has nothing to write home about. They pay very low dividends and it sure looks like they are hording cash – both of these are generally signs of a company that is not being run all that well.

Toyota is just a flat out weird company. Their departments do things that you won’t see at any other company. Perhaps there is something that we can learn from how they do things – we would all like to be as successful as they are.

Here are six Toyota oddities that we can puzzle over and perhaps learn from:

  1. Toyota Moves Like A Turtle, But Jumps Like A Rabbit: It sure seems like Toyota behaves just like you would expect a big firm to behave most of the time: they started making cars in the U.S. through a partnership with GM in 1984 and slowly expanded from there. No big deal. However, then all of a sudden they created and introduced the Prius – a massive jump in technology. Clearly this big firm has start-up type characteristics when needed.
  2. Can I Have Some Change Please?: If there is once constant at Toyota, it’s change. The direction from the top on down is to always be looking for a better way to do things. Employees are supported in taking risks by management that likes to say “No change is bad!”
  3. What Are You Doing Here?: So much for lean meetings – at Toyota, most meetings are packed with people no matter whether they have something to say on the topic or not. Toyota also packs its field offices (close to the customers) with staff instead of keeping them at HQ. Finally, senior management seem to be always on the road visiting dealers. Gosh, what a novel concept – stay in touch with all parts of the company!
  4. Penny Wise, Pound Foolish: Toyota appears to be in another competitive race – they seem to be trying to match Walmart for the honor of being called the cheapest company in the world. At Toyota they flip off the lights over lunch and in Japan they’ve moved everyone into one big room to work together with no partitions. This counting of pennies is matched by the immense spending that Toyota indulges in on its plants and in training for its employees. All that flipping off of the lights must be working because somehow Toyota has come up with $170M/year to spend on sponsoring a Formula 1 team!
  5. Can You Hear Me Now?: Instead of trying to impress everyone with your big fancy words, if you worked at Toyota you would be encouraged to communicate using simple, clear expressions. Summaries would be an important part of any slide deck that you put together. However, at the same time you would be encouraged to meet and interact with as many people as possible – other departments, other business units, other locations. Can you imagine how long your IM list would be?
  6. Do What The Boss Says, Or Not: It’s not what you would expect to find at a Japanese company, but at Toyota employees are encouraged to “Pick a friendly fight”. Employees are encouraged to speak up and contradict what their bosses have told them to do. Don’t do what your boss told you to do just because he/she told you to do it!

So which of these six Toyota ways of doing things strikes you as being the oddest? Do you think that this type of behavior would help or hinder your IT department? Does your department engage in any of these activities today? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in analysis | 1 Comment »

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