IDG Enterprise » Friedenberg 360

Does Technology Makes Us Smarter Or Dumber?

Michael Friedenberg — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:17:17 +0000

Exhibit A: I was driving up Silicon Valley’s Route 101 in northern California last month when I noticed a strange-looking SUV in front of me. On its roof was a tripod structure topped with a spinning cylinder. Out of curiosity, I sped up and pulled even with the driver’s side. Inside I saw a man in the driver’s seat, kicked back and relaxing with a People magazine. I realized this was one of Google’s self-driving cars, which were being tested in the area.

Exhibit B: Home sick with the flu one day, I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and his guest was Missy Cummings, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. She was talking about how drones are changing the future of battle. They’re not only more effective, but also cheaper to build and fly. Organizations that use drones can also save a ton of money by not putting resources towards “an expensive pilot that costs millions of dollars to train.” The professor noted that within a few years, the technology will likely move into the commercial space, where companies such as UPS and FedEx might use drones to ship packages across the United States.

Exhibit C: Attending the Consumer Electronics Show this year, you would have thought it was the Year of Smart: smart homes, smart cars, smart fridges, smart forks and spoons, smart watches, smart TVs, and even smart toilets. All of these devices have the ultimate goal of tracking, storing, analyzing, optimizing and educating us humans on how we can be better, healthier, fitter or smarter. It was all a bit overwhelming. If only everything that happens in Vegas really did stay there.

I look back at the time my parents taught me how to parallel park, and it’s a very fond memory. Now all you need to do is push a button and your car will parallel park itself. Makes me wonder what our lives will become. Is the future really about pushing a lot of buttons to get things done?

For me, all of these recent experiences bring to mind Pixar’s 2008 movie Wall-E, the computer-animated sci-fi film that critiques mankind’s impact on the planet. When humans first appear in the movie, which is set in the distant future, everyone is sitting on a space cruise ship, strapped to cabana chairs and grossly overweight. As computers took over everything, people decided to kick back and relax.

Taken together, do you think all this technological advancement will make us smarter or dumber?

CIOs See Risks and Rewards in Startup Mania

Michael Friedenberg — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:38:35 +0000

Are we in a tech bubble? Pundits and market-watchers have been batting that idea around lately, focusing on the poor stock performance of once-dazzling social-media innovators like Facebook, Zynga and Groupon.

Yet while some venture capitalists are growing wary of the tech sector and the unsustainable valuations of certain consumer-focused startups, others, like Marc Andreessen, dismiss those concerns as more of a “tech depression” than a bubble. At an investor conference in mid-December, Andreessen castigated his fellow pundits for their gloomy predictions about longtime enterprise tech leaders (such as HP, where Andreessen serves on the board). Well, good for him. Enterprise tech will never be as glamorous or sexy as consumer tech, but it still makes a pile of money for this industry. In fact, IDC (our sister company) predicts a 5 percent to 7 percent increase in overall tech spending this year.

And Wall Street always follows the money. Witness the venture capital flowing into enterprise-focused startups. Companies like Splunk and Fusion-io have had very successful IPOs for their data indexing and software-defined storage solutions, respectively. Others, like Box, IO, Nimble, GitHub, MapR, Delphix and Cloudera, are raising millions in capital to bring enterprise-class solutions to the CIO market. Most of these companies are focused on the hottest areas of technology–mobile security, data analytics, cloud applications or virtual data centers and networks–and their biggest selling points are based on saving money within IT capital budgets or driving new revenue.

Investing in these cutting-edge technologies could lead to incredible rewards, but they come with incredible risks for CIOs. Your reputation is on the line every time a new product is rolled out to the enterprise.

So how can CIOs take advantage of startup mania without ending up in survival mode? The smartest ones I talk to look deeply into the new company’s financial position (of course) but also investigate what percentage of the its revenue goes toward R&D. They talk firsthand to the big reference customers and check into the experience and reputations of the founders. They also inquire about what might happen if one of the industry giants acquires this bright, shiny startup.

I’d love to hear more about how you’re working with startups these days. Drop me a line anytime.

10 Resolutions for CIOs to Kick-Start the New Year

Michael Friedenberg — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:23:50 +0000

Happy New Year. Have you made any resolutions yet? If you’re still mulling over the possibilities, allow me to share CIO’s Top 10 resolutions. As we’re fond of saying around my company, “The biggest room in the house is the room for improvement.”

10. Lose some weight. I mean the legacy kind, not your own. Resolve to get rid of whatever legacy systems you can this year to make way for more modern architectures.

9. Spend quality time with your (work) family. Especially your chiefs of marketing, research and finance, if you want to deliver the value necessary to succeed.

8. Exercise daily. Get away from your desk and get out there with your customers, partners, clients or distributors. See how they view your partnership and learn what you can do to inspire deeper loyalty.

7. Travel less. Leverage social and collaboration tools to help your business and your employees get more done with less running around.

6. Improve your handicap. Not the golf kind, but your areas of professional weakness. Get better at communication, marketing the value of IT, meeting deadlines and working across company lines.

5. Smile more. How does the rest of the company view your IT organization and its attitude toward end users? What can you do to warm up those relationships?

4. Pay IT forward. With technology now touching every aspect of business, it’s time to cross over departmental lines and help your colleagues achieve their business goals. Don’t wait to be asked.

3. Eat better. Feed your architecture with healthy new technologies that make cloud, social and mobile work more effectively.

2. Think bigger. Innovate rather than sustain. Make the role of the CIO synonymous with innovation.

1. Value every day. You’ve mastered the art of delivering IT on time and on budget. Now shift your focus to delivering measurable business value through IT, whether it’s enhancing customer loyalty, boosting revenue growth or raising employee satisfaction levels.

Let 2013 be the year that CIOs and IT organizations move beyond business alignment and kick-start the future. And from all of us at CIO magazine, we wish you a healthy and prosperous 2013.

The Top 10 Priorities for CIOs in 2013

Michael Friedenberg — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:08:18 +0000

CIO — As we approach the new year, I share 10 of my all-time favorite quotes paired with some questions to spark your thinking about CIO priorities for 2013.

10. “The medium is the message.” Philosopher Marshall McLuhan’s phrase still resonates in our four-screen world of TV, desktop, tablet and smartphone. How can you optimize the user medium to enhance the business message?

9. “All software is going to look like Facebook.” Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff’s remark predicts a world in which software is self-explanatory. How does that change the CIO role?

8. “Accumulating data about you isn’t just a strange hobby for these corporations. It’s their whole business model. And you are not their client. You are their product.” Senator Al Franken’s observation about the big business of big data could mean big opportunities for our industry. What are the ramifications for your business?

7. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci’s saying reminds us that the era of IT complexity must end. What legacy systems will you retire this year?

6. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Aristotle wasn’t thinking of cloud or mobile devices here, but his aphorism still applies to technology. How will you integrate these tools to create new business opportunities?

5. “It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.” Steve Jobs reminded us how much design matters. Where can CIOs put good design to work?

4. “Resistance to change is often just a lack of clarity.” Business author Dan Heath nailed it. Where can you clarify the mission for your IT troops?

3. “Never mistake activity for achievement.” Basketball coach John Wooden made a great point: Are you working hard without delivering business value?

2. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Futurist Alvin Toffler saw the value of lifelong learning. What will you relearn this year?

1. “You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin’.” Bob Dylan probably doesn’t know many CIOs, but we do. Is there any C-level exec more adept at change? (Keep up the great work!)

CIOs Must Face the Talent Challenge

Michael Friedenberg — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:17:01 +0000

The more CIOs I talk to, the more apparent it becomes that the talent wars have hit a whole new level of sophistication. Here are some intriguing approaches and questions to consider, gathered from my most recent CIO conversations:

Establish rotational assignments between IT and business units: How many of you are currently doing this? If you want your team to have a deep understanding of your business, it’s essential to develop deep departmental expertise. Moving your high-performers from group to group can greatly change the organizational mind-set.

Emphasize change leadership over change management: It’s vital for the IT organization to lead during the process of change and transformation. How can IT be the enabler in moving the company from fear of change to embracing it?

Become a talent exporter instead of a talent importer: You’ll know the IT organization is developing and growing its talent when members of your team are tapped to lead new business initiatives. What are you doing today to make your group the model business unit for the company?

Pay real attention to succession planning: As Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Great by Choice, puts it, “We cannot predict the future. But we can create it.” How much thought are you giving to the success of your successor? Are you making the time to build a managerial legacy?

Manage remote teams more effectively: As our work becomes more virtual and mobile, the skill sets needed to manage these teams become far more critical. What are you doing differently to communicate, multitask, collaborate and execute in ways that take advantage of the virtual work environment?

Understand the impact of cultural differences: The more global your workforce, the more pressing the need to have team members in place who can excel in a culturally diverse business climate. As the core provider of collaboration and communication tools, IT can serve as the global proof-of-concept of how a well-integrated company functions.

I suspect many of these practices are already in use at your organizations, but I’d love to hear from you about what’s missing from my list. What are some of your best practices for attracting and growing your top talent?

Hey CIOs! Show Your CMO the Love

Michael Friedenberg — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 21:46:21 +0000

Nearly two years ago, I confidently predicted big changes in the CIO-CMO relationship. I was sure CIOs and marketing chieftains would overcome their historically conflicted, confrontational relationships to find new common ground and learn to collaborate more closely on issues of customer engagement.

Unfortunately, I’m not seeing it yet. (Another pundit bites the dust!)

Yet in today’s business environment, it’s hard to find any two jobs that are transforming faster than those of the CIO and CMO. Marketers know how heavily their success depends on finding the proper balance of art and science. But their deep backgrounds in the art of marketing cannot satisfy today’s business demands for using the science of technology in marketing efforts.

CMOs’ worlds turned technical overnight–suddenly they have to deal with marketing automation, business intelligence and analytics, social tools, lead nurturing and Web development. And since most people in marketing lack technical backgrounds, it should be clear that their increased collaboration with CIOs is a personal gain, not a professional threat.

Meanwhile, on the CIO side of the world, we’ve quickly realized that delivering value to the business means moving beyond cost efficiencies and process optimization to driving growth, increasing speed-to-market and putting customer intelligence to strategic use. Partnering with CMOs helps IT leaders expand their communication skills and connect directly with the business. You can fortify and shape key marketing decisions with big data analysis. You can influence plans for product development. And you can improve your own value in the job market to boot.

At a number of our recent CIO events, we’ve had some fascinating CIO-CMO panel discussions that clearly demonstrate the benefits of a stronger relationship for both sides. IBM and Forrester Research have also keyed in to this critical relationship at some of their recent events. Gartner is even predicting that CMOs will spend more on technology than CIOs by 2017 (a claim I find ridiculous).

But I do believe that there’s a stunning opportunity here for CIOs who understand the inherent value of working with sales and marketing leaders. What could you possibly be waiting for? Get in there and close the relationship gap.

How to Measure the Cultural DNA of Your Company

Michael Friedenberg — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:26:22 +0000

When Yahoo named Marissa Mayer as its new CEO recently, the news got a lot of attention. Yahoo’s Chairman Fred Amoroso called Mayer the perfect choice because of her “unparalleled track record in technology, design and product execution.”

But in the flood of commentary and reaction that followed, the remark that really caught my attention came from Netscape co-founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. He said Yahoo hired a “product-centered CEO” in Mayer rather than going with interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, who Andreessen considers a “sales-centric CEO.”

That insight fascinated me because it drills right down to the core of what a company wants to be and how well its culture supports that. In every industry, there are successful companies approaching the market with different business philosophies and cultural makeups. In the technology market, for example, EMC is known for its sales culture; Google and Microsoft for their engineering cultures; IBM and HP for their operational cultures; Amazon for its supply-chain culture; and Apple for its design and marketing culture.

Stop and think: What is the cultural DNA of your company?

That’s an especially important question for CIOs to answer and understand. It helps you define what IT must deliver to be viewed and respected as a business partner. Yet one of the unsettling things I noticed earlier this year in our State of the CIO research was that 48 percent of you said your business peers thought of the IT organization as a cost center or service-delivery organization. Given the solid results IT has delivered since the Great Recession of 2007-2009, I was surprised by how high that percentage was.

With your IT organizations doing some of their best and most transformative work in the slowly recovering economy, how can half of you still be seen as cost centers or service organizations? Perhaps the answer lies in a mismatch of cultural DNA between IT and the CEO. For instance, an IT organization that delivers amazing technical solutions would be highly valued in an engineering culture. But if the company has a sales culture, the business executives won’t be impressed.

So, what’s your corporate DNA and how much does it matter to IT? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so drop me a line anytime.

How to Succeed in Business: Award-Winning IT Innovation

Michael Friedenberg — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:20:03 +0000

Business is a competitive sport, so every day there are winners and losers. Yet what I find so interesting is that there are so many routes to business success–from culture, innovation and leadership to process, financials and technology. You can succeed by excelling in one or more of these core disciplines, but winning happens when all of them are woven together.

Among this year’s CIO 100 award winners (see the full list in our sortable database), I see many examples of CIOs and IT organizations not just succeeding at business, but winning. Their ability to innovate and operate simultaneously is simply awe-inspiring. The business transformations they’ve led serve as a model we can all learn from and would do well to emulate.

CIOs like Rob Carter of FedEx, Kim Hammonds of Boeing, David Kline of Viacom and Wayne Shurts of Supervalu exemplify the kind of winning leadership that drives business success. I invite you to come and listen firsthand to their stories (and many others) on stage this month at our CIO 100 Symposium, August 19-21 at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

I thought of our newest class of CIO 100 winners – the 25th class in this magazine’s history – as I was reading “The C-Suite Challenges IT: New Expectations for Business Value.” Written by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Dell Services, this recent survey of 536 C-suite executives took an in-depth look at the challenges facing companies as they make IT, business, strategy and purchasing decisions to move their companies forward. Here are a few of the highlights I took special note of:

Nearly six in ten (57 percent) respondents expect their IT function to change significantly in the next three years; 12 percent predict a “complete overhaul.”
CEOs who involve their CIOs in setting business strategy and leveraging innovative IT outperform their peers financially–by a margin of nearly 2:1.
While using IT to cut costs is still popular (38 percent), there is significant interest (22 percent) in leveraging IT to develop new products and services.

These findings certainly reflect our challenging business climate, but they also underscore the impressive accomplishments of our CIO 100 winners. Congratulations to you all.

Are You Keeping Ahead of IT Industry Trends?

Michael Friedenberg — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:48:16 +0000

During my recent travels, I met with a leading angel investor and we talked about the amazing roll that the technology sector is on right now. Consider the incredible amounts of investment flowing into companies like Facebook, Jive, LinkedIn, Instagram, Yammer, Box and DropBox. Or spend a few days at events like DEMO (our Silicon Valley-based conference for emerging technologies), and you’ll see why investors are so enthusiastically drawn to the technology startup community.

I asked my investor friend what he considers the “special sauce” that convinces him to buy into a technology startup. He replied with five simple words: social, mobile, geolocation, gaming and commerce (meaning both the online and mobile varieties). If a company does three of these things in concert, it gets his attention. Four of them and he’s seriously interested. Five and it’s guaranteed his checkbook will be open.

What is so fascinating about venture capitalists is that they always seem to be ahead of the market. How do they catch those waves so early? How do they know a certain company will be a hit while others will fizzle? My friend said it’s not necessarily about the company or its leadership team, but about the trends themselves. In today’s market, the business trends of tomorrow are being created by what’s happening now in the social and consumer ecosystems.

So tell me, how much attention is your IT organization paying to these five key trends? We know from our coverage in CIO that mobile, social and IT consumerization are high on your radar. Have you already moved all new development to a mobile-first environment? Are you approaching business peers about building customer tools that take advantage of “SoLoMo?” That’s the buzzword coined earlier this year–a combination of “social,” “local” and “mobile”–to describe the social-media savvy, mobile-centric version of hyperlocal search (think Groupon, Yelp and Foursquare). Are you creating data mash-ups that help predict customer behavior or drive real-time pricing strategies?

These are the kinds of questions IT leaders should be thinking through now and ready to answer soon. The speed of change seems to increase by the month, and you can follow the venture capitalist money to watch our future unfolding.

What are you doing to keep up?

CIOs Need a Wakeup Call

Michael Friedenberg — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:14:50 +0000

Dear CIO Community: Your world has changed, and I’m not sure most of you have noticed the shifts that are putting you at risk of becoming irrelevant. Excuse the blunt wake-up call here, but when I meet CIOs, many of you tell me that your relevance and business value have never been higher. I don’t believe your CEO would agree.

Given what our enterprises have been asked to do over the past few years, I know how well you have delivered on optimizing, standardizing and consolidating IT operations. Yet the game is changing. While saving money through IT efficiencies still counts, the main business focus is on increasing revenue and deepening customer engagement by getting the most out of IT.

When I talk to business executives such as CEOs, CMOs, chief research officers, procurement heads and board members, they say IT is a fine business enabler but that the real innovation is happening in marketing, sales and R&D. Their challenge to me is this: “How can we make ‘CIO’ synonymous with ‘innovation’?”

If you doubt how much our world has changed, just look at this chart (my own creation) and tell me that something momentous isn’t happening:

Now is the time to step up and prove you can drive innovation and move at the speed of business. It’s a magnificent time to be in the CIO’s seat, given technology’s ability to solve many of our greatest business challenges. What are you doing to make sure the “I” in your title stands for innovation?