March Fisher

David – I’m not so sure I would consider this a simple task. When implementing metrics, there are multiple approaches that must be considered (top-down or bottom-up) along with alignment with corporate vision and strategic goals. This requires cross functional departments to provide ongoing input. Tracking the money can be simple for a small…[Read more]

I’m a participant and supporter for a mission team that goes to Nicaragua several times a year to help teach locals how to create a healthy and sustaining lifestyle. Based on the definitions for a community of practice (CoP), I believe this team fill this role. Depending on the time of year when the team goes, there is a leader who works with o…[Read more]

I have a similar story Jordan with my son’s school’s PTO. Like you, I got suckered into, I mean elected as the Treasurer. Curses accounting background! 🙂 It’s for a good cause and yours sounds much more interesting. Kudos to you!

Mori – I think you nailed the importance of professionals adding value to products. In theory, self-publishing sounds perfect, cut the middle men out and keep more for yourself, however, good writers aren’t necessarily great editors. For me, I find it difficult to look beyond grammatical errors when reading and sometimes lose focus on the rea…[Read more]

If you were in charge of open innovation at Siemens, what metrics would you use to measure your success?
A performance measurement should exist to empower decision makers and innovation teams and properly assess, control and measure the performance of open innovation activities. I believe there should be three phases of the measurement…[Read more]

I agree Mariya and will add another important aspect that is necessary for companies to evoke open innovation, they must be willing to collaborate with external partners who have known success in this task. The most obvious partners that come to mind for me is the academia realm. Universities are known for its open source and innovation…[Read more]

How did Radiohead decide to sell their album “In Rainbows”? How successful was it? What problems do you think this might create for other artists?
Radiohead made the album “In Rainbows” available for download on its website. Instead of setting a price, the British rock band simply asked its fans to donate what they thought was suitabl…[Read more]

I’m glad to see security is an issue that was raised. At my work, our reinsurance broker’s license a hurricane model that will be moving to a cloud-based platform. Since we are subject to Florida’s Sunshine law, which relates to disclosing personal information and public records requests, the cloud infrastructure brings unique security conce…[Read more]

So Jordan, what you’re saying is the President requires people to work around his inabilities but he looks cool, right? That is awesome! :O

The company I work for does have a BYOD policy but puts restrictions on using the web if they use the Wi-Fi. To monitory web usage on our PCs as well as the BYOD, IT uses Websense, a software…[Read more]

Technology enables diverse cultures to collaborate more efficiently, in every sphere, which results in people and organizations working closely together. True global companies are better at communication, transportation and production efficiencies as a result of advanced technologies. The Internet provides companies around the world with a tool…[Read more]

Why would a company use these services from Amazon instead of maintaining their own infrastructure?

Amazon’s Simple Storage ServiceS3 is a service that companies who do not want to provide the infrastructure for data storage would use. This could be a smaller company that does not have an IT department and houses larger files. At my c…[Read more]

Great post Amanda!

Wyeth recognized the importance of normalizing its data to ensure consistency across all systems and data reporting. While this was a huge undertaking, it was necessary for IT and business units to invest in this initiative. When transitioning from multiple operating systems onto one system, the company I work for had to…[Read more]

Wyeth launched an IT-enabled globalization strategy in an effort to create an integrated pharmaceutical company. This required a major shift in control where IT transitioned from a low priority support function to the key enabler in overseeing Wyeth’s globalization effort. Centralization of the processes and IT infrastructure would not a…[Read more]

Completely agree Joyce. Matulovic nailed it on the head by not getting bogged down in the technical weeds and knew the focus was on governance. I wonder what it would have been like for Volkswagen had he not provided such a strategic approach.

Eric – I too am in your company. The insurance company I work for is ending a 6 year project where a new operating system was being implemented. What started the company’s Gulf War was a result of not investing in IT properly. Similar to Volkswagen, we farmed a lot of IT services out to vendors. After the 2004-2005 hurricane seasons, it was…[Read more]

The company I work at just went through converting multiple business systems onto one operations system. This process has taken over 6 years and has been an enormous project for the IT department as well as its supporting business departments. The operations system itself is an example of systems thinking, however, I believe a better example is…[Read more]

I work for a Florida quasi-governmental property insurance company so many of the 9 boxes tend to get complicated, so I’ll focus on box 1, customer segments. Before I dive into the box, I’d like to share what makes the company unique. The company exits because there are homes and businesses throughout Florida that are vulnerable to hur…[Read more]

Excellent post Bill!

I think it will take a lot of buy-in and time for Matulovic to convince the other leadership of the value added IT has versus its obstacle status. Another recommendation for solving the issue of him being the ultimate decider when others try to bypass the system is to announce the upcoming year’s finalized project list and…[Read more]

How is it possible that under this new system a “critical” project (global supply chain system) was unfunded? What should be done about that?

The enterprise goal ranking for project prioritization ranked “Optimize the Supply Flow” at the bottom of the list, which is why the global supply chain system did not get funded. The supply chain p…[Read more]

How should Matulovic respond to his fellow executives who are calling to ask him for special treatment outside the new priority management system?
This is what office politics is all about! I believe Matulovic should review what each of the executives are requesting and evaluate if the prioritization needs to be adjusted or not. More…[Read more]