management
The general manager: a dying breed
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 03/07/2010 - 04:04I read an interesting article on Piet Hein de Sonnaville, a well known director of a tier 1 interim management company, who concluded after a study that the interim general manager is disappearing rapidly. Due to the ever growing demand for project managers, the traditional more generic breed of managers is dying out. Being a member of this species myself, I compared his observations with mine.
The IT-department in 2020
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 19/06/2010 - 05:07I was invited to the WCIT conference in Amsterdam last week. I attended a panel discussion with CIO's of public and private organizations. Although the theme for the congress was all about change and innovation, I got rather depressed with the poor comments most of the panel members made. The closing question was by far the most interesting: How will your It-department look in 10 years from now?
Managing innovation: a contradiction in terms?
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 05/06/2010 - 05:40Managing means control, budget, choices and organization. Innovation is all about creativity, the unknown and often anarchy. Sworn enemies, necessary evil or unexpected allies? My analysis of pragmatic symbiosis.
Break out of the maintenance loop: the cloud as salvation?
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 22/05/2010 - 06:05I have commented quite often on the ridiculous high percentage of maintenance related costs within the IT budget. During the last year many of the industries mastodons have jumped on this bandwagon. Of course, all in their own interest.
Turning your organization around: from supply driven to demand driven
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 08/05/2010 - 06:06In the context of my previous blogs on High Performance Organizations, I was asked about the importance of the organizational principles and methods used. The answer for me is simple: demand driven organizations will win in the end.
Adding IT-resources: Hiring or contracting?
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Mon, 26/04/2010 - 07:53When the crises did hit us, I commented on Cleaning out the IT-department and some additions. Amongst others I suggested to seek for a good balance between using hired and contracted staff. Now that things are starting to grow again, this balance becomes a topic of discussion again within senior management. In my opinion you have to re-apply the things I suggested when you had to shrink your operation.
The Requirements Management Checklist: Recognize a Project That Benefits from More Grip
Submitted by Hans Lodder on Sat, 17/04/2010 - 05:07Sometime ago Olga Warffemius reported on the Erasmus University Medical Center (EMC) program Enabling New Initiatives. Hans van Nes observed that the paper pushing paradox inhibits grip. What can improve grip furthermore?
Don't give me problems, give me solutions: a coaching anecdote
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 10/04/2010 - 08:26After my last blog on the personal coach and the differences with the more traditional roles of consultants, I got quite a lot of positive response. At the same time I also had to explain these differences it to some (non-professional ICT) persons. A substantial crash with my PC gave me an unexpected rather cynical example to explain this in another way.
KPI assessment: How good are your KPI's?
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 13/03/2010 - 07:59In a lot of discussions we had with our audience on KPI's, it was acknowledged that a lot of KPI's do not work, lead to managing on the wrong assumptions, and in general are not maintained to keep in sync with the organizations' objectives. As a result of this we are regularly asked to assess and improve KPI-sets. These are some of our general findings.
High Performance Organizations: strong leadership definition
Submitted by Hans van Nes on Sat, 27/02/2010 - 06:00After my last blog in which I advocated strong leadership being the most important aspect to achieve a high performance organization, I promised you to give you my definition of leadership combined with the comments I would have received from you.
