Mark McDonald, a year-after-year favorite WTN Fusion speaker, created a compelling case for Information Technology’s next revolution at the recent Fusion 2017 conference. Mainframe computers, the first innovation, made Information Technology (IT) a specialty that enabled organizations to scale their operations. Client Servers, the next innovation, and the software they deployed allowed processes to be dramatically improved and automated – think ERP systems, on-line purchasing, and Human Resource systems. Next came mobile computing and the digital transformation of businesses that greatly enhanced customer experience. All of these stages were ones of mechanization, with hardware and software replacing previously manual activities. The next wave of IT-related change brings widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), transforming IT’s focus from managing processes and experiences to managing outcomes. Large database tools, cloud computing, machine learning, interpreting text, and affordable storage and computational power have collectively moved AI…
The wisdom of the wonk
Might Martin O’Malley beat Hillary Clinton in the primary? Not according to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, who dismissed the declared candidate’s primary chances. Calling the former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Governor a “wonk,” Milbank’s March 11 column applauded O’Malley’s many real accomplishments but declared him unable to excite the Democratic base. Milbank quotes O’Malley as saying, “We brought crime down by 43 percent. We reduced the number of children poisoned by lead in our city by 71 percent. We cut in half the number of children placed in foster care. We reduced infant mortality by more than 17 percent. We drove down avoidable hospital re-admissions by more than 10 percent in just the first year of trying.” You get the picture. Results. Not miles traveled around the globe, or evidence of caring about women since forever. Neither Tea Party rallying cries, nor being unwilling to admit…
A search for “the whole truth”
I used to love Meet the Press, the Sunday morning TV show where I’d gain new insights into a pressing public issue. Today the show feels more like a platform for propaganda from different sides of the political debate. For example, when guest Rachael Maddow tried to dig into the “fundamental disagreement about the facts” between Democrat’s and the GOP’s view on women’s economic issues, it could have been an opportunity for host David Gregory to add, “Might both arguments be true?” We, the audience, could have discovered how the issue is far more complex than the simplistic explanations offered by the propagandists. But it wasn’t understanding that increased, just the volume from each side spouting its pre-planned comments and incomplete solutions. The demise of what I (and many others) valued in Meet the Press is symptomatic of a larger trend in our…
Enhance business model performance by becoming a “social organization”
Entering 2012, leadership teams are hotly debating social media. How should we use it? How might it shape markets? Will we lose control of our brand image? And, what policies should we adopt for its use? Into this mix, Anthony Bradley and Mark McDonald thankfully remind C-Suite leaders that social media “is a means to an end, not the end itself” and that the end can be a really exciting business purpose. Bradley and McDonald are Group Vice Presidents at Gartner Inc., a leading information technology research and advisory company. Their new book, “The Social Organization:How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees” (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011) is required reading for companies seeking to build competitive advantage by deploying social media strategically. The authors move quickly beyond the use of social media for marketing communications….