I’m often puzzled by the fact that most IT departments do a very good job of the day-to-day things that we are asked to do. I mean, there is a lot that goes on in an IT department each and every day and somehow we seem to be able to get it all done. However, when it comes time to do a large IT project for some mysterious reason, things seem to fall apart which is odd considering the importance […]

In supply management you get value from your key suppliers by agreeing a purpose for your relationship with them and then translating this into objectives, targets, measures and specific actions that deliver that purpose. If you don’t do this then their failure to deliver real value either goes unnoticed (and so operational problems are never solved and there is no innovation) or at best is informal and unstructured and therefore never delivers. To get this value you need a process […]

So how can we manage C-level executives of organizations before their next IT Projects commence? Specifically, they need to be kept fully accountable for their initial input and project decisions that they make *before* the project commences. This is because these are the critical investment and pre-implementation decisions that will drive subsequent business processes for these IT projects. As HP CEO, Mark Hurd, went on to say about the job of the CEO: “At the end of the day, [the […]

Covered Wagons and the Oregon Trail As covered wagons made their way along the Oregon Trail headed for the gold fields of California or the lush timber of Oregon, whenever the wagon wheels started to squeak, the wagon driver knew it was time to stop and grease the squeaking wheel-before it failed. Along the trail there wasn’t the equivalent of a Firestone or Goodyear to get a replacement. A failed wheel was inconvenient at best or a matter of life […]

Trading in swap contracts have been significantly impacted as a result of the recent changes in market trading and have changed as a result of these changes. Swap contracts have recently growing in popularity due to an increased sophistication on the part of borrowers, as well as due to all time lows on interest rates that many organizations are attempting to lock in. Swap contracts are often used as a way to lock in a fixed rate of interest on […]

When you become CIO, you’ll probably have all of the technical skills that you need to stay on top of today’s cutting edge IT issues such as storage, bandwidth, cloud computing, etc. In fact, I’d guess that you’ve gotten the message and you will have developed your management talents so that you will be well positioned to align the IT department with the rest of the business. However, there is one thing that you may have forgotten to get: a […]

In many quarters, salary is a crucial issue that varies a lot. And tractor supply companies know that all too well. Besides receiving hefty salary packages, assistant managers in tractor supply companies are required to have relevant industry knowledge, agricultural background and strong communication skills in order to work in a retail environment of sturdy magnitude. Besides the aforementioned requirements, these managers are also expected not only to operate store equipment such as forklifts or hand-truck; but they are equally […]

Every IT manager knows that analytics is all the rage in almost every company now and has almost become a part of the definition of information technology. Your management has been reading those magazine articles that say now that databases have grown large enough to hold virtually every piece of data that the company collects and servers have become cheap enough to throw at any number crunching problem that the IT department might have. However, what seems to have been […]

There have been a lot of leadership fads. Some of them just die away without even getting enough attention to take off. Yet, every now and then, we come across some interesting concepts and ideas that could revolutionize leadership in the workplace. Two such trends in contemporary times are transformational leadership and servant leadership. On the one hand, transformational leadership is an approach that seeks to create positive change in the minds and habits of followers or subordinates. In transforming […]