James Drogan

Mark Twain is said to have closed a letter to a friend by saying, “I’m sorry this is such a long letter. I didn't’t have time to write a shorter one.”

My sense is that your voice, while appearing clear and comprehensive to you, may not be seen the same way by the readers you would like to attract. For example, finding my way through your material and that of others is a bit of a chore.  A lot of stuff. On the other hand, maybe my capacity for reading with comprehension or, for that matter, my interest is beginning to falter.

I’ve often heard that a job seeker has the first third of the first page of his letter of introduction to attract the attention of the reader. If s/he doesn't, the letter is consigned to the trash. Studies show that people rarely go more than three pages deep in an Internet search. All of us have our elevator speeches loaded and ready to go. None of this represents, I hope, shallowness on our part, but rather an appreciation of the value of time to those to whom we would speak.

Perhaps you are asking your readers to “eat an elephant” every time they encounter you. Perhaps they would rather have a bon bon. You need to figure that out.

This brings me to the principles of communication with which I belabor my students.

1. The grammar and syntax of the messages being exchanged are understood.
   
2. The information communicated in the messages is relevant.
   
3. The medium of communication is acceptable.
   
4. There is a desire to communicate.
   
5. There is confirmation of understanding.
   

Anyway, maybe it’s not you who have not found your voice, but your interlocutors who have not found your voice. Maybe you should think about trying a different voice.

Re Conversations with Dave

I have for a long time tried to eschew labels for they tend to hide the important essence of whatever is being labeled. Labels are an easy way around thinking; an easy way to cede responsibility and accountability. If, for example, I declaimed I only wished to speak with and read liberals I would miss much in the way of good thinking and interesting experiences.

Re: Conversations with Dave 

There is a companion article to "The Trouble With Enterprise Software" in this issue (Fall 2007) of the MIT Sloan Management Review that also bears reading, "Avoiding the Alignment Trap in IT."  Its lead is “Information technology remains a terrible bottleneck to growth in most companies, mainly because executives focus on the wrong remedy for their IT problems.”

My sense is that neither article really explores the hypotheses that 1.) its the underlying complexity of the business that is often the progenitor of the issues these two articles address, and 2.) human nature is often a significant contributor to severity of the issues.

In the fall of 1988 I participated in a customer conference sponsored by the Burlington Northern (A Service Management System: The Role of Information Systems in the Preparation and Management of Transportation Service Packages, Forward Motion Symposium, sponsored by Burlington Northern, Las Colinas, November 1988) where, as I recall, I chanted two mantras. “Get the business right, then put the technology in.” and “Eliminate, simplify, automate; in that order.”

I continue to think these are applicable. However, as I argued in The Future, complexity may no longer be containable. Management of rising complexity at the necessary pace may require a deeper integration between the machine and the person (symbiotic decision support systems according to our old friend, Marvin Manheim).

I would suggest that if the issues raised in the two SMR articles are to be resolved, we need to look upstream.

From today's Wall Street Journal, p A10. 

"In Olso yesterday, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country's military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World.

The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.

Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.

Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.

Or to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country.

Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting President Vladimir Putin's slide toward authoritarian rule.

Or to the people of Iraq, who bravely work to rebuild and reunite their country amid constant threats to themselves and their families from terrorists who deliberately target civilians.

Or to Presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili who, despite the efforts of the Kremlin to undermine their young states, stayed true to the spirit of the peaceful "color" revolutions they led in Ukraine and Georgia and showed that democracy can put down deep roots in Russia's backyard.

Or to Britain's Tony Blair, Ireland's Bertie Ahern and the voters of Northern Ireland, who in March were able to set aside decades of hatred to establish joint Catholic-Protestant rule in Northern Ireland.

Or to thousands of Chinese bloggers who run the risk of arrest by trying to bring uncensored information to their countrymen.

Or to scholar and activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, jailed presidential candidate Ayman Nour and other democracy campaigners in Egypt.

Or, posthumously, to lawmakers Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi and Gibran Tueni; journalist Samir Kassir; and other Lebanese citizens who've been assassinated since 2005 for their efforts to free their country from Syrian control.

Or to the Reverend Phillip Buck; Pastor Chun Ki Won and his organization, Durihana; Tim Peters and his Helping Hands Korea; and Liberty in North Korea, who help North Korean refugees escape to safety in free nations.

These men and women put their own lives and livelihoods at risk by working to rid the world of violence and oppression. Let us hope they survive the coming year so that the Nobel Prize Committee might consider them for the 2008 award."

We need to be reminded from time to time of the richness of the soul and spirit possessed by some of our fellow travelers on Spaceship Earth.  Would that some of what they are rubs off on me.

Here's a bit of practical advice courtesy of Dave (yes, the Dave that has figured in my blog at other times).

While I have learned many of these, I wish I had learned them earlier in life. 

In my July 20, 2007 Note to Student re Career Considerations I attempt to provide some guidance to a student on considerations regarding career choices.  In today's New York Times is this article with good advice on what to do after you've walked in the door for the first time.

You have executed, presumably, a strategy for making a career decision.  Don't compromise the results by failing to have a strategy for the early days on the job. 

In the nearly four years I have been at Maritime College and my increased use of the Westport Public Library over the last six years I have developed a deeper appreciation of the value of library in the communities of which I am part.

This paper, A Center for Learning, discusses the future development of the library.

I've created a new lecture note for my MIS in Transportation class, The Future.

The concluding portion of this note is:

"The fourth principle for applying information technology is, “Information systems are technology plus process plus tools plus skills plus culture.” Examination of the antecedents of this phrase would reveal that I did not always write it this way. I expect that if one examined a consensus of experts on the significant issues associated with information systems (once called data processing systems) over the last four decades, one would see changes in this list also.

The argument being advanced in this lecture note is that while significant and radical change is likely to occur in the underlying technology (i.e., the components described above) simply because it seems to have its own momentum, the significant and radical change that must take place is in the processes, tools, and skills with which we make change our ally, at best, and cope with it, at a minimum. At worst, of course, we fail on both counts and perish.

I have strongly suggested the processes, tools, and skills that we have long held to be satisfactory are becoming less so; that the big bang theory of information systems has outlived its usefulness; that continuous improvement, innovation, and the rise of the COMS, collaboration, and short SIDAL cycles will be beneficial to the health of the enterprise.

Alluded to, but now needing to be made explicit, are people as the critical success factor. I repeat here;

“Managing the future is beginning to center around the quality of people, and the degree to which they understand the characteristics of the organization to which they belong and are empowered to act on that understanding.”

The role of the educational systems, particularly those in higher education, will be to produce a graduate attuned to the times, able to step into leadership positions, and with an uncommon integration of technical, business, and relationship skills, will be paramount. My sense is that there is significant advancement to be made on this front.

The products of a high performance educational system need an equally enlightened enterprise framework, particularly with respect to the management of the human asset. The value of people to an enterprise is almost never accounted for, only their costs. This needs to change.

Innovation and continuous improvement would seem, on the face of it, to be oil and water. But I wonder whether this is indeed true. The future of information systems may well lie in aligning the strengths in each of these concepts. "

From time to time, Prof. Karl Lang at Baruch, invites me to have a discussion with his class on issues related to IT.

Last night the discussion as about the McKinsey report mentioned as the title to this post.  The preparatory note for this discussion can be found here. 

This post is intended to be the start of a threaded discussion with the students (and other interested people) on this subject of IT strategy.

I also want to thank Prof. Lang and the students for an enjoyable and worthwhile evening.  I'm not sure my remarks ever survive good scrutiny by good students.  I come away from this sessions learning more about other views on the matter at hand.  That is good. 

In May of last year I posted regarding the acquisition of an iPod.  It has continued to work out well, expanding the reach and range of the material that I get exposed to and learn from.  And it makes good use of the time available when commuting.

I've been particularly struck by a couple of recent podcasts.

The first is from HBR Ideacast.

Redefining Global Strategy: Harvard Business Online's Steve Singer talks with Pankaj Ghemawat, author of the upcoming book Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in a World Where Differences Still Matter. 

The link is an iTunes url.

Ghemawat provides a view of globalization that is substantial different from what one finds in the mass media.  In short, he estimates that  globalization has perhaps half as much impact as many people think.  He also has a companion article on HBR Online, Globalization Myths Versus Reality.

The second is from IT  Conversations.

Rich in linguistic play and delivered with both wit and panache, Eben Moglen's talk is an intellectual delight. Beginning with a look at the history of memory from the public recording of England's 11th century Domesday Book, Moglen leads us through the private memory palaces of 14th and 15th centuries to the problems of privacy that started with photographic technology. Convincing us that we have willingly given away our data and that those who now possess it have the right to use it, Moglen proposes voluntary data collectives as the answer.

Again, an iTunes url.

Fascinating, provocative examination of the subject of memory, in many forms and with many implications.  Remarkable speaker.  I could hear no background noise from the audience.  Maybe this was just a good recording setup, but I doubt it.