Here Today and Gone Tomorrow: Planning for Leadership Continuity

Organizations of all sizes and industries all have one thing in common; their executives are temporarily here today and gone tomorrow. Executives are being ousted, dying, or retiring and many organizations do not have an orderly succession plan to replace them. What is startling is Bower’s quote of a study in the Harvard Business Review that “…60 percent of the respondents to a poll of HR directors said their firms have no CEO succession planning process in place.”¹ ((Rothwell, W. (2005). Effective Succession Planning 3rd Edition: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within. New York, NY: AMACOM, pg. 6.)) Does your organization have a formalized planning program that methodically distinguishes and trains high-potential candidates for key leadership positions,² providing a talent pool when key leaders unexpectedly depart? Read On »

1. Bower, J. L. (Nov 2007). Solve the Succession Crisis by Growing Inside-Outside Leader. Harvard Business Review 85(11), pg. 90-96. [↩]
2. Associated Press (Nov 2007). Boards Fall Short on Succession Plans. Retrieved from http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=67668 on December 9, 2008. [↩]

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Tags: succession plan

Can IT be a Profit Center?

The debate rages on. There are strong views on both sides of the issue - yes and no. Here is a very good summary of the discussion so far…

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Posted in CIO Career, IT Organization Design, IT Strategy, Profit/Cost Center | No Comments » | 361 Views

Tags: IT as a profit center, profit center

How to Spot a CIO in Trouble?

Are there warning signs that your ship is taking water? Can you do something about it before it is too late?

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Posted in CIO Career | No Comments » | 549 Views

Tags: chief information officer, CIO, CIO Blunder, CIO Career, CIO Challenge, CIO Concern, CIO Index

CIO to CPO?

Is the Chief “information” officer role evolving to Chief “Process” Officer? What is the imperative for this move? How will it happen? Read On »

Posted in Business Process Management, CIO Career, Emerging Role of The CIO, Enterprise Architecture | No Comments » | 554 Views

Tags: bpm, chief information officer, chief process officer, CIO responsibilities, CIO role, CPO

Part 7: Complexity, change and turbulence

This article is the seventh and last in a series about the problems of change management in organizations. In the previous articles, we addressed the issue of complexity on several occasions, explaining that it renders change management more difficult. This time, we offer some ideas on management practices that are liable to increase complexity artificially along with adverse effects on change management. Read On »

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Tags: change management, managing change

CIO Hiring Blunders

When you are the decider, you tend to think you are above the law. Some fools act on this belief. Before you overplay your hand, read this investigation report into the hiring practices of a CIO organization! Read On »

Posted in CIO Career, Team Building | No Comments » | 427 Views

Tags: CIO Blunder, CIO Challenge, CIO Issue, CIO mistake, Team Building

Part 6: Managing the Transition

This article is the sixth in a series on managing organizational change. In the previous two, we concetrated on the phase of awakening to the need for change and on the dynamics of communication. In this article, we examine problems associated to the transition phase and suggest a number of measures for dealing with them. Read On »

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Tags: change management, managing change

The Emerging Role of the CIO

This is a very good collection of articles on the topic. The focus is on “government” CIO but the content serves any CIO. Good Read! Read On »

Posted in CIO Career, Emerging Role of The CIO | No Comments » | 415 Views

Tags: changing role of the CIO, CIO role, emerging role of the CIO, evolving role of the CIO

Part 5: Communication and change

This article is the fifth in a series dealing with the issue of managing change in organizations. The previous one,  showed that communication has a major influence on the process of organizational change. Therefore, before going on to the transition and ritualization stages, we shall deal in this article with communication since understanding the issues at stake in this connection will prove very useful in the following phases. Read On »

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Tags: change management, managing change

Integrated talent management: Part 2 Surviving corporate adolescence

Growing up has never been easy, for people or for organizations. This research identifies four broad stages of growth, each with particular talent management issues. Then it offers guidelines for anticipating and heading off the next set of challenges before they happen. Read On »

Posted in CIO Career, Team Building | No Comments » | 250 Views

Tags: talent management, Team Building