Data ESP – Exploitation [the ability to create value with data]; Sharing [the ability to distribute data]; and the ability to protect data will drive enterprise success for the next decade. THE number one barrier to exploiting, sharing and protecting data is – believe it or not – executive mindset and behavior. More specifically how the boss thinks about data and how the boss uses data.... Read more

2016 was a year of great learning. We re-discovered old truths; jettisoned no-longer-relevant orthodoxies and learned new things. 2017 will be a year for recalibrating assumptions and crafting new narratives. Here are some important “learnings” from the year just past.... Read more

Organizations are approaching change using the wrong framework. For the past eight years the terms “transformation” and “disruption” have reigned supreme in the popular press. While much has been written about these themes, the general consensus is that “transformation” and “disruption” in both for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises remains closer to art than science.... Read more

Every projection, about the future of every industry references data. The critical question many senior executive teams have not really come to grips with is – what is the future of data? What questions are we/should we be asking? I recently asked a group of CXOs what questions they were wrestling with in the data space. Several categories of questions emerged.... Read more

When Donald Trump takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, he'll face an urgent and growing threat: America's vulnerability to cyberattack. Some progress has been made in fortifying the nation's digital defenses. But the U.S. is still alarmingly exposed as it leaps into the digital age. If the 45th president wants to make America great again, he needs to address this growing insecurity.... Read more

In 2014, according to the CIA's World Factbook, the global economy [Gross World Product –GWP] was thought to approximate US $107.5 trillion. Just about every expert one talks to agrees that doing information technology [IT] right has the potential of materially impacting how fast the world economy grows. Very few experts agree on what exactly doing IT right means.... Read more

Humans have been interested in “doing it” right for a long, long time. In the early Paleolithic era our ancestors worried whether they were hunting and gathering right. In the agricultural age [beginning ~ 11,000 years ago] our forbears worried whether they were farming right. With agricultural surplus came urbanization and primitive forms of government. Our political progenitors worried whether they were leading and/or following right. The Greeks worried whether we were living right. Moses was concerned whether we were behaving right [remember the tablets?] Just recently large swaths of the American population became obsessed with whether they were voting right. On top of all these classically human concerns is a modern source of Manichean angst – are we doing information technology [IT] right?... Read more

History tells us a couple of things. Most agree that human capital is the bedrock of local and national success. In an age of cheap money human capital has become more important than financial capital. There are a variety of forces at work disrupting how human capital is created and managed.... Read more

There is a lot of money being spent on information security [Infosec] these days. The e-mail encryption market is anticipated to grow 23% a year till 2020. Spending on data security is expected to grow 9.8% a year till 2021 when total spending is forecast in the $202 billion range. The cost of data breaches is forecast to increase to $2.1 trillion globally by 2019, almost four times the estimated cost of breaches in 2015. One of the questions facing organizations today is “where should Infosec go?” Where should the information security organization and the Chief Information Security Officer [the CISO] be placed on the organizational chart?... Read more

Pundits have characterized the 2016 American presidential election as a contest pitting a candidate of no ideas against one with old ideas. I am not certain this is a totally fair assessment. This ideas-lite form of politics is surprising giving the fact that we live in an age awash with big ideas. I recently undertook a research project seeking to better understand the Big Ideas driving the world we live in.... Read more