Unfortunately, creating an efficient and effective culture is easier said than done. It’s certainly not something that can just be imposed from above. None the less, the cost of the status quo can be significant, if not fatal. So try we must to develop teams that produce positive results. Hopefully Mr. Bahel’s ideas can help get you rolling in the right direction.

Also there were two related articles on CIOInsight.com: “Key Questions on Recruitment” by Larry Bonfante, as well as “An Absence of IT Talent” by John Parkinson.

In short, there seems to be a fair amount misunderstanding when it comes to BI. Well, at least Prof. Fader thinks so.

Innovation isn’t some sort of mystical silver bullet that will solve all of our problems. Nor is it some new technology that we can buy and implement. Innovation is about creatively leveraging the tools and processes at your disposal to drive business value.

To drive innovation, you must be open to the reality that a percentage of the things you try will not work out as hoped. As Edison quipped when asked about the creation of the light bulb, “I hadn’t failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Is your organization willing to stub its toe, or will it punish people who take educated risks that don’t pan out?

The bottom line… Get out there… Grab some tools… Jump in… And start to figure out what works and what doesn’t for your situation. “Failures” are simply a down payment on future success. Planning is important but also keep in mind that if the rules are shifting quickly then drilling down to too fine a set of details is not going to be very effective. Finally, when necessary seek out open-mind, forward thinking specialists and leave the chest thumping “experts” where they belong — in the 20th century.

With that said, doing so is not easy because being human has its faults.

CIO Insight: What key things do CIOs need to keep in mind in executing their strategy through the recession?
Tony Scott: …The second thing is strategy. I compare that to when you first learn to drive a car. If you only look a few feet in front of the car, you wobble all over the road and steer around every little bump in the road. If you look down the road a bit, the car goes straighter, it’s a more enjoyable ride and you become a better driver.

Regardless of what side of screen / browser you sit on it’s hard to imagine a business that isn’t directly or even indirectly impacted by software in some way. In a few minutes this article will brief you on what’s it all about and where Mr. Chou predicts it’s all going. You might also recognize Mr. Chou as being the author of “The End of Software” (Sams, 2004) as well as “Seven” (www.lulu.com/activebookpress).

Another quick read that beats having to digest a whole book just for a couple good to know thoughts.