New Relic CEO: User experience and business outcomes
As part of the CXOTalk series of conversations with innovators, I sat down with Lew Cirne, the CEO of New Relic . His company is a web-based provider of application performance management software, which means they help customers measure issues such as response time from applications. Along with measurement, New Relic aggregates data across its […]
CXOTalk: Upcoming conversations with 13 enterprise leaders
The first episode of CXOTalk was presented on March 8, 2013, with Guy Kawasaki as guest number one. When Guy accepted the invitation without hesitation, I knew CXOTalk was onto something big. Fast forward a few years and we’ve now done over 150 long-form interviews with more recorded every week. Today, I am thrilled to […]
Palo Alto CIO: What are smart cities?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is among the promising and interesting parts of digital transformation. The application of sensors, cloud and mobile devices to improve life in urban areas is often called smart cities. Palo Alto, California, located in the heart of Silicon Valley has taken a lead in developing smart city services. For this […]
Is 2016 (finally) the year of IT disruption?
We all know the business environment is changing rapidly, it’s a cliché to say so. And yet, the impact of digital has had a profound influence on IT and the CIO. The massive popularity of the buzzword phrase digital transformation attests to this. This impact is significant to the point where questions about CIO relevance […]
Enterprise graph snark and ‘research’ gone wild
Research is important and I enjoy reviewing the many reports, surveys, and other forms of data that cross my desk. Some of that research is excellent, and I try to share the best in blog posts. Unfortunately, many so-called “research” reports are thinly veiled marketing campaigns offering little substance or meaning. This problem has reached […]
Xerox PARC: Glimpse the future of Internet of Things (IoT)
[embedded content] The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, which most people refer to as Xerox PARC, is one of the most fabled institutions in Silicon Valley. Founded in 1970, Xerox PARC is the birthplace of innovations such as (from Wikipedia): Laser printers Computer-generated bitmap graphics The graphical user interface, featuring windows and icons, operated with […]
What do business people think of their CIO?
Digital transformation is changing the relationship between the CIO and other parts of the enterprise. The proliferation of technology among business people, coupled with specialized requirements in areas such as marketing and finance, have led to significant growth of technology budgets outside the control of IT. As a result, CIOs are in a race to […]
Digital impact: Marketing, CRM, and customer experience
The ongoing shift to digital as a predominant means for consumers to interact with sellers has significant implications for marketing, product design, customer service and other corporate functions. In this environment, providing a great experience for customers requires organizations to think holistically about every touchpoint and interaction with customers. However, using customer experience as a […]
Personal disruption: Practical advice for corporate innovation, transformation, and leadership
Before writing her most recent book, titled Disrupt Yourself, author Whitney Johnson was a business partner with superstar thinker Clayton Christensen, who pioneered the concept of disruptive and sustaining innovation. In the book, Johnson urges readers to apply Christensen’s principles of disruptive innovation to their professional career. She believes that applying these principles to oneself […]
Large company innovation gone wrong: Kashi vs. Kellogg’s
Innovation and startups are important topics in my discussions with senior business leaders on CXOTalk. For many large companies, startups can jump start innovation and bypass corporate antibodies that favor stability over growth. Although the value of startups to established firms is clear, managing the relationship can be fraught with difficulty. In this guest post, […]
CIO survival skills: Digital mindset and the impact on IT
Historically, IT departments consisted of large computers, located in air conditioned facilities, requiring specialized expertise to run, program, and maintain. Given the complexity, cost, and difficulty of using these early computers, IT staff were the high priests and business users did not have direct access to the machines. In 1967, computer architect Robert S. Barton […]
Mozilla Firefox: Open source, community, and ethical marketing
Version one of the venerable Firefox browser was released in 2004. Today, 41 versions later, Firefox is the third most popular browser and its developer, Mozilla, employs 1,000 people. As an organization based on the principles of open source, Mozilla relies on a strong community of volunteers. Almost 11,000 “Mozillians” in 87 countries participate in […]
HR Millennial report: ‘We want transparency, honesty, and opportunity’
We often hear discussions about Millennials in the workplace. This generation, consisting of people born roughly between 1980 and 2000, will play an increasingly important role in the knowledge economy. The image shows how large the Millennial group is in comparison to other generations. To learn more about how Millennials view the work environment, I […]
Salesforce: The unifying message is ‘customer first’
In November 2008, I attended Salesforce.com’s annual Dreamforce conference for the first time along with 9,000 of the company’s customers and partners. The sense of camaraderie among attendees, many of whom were early adopters of the cloud and software-as-a-service religion, was eye-opening. Along with CEO Marc Benioff’s evangelical fervor for the cloud, the catchy “No […]
Formula 1 racing: Sensors, data, speed, and the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is all about collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data from devices and sensors. And Formula 1 race cars are among the most interesting of those “things.” A quick look at the Formula 1 technology site presents the latest technical developments used in these race cars: It’s a highly technical sport and […]
