Higher education: Innovation and digital transformation
Lisa Davis, CIO at Georgetown University, explains how colleges and universities must adapt to the changing landscape of technology in education.

Digital transformation: CIO / CMO and the crisis of confidence
A few years ago, Gartner analysts predicted, “by 2017, the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO.” As you can see from the opening slide on their presentation (registration required) about the topic, Gartner trumpeted this prediction loudly: Although Gartner phrased its prediction to gain attention, the detailed explanatory presentation offers vague and rather inconclusive data to support the core […]

Business transformation and the digital CIO
Many innovative enterprises are evaluating how to take advantage of opportunities created by cloud, social, mobile, and data with analytics. The implications go far beyond technology into core activities related to business model, corporate culture, and interactions with customers. Many companies making these changes undertake shifts in organizational priorities, goals, and technology platforms. Taken as […]
CIO strategy workshop: Intel’s IT leadership and transformation pyramid
The days of pure infrastructure IT, in which the CIO is responsible for little more than feeds and speeds, are ending. The path of modern CIO success requires meeting expectations from the business while reducing costs and finding ways to drive innovation. Because these goals can be mutually exclusive, accomplishing all three together is a significant CIO challenge. During a CxOTalk conversation […]

Saving the dry, lifeless soul of enterprise software
A special edition of CxOTalk (episode 44) brings together three top analysts to discuss why enterprise software is so uninspired and how to fix the problem. The conversation is fun, exciting, and completely engaging.

Workday: Linking technology design and user experience
Workday is among the most high-profile examples of a new breed of enterprise software, based completely in the cloud. Started by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, who led PeopleSoft prior to the acquisition by Oracle, Workday is now a public company. As part of the CxOTalk series of conversations with innovators, we spoke with Workday’s Chief Technology Officer, Stan […]

Fixing government tech: Innovation against ‘IT cartels’ and ‘complex systems’
Three of the most innovative CIOs in government suggest ways to improve federal, state, and local information technology.
Enterprise innovation: CxOTalk thought leadership
Every week, CxOTalk brings together prominent executives, authors, and analysts to discuss innovation in enterprise business and technology. Conducted live and unscripted on open video, CxOTalk offers a rich source of thought leadership from the most innovative practitioners and thinkers in the world. The show adopts an informal style to humanize top enterprise leaders and […]

Dreamforce 2013: Three startups to watch
As someone focused on enterprise innovation, particularly related to activities by the CIO and CMO, I pay close attention to startups. While large or established organizations bring scale and process to enterprise technology, startups are where to find people pushing the boundaries of what is possible, interesting, and useful. For that reason, I visited with […]

Marketing: Community emerges as a source of customer ‘truth’
During a recent CxOTalk conversation with Wendy Lea, CEO of Get Satisfaction (disclosure: I am an advisor), we discussed the value of online communities in brand marketing. Although support organizations have long used communities to improve customer service and reduce costs, the relationship of community to marketing is particularly interesting. You can view the entire discussion […]

Enterprise software: ‘Do our customers love us?’
A recent conversation with analyst Ray Wang, who appeared on CxOTalk (see video embedded below), makes clear that a significant business model shift is taking place in many companies. This shift marks a turning point away from feature-based selling to a broader focus on the ultimate outcomes that reflect customers’ business goals and got me thinking about […]
CxOTalk: Compelling discussions with enterprise leaders
About 25 weeks ago, I announced the start of a weekly broadcast called CxOTalk. Since then, CxOTalk has become one of the top independent forums for intelligent and insightful discussion around innovation, disruption, tensions between…

Sports marketing and technology with the New England Patriots
The business of professional sports depends on a team’s ability to attract fans into seats but also generate licensing, merchandise, and concession revenues. In this day of the large-screen man cave, with all the comforts of home, teams must work even harder to create an appealing stadium experience. Finding new ways to deepen fans’ emotional […]
CIO lessons from the Boston Celtics
Basketball is a big deal here in Beantown, so it was with great pleasure that I visited the Boston Celtics to meet with Vice President of Technology, Jay Wessel, and legendary player Jo Jo White. Of course, the Celtics is a professional sports team, which naturally influences how the organization thinks about both business and technology; perhaps needless to say, […]

Pabst CIO: Sales advice for enterprise startups
During a conversation with Ben Haines, the CIO of Pabst Brewing Company, we focused on cloud transformation and the impact on IT. Ben believes cloud software can drive both efficiency and innovation, which his approach to buying and deploying technology reflects. The discussion is part the CxO Talk series that I conduct each week with co-host Vala […]