Business, Digital Transformation, Leadership, Management, Tech Talk Shorts

The “Consultancy Trap”

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Are you buying a solution… or a dependency? 🛑

Consultants can be a great asset, but there’s a fine line between “getting help” and “losing control.”

In this episode of Tech Talk Shorts, I explore why so many organizations fall into the consultancy trap and how you can protect your company’s internal intelligence.

What we cover:


âś… Identifying “Consultancy Creep” before it starts.
âś… Why your internal teams are often better suited for the “DNA” of the project.
âś… How to use outside firms as a tool, not a crutch.

The most successful companies don’t just hire experts—they build them from within.

👇 I’d love to hear your thoughts: Have you ever seen a project that could have been handled better by an internal team? Let’s discuss in the comments.

AI, Business, Digital Transformation, Innovation, Tech Talk Shorts, Technology

Stop sending your AI problems to the IT department. 🛑

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Most companies are treating AI as a “tech race.” They’re buying the latest tools but plugging them into broken, messy processes. The result? They just end up with a faster mess. In this episode of Tech Talk Shorts, I break down why successful AI adoption isn’t an IT project—it’s a business transformation journey.

Key Takeaways:

âś… Why your CIO shouldn’t be the only one leading AI.

âś… The role of the Business Transformation Office.

âś… The “Golden Rule”: Simplify the process before you automate it.

👇 Watch the full short below and let’s discuss: Is your team ready for AI, or are your processes holding you back?

Innovation, Technology

I am thrilled to announce the official release of the Security Advisories Alerts mobile app

The Security Advisories Alerts app delivers regularly refreshed CVE data from the MITRE corporation every 3 hours. Focus on what matters by selecting from 80+ vendors and receive instant alerts for new advisories.

View recent and historical advisories, identify vulnerable vendors, track trends, explore vendor‑specific summaries, and quickly share detailed advisories with your security team.

Download the app now from Google Play and never miss a security advisory again.

Business, Digital Transformation, Technology

CIOs Still Waiting for Cloud Investments to Pay Off

Even while CIOs are still waiting for their #cloud investments to pay off, many CSPs continue to pitch their services using the same drained, clichĂ©d, and overused argument: “moving to the cloud with save you money”.

Many companies that have shifted enterprise-technology tools into the cloud in recent years, in part as a cost-saving measure, say those investments have yet to pay off. Some are even seeing costs go up.

Cloud computing definitely comes with a vast array of benefits. Yet, CSPs are ethically obliged to exercise rational and realistic TCO and ROI studies along with their potential clients, to highlight the gains and the projected expenses.

Cloud computing is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Read more:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cios-still-waiting-for-cloud-investments-to-pay-off-11664449203

Business, Digital Transformation, Management

HOW DATA CAN improve decision-making?

Without a shadow of a doubt, data must be at the crux of strategic decision making process. Hence, nowadays it is not uncommon to spot a C-level position responsible of that crucial function; Chief Data Officer. In line with that, data can supply perceptions that support business to respond to its fundamental questions, such as; how can the business enhance customer’s retention and satisfaction levels? As earlier said, data guides to awareness, from which managers and business owners can take actions and decisions that boost the operations. Accordingly, at the outset of decision-making process, we should begin with the business strategy, as getting confused by the potentials which big data can provide along with getting lost in the hype surrounding data is quite easy. Hence, starting with a robust strategy can help to overlook the hype and focus on the difference that is about to have on business (Marr, 2016).

The subsequent step is to recognize the type of data the business wants to acquire or access. It is important to realize that no sort of data is integrally better than the other. Thus, business must emphasize on recognizing the best data for them, the one that possibly will assist them answering their most persistent challenges and bring on their strategic goals. As soon as the business identifies the data it needs, it is advisable to check if the business already possesses few of the sought information, even if it is not instantly noticeable. In-house data represents everything the business presently has or can reach. If the data is not available, then other methods of gathering can be considered, whether that is going to be executed through existing systems or by acquiring or accessing external data.

Subsequent to that, the process of data aggregation begins. Most of this stage depends on allocating the procedures and people who will collect and control the data. Business might buy access to pre-analyzed data sets, in which case data collection is not needed. However, what actually happens, many data endeavors demand some volume of data collection. Subsequently, the analysis stage commences, during which the business analyzes the data to infer useful and meaningful business insights, which will ultimately (if properly analyzed) offer a significant value to the decision-making process.

References: Marr, B. (2016) Data-Driven Decision Making: 10 Simple Steps for Any Business. [Online]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/06/14/data-driven-decision-making-10-simple-steps-for-any-business/#30ceb5675e1e. (Accessed: December 12 2019).

AI, Business, Management

Despite the promise of AI, many organizations’ efforts with it are falling short

HBR in their July/2019 publication, had referred to one of their recent surveys where thousands of executives took part in sharing their thoughts of how their companies use and organize AI and advanced analytics, with the results being far from encouraging as 8% of surveyed firms engage AI in core practices that support widespread adoption. While the rest of them are only applying AI in just a single business process.

Why the slow prog­ress? At the highest level, it can be a reflection of a failure to rewire the organization, particularly that AI along with other promising digital transformation initiatives are facing formidable cultural and organizational barriers. Yet, if the business is blessed with a leader who at the outset take steps to break down those barriers, then they have a significant advantage of capturing the most of AI opportunities.

Business, Innovation, Leadership, Management

Corporate Tolerance with Innovation

One of the directly associated problems with innovation, is that a company can tolerate letdown for small ventures, but can’t bear setback for a big one. Accordingly, we can notice Ford, an automobile giant which undertakes loads of tests and trials in order to make failure tolerable. The cause behind making failure acceptable, is due to the risky nature of innovation.

In line with preceding notion, it is worthy to mention that people appear to overlook Apple’s first phone, the Rokr, the one which was extremely catastrophic that even Steve Jobs himself decided to kill it immediately. Nevertheless, what Apple did learn from that experience helped them to lay-down a solid bedrock for the forthcoming series of innovations.

Unfortunately to that, in most other companies, if they would fail with the first attempted product release, it will most probably end up with firing the majority if not all involved individuals. In further extreme scenarios, the firing decision can be followed with a call to leave that sought-after market segment. And if Jobs had the same mentality, then the world would have never had the opportunity to enjoy the smartness and elegance of the iPhone (Enderle, 2016).

Reference:

Enderle, R., (2016), ‘How Ford’s approach to innovation could help Apple‘. CIO Portal. Available online from: http://www.cio.com/article/3020263/innovation/how-ford-s-approach-to-innovation-could-help-apple.html.

Business, Leadership, Management

Be the Same Boss in Stressful Times That You Are in Calm Times

How would your direct reports describe your behavior under pressure? Many bosses become emotional, controlling, and close-minded — which can have a hugely negative impact on their team’s morale and productivity. To lead effectively when the pressure is on, think about the team dynamic you want to build over the long term. Then think about whether your stress-driven actions support that dynamic or undermine it. For example, in normal circumstances you wouldn’t try to motivate people with fear or threats, so don’t do it during stressful times, either. Talk to your team about why you’re under pressure and what you need from them, and thank them in advance for putting in extra effort. And normally you wouldn’t get angry or shut down in tense conversations, so don’t let stress keep you from listening to others and engaging thoughtfully. Once this period of stress is over, your team will remember how you led during it — so make sure their memories are positive.

Adapted from “When Managers Break Down Under Pressure, So Do Their Teams,” by David Maxfield and Justin Hale.

Business, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Operations Management, Technology

Being Disruptive

Layton Christensen (2015, p.150) who is being broadly viewed as world’s principal management guru of recent times, had portrayed disruption as a diagram with both vertical and horizontal axes, with every industry having a unique metric on the vertical axis. For instance, in the airline industry, the vertical axis represents routes’ length that would ultimately measure their success. And for any airline company, they would prefer longer routes than shorter ones which is obviously due to profitability reasons. Consequently, giant airliners do focus on their business modeling, promotions and marketing campaigns on the long destinations, that has led new entrants like Ryan Air in Europe and Southwest in the United States to seize the opportunity and disrupt the area that was neglected by industry leaders, which is exactly the way that disruption basically happens.

While in the Information Technology sector, then Christensen highlighted that the vertical axis in their case is the magnitude of engagement, along with the growth potential with involved clients, where usually large IT firms focus more on big accounts and clients due to the same profitability reason mentioned in the earlier example. Consequently, the room will be opened for smaller IT players to grasp the market with less attention, and try to do the disruption there.

Reference:

Christensen, C. (2015), ‘Disruptive Innovation is a Strategy, Not Just the Technology’, Business Today, 23, 26, pp. 150-158, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost. Available online from: https://goo.gl/7aFBnI.

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