All Blog Posts Tagged 'CIO' (49)

One of the most famous works of Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, is “To a Mouse”.

During 1785, on a bleak winter’s day, Burns addressed a field mouse whose home he accidentally turned up with his plough.

In the poem, the bard praises the ‘foresight’ of the mouse in building the ‘cozie’ nest in advance of the freezing weather, while there was still good grass to do so.

But, ultimately, one of Burns’ conclusions is that, although we can…

A point we make regularly here at OBASHI is that in today’s digital world, it is important to understand how data flows through and between businesses.

We occasionally blog about “data flow disasters” - events that occur when a flow of data is interrupted or compromised, so that there is a negative business impact on those who use or interact with that flow of…

Legal Risks on the Radar, is an annual survey, published in the U.S. by Corporate Board Member and FTI Consulting.

The 2012 report researches attitudes to current legal issues among ‘two critical governance groups’: public company directors and corporate general counsel (GC).

Amongst other things, the survey finds that the growth of digital business, and connectivity, has caused many in these groups to recognise the increasing importance of understanding the…

One of the analogies I sometimes use to describe how understanding data flow is becoming ever more important in business, is that of the doctor understanding blood flow through the human body.

Medical professionals have a clear understanding of the vascular system, which carries blood, and how it interacts with other physiological systems, and the various parts of the body.

When a vascular disease occurs, most often, blood flow in the sufferer’s body is…

“Technology Risk Management Guidelines”, is a research paper published by The Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The objective of the guidelines is, “to promote the adoption of sound processes in managing technology risks and the implementation of security practices”, in regulated financial institutions.

Although the…

In Chapter 3 of the OBASHI Methodology, we describe how understanding various flows has been critical throughout economic history:

1770s - mechanisation, factories, and canals – water 

1830s - steam engines, coal, and iron railways – steam 

1870s - steel and heavy engineering,…

The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) is a specialist armed police force, which looks after all of the UK's nuclear assets and resources, both nationally and internationally. 

Recently, I asked Paul Stone, Deputy CIO at CNC, why he, and his colleague Mark Verrier (CIO), had decided to become OBASHI accredited, and use the OBASHI Methodology, and software.

Paul’s reply is,

“OBASHI is a straightforward methodology with simple diagrams and…

In the LinkedIn ‘Data Governance and Data Quality’ group, Gary W. Griffin asks for opinions on this,

Data Governance could be enhanced by clearly specifying data value chains and explaining how the Information Supply Chain connects the data value chains.

The concept of governance is one which is long established within the Oil and…

In advance of the recent Davos conference of business executives, think tanks and leading politicians, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published its “Global Risks 2012” report.

The report is a ‘call to action’ to global leaders.  It seeks better coordination and collaboration of

“...public and private sector efforts to map, monitor, manage and mitigate global risks...” …

Over at Forbes.com, Dan Woods argues that,

“In every dimension, CIOs are facing an increased pace of change at the same time they are losing control over the computing environment. The number of assets they must manage is exploding. Consumerization, virtualization, cloud computing, software as a service, mobility are all increasing the complexity of the job of managing IT by orders of magnitude.”

In “The Coming Crisis of IT Management”, he…

Chateau Margaux 1983 is one of the many things I love about France.

My wife lived in France for a while so I’ve picked up her appreciation of the culture, food and language.

The French have a great way with language; they seem to find a way to say in a word that which takes a sentence in English. “Impasse” is one. I hate that word. I get a constant feeling of déjà vu (see what I mean) every time I hear it. It reminds me of a million meetings I was involved in…

Last month, in ‘Under pressure: IT and the steam boiler’, I concluded that,

Just as it took the boiler industry many years to evolve to the point where it had clarity on flows, and could makes the best decisions about risk, IT and telecoms are set to go through the same pain.

 

More data flow disasters are inevitable – which means, because we as individuals are ever more reliant on flows of data…

                ... a charred body, a bent watch, two rubber heels and a torn piece of clothing...

The remains of Chief Engineer David Rockwell were found on March 21^st 1905, the day after an industrial explosion and intense fire occurred at the Grover Shoe Factory, Brockton, Massachusetts.

The disaster, in which 58 people were killed and 150…

 "hindsight is great, but foresight is better............and less expensive."

Almost a year ago, that was my conclusion on how OBASHI could be used to create clarity in the business, and avert a ‘data flow disaster’ like the one at TUI Travel, which caused the company a £117 million loss. 

A data flow disaster is the term we use for an event where a flow of data is interrupted or compromised, so that there is a negative business impact on…

 “The CFO's Role in Technology Investment”, is a survey of 344 CFOs “qualified in providing a perspective on technology deployment within the enterprise”. Some of the findings were that,

• only 18% of CFOs said they thought "our IT service levels meet or exceed business expectation”
• only 25% of CFOs see the CIO as a key player in determining the business…

Zombies and oil refineries really don’t mix well.

So it was with some alarm that I awoke abruptly last Sunday morning and heard nearby the chuckling voice of my teenage daughter, “Dad....dad....there’s a zombie massacre down at Ineos...can we go and watch?”

My first thought was that my old boss must have let Health & Safety slip a little, and that his job might be at stake.  Then I remembered Brad Pitt was in the district, filming “World War Z” close to…

This week marks the first anniversary of OBASHI Think, so its a good excuse for a recap – and to highlight what we think are some of our key posts!

A quick birthday reminder - OBASHI is a “new standard” way of thinking about how a business works and is available as a methodology, a professional accreditation and software.

With OBASHI you see the business in only two views:  Business and IT…

Doyle Lonnegan, a ruthless New York gangster turned banker, is one of my favourite movie characters.

In ‘The Sting’, which is set in the 1930s, Lonnegan, (the brilliant Robert Shaw), is the victim of a sophisticated confidence trick which costs him the $500,000 he bet on a horse.

A con-artist convinces him he can delay the official results of races getting to…

In a recent blog Larry Bonfonte encourages CIOs to “market the value of IT” to business colleagues. 

You may be tempted to roll your eyes after reading that phrase, but as he neatly points out, we likely all have done a bit of ‘marketing’ in our social lives at one time or another – so its hardly an alien…

Following on from my previous blog, Insuring flows of data in the cloud, it occurred to me that as businesses and supply chains become more inter-connected, insurers will soon demand more clarity about data quality issues.

Not only will they want to more accurately calculate the risk of dataflow stopping altogether, they will also want better understanding that the right…