Being that we're in the middle of the NFL playoffs, I thought I would write a tribute to football (actually a football analogy for business). I had a great conversation with a colleague last week about how more so than ever people are more concerned about getting credit than getting the job done. I don't know if it was because of the bust, but ever since then, some IT departments are on perpetual hold...more like hide. Almost 2 years ago I had a conversation with a CIO where she told me that people (her employees) should be "happy" and "fortunate" to have jobs at all. You could say I was shocked (glad she doesn't use that in her pep-talk).
Since then, what I've noticed from her organization is quite a bit dancing, and not a whole lot of production. A great example of this was the recent acquisition of their largest competitor they decommissioned a legacy CRM system they acquired. This included moving over 300 users to Siebel at a cost of over $300k. Long story short...they convinced their Sr. Leadership that they are able to save $25k/year as they don't have to pay maintenance on the legacy system. During a company meeting they celebrated the "ROI" with no mention to the costly Siebel system that now does all of the heavy lifting.
...just like some football players, it's all about the dance.
I sure hope this changes in 2005.
Comments