2023 - Page 30 of 38 - Go from Technical to Tech Executive

Leverage Your Strength – a lesson from history

In May 1940, the German army swiftly invaded France, leading to the astonishing defeat of the Battle for France. This unprecedented downfall stunned Europe, especially considering France’s prior reputation as a formidable Western nation. A tech exec can learn from this lesson in history.

Germany didn’t solely triumph with might; even though the French had a bigger, technologically advanced army and knew about the upcoming German invasion, they should have been prepared to repel the invaders effortlessly.

How did it happen?

The lack of trust and effective communication among French politicians and generals was exacerbated by their stagnation in the past. In 1914, France faced a challenging scenario when German forces overwhelmed them. However, their perseverance and strategic prowess proved decisive. The French tactically withdrew, synchronized their remaining armies, gathered crucial support from allies, and counterattacked. Teamwork made the Battle of the Marne pivotal for the allied forces in World War I.

Twenty-six years later the French were still using 1914 tactics against 1940’s technology.

Leverage your strength but update your strategy. The generals believed armor supported infantry from behind, underestimated planes as frontline weapons, relied on horses to outpace the enemy, and used motorcycle couriers instead of rapid communication. They also misplaced trust in misguided technology and overestimated Maginot Line defenses along the German border. The French generals, WWI veterans, failed to recognize technological advancements and clung to outdated strategies. General Gamelin, head of the French military, even lacked a telephone in his headquarters.

The French thought they knew the enemy.

The Germans effectively employed tanks, planes, troops, and weapons in innovative ways. Tanks, bombers, and infantry quickly penetrated, catching the French off guard. The German generals swiftly adapted their tactics using telephone and telegraph. Unfortunately, France failed to grasp the technological possibilities, leading to their complete defeat within 10 days. Unthinkable, but it happened.

A lesson for companies.

Silos in a company are a natural result of its structure, but they must not impede collective power and success. A tech exec should aim for a unified approach to operations, with shared standards across the leadership team. Keeping up with tech advancements and leveraging them before competitors is crucial. Embrace cross-team collaboration and resource sharing to enhance experience and boost versatility.

Organizations that stick in a ridged silo model and do not collaborate will lose to their competitors.

Leverage your strength and avoid having your teams move in different directions, as it weakens a united force. To effectively leverage your combined organization, do the following:

Have a common mission and set of objectives agreed to by all leaders.
Ensure roles and responsibilities between teams are well defined and understood.
Communicate the operating models for each team to all stakeholders, which will help minimize a silo mentality.
Better coordinate work going between teams ensure linkages are understood. This improves teamwork.
Ensure an effective leadership structure where leaders trust and are communicating with each other.
Have a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in our teams so individuals can be deployed appropriately.
Ensure that technology is understood and used effectively (to meet business needs) across all teams.

Don’t forget to empower your team! If you leverage your strength, the combined organization, you’ll be unstoppable… and you will have a much more cost-effective technology environment.

Click here for a post on how to empower and use the full strength of your team.

Manage the move to cloud – don’t jump

As the chief tech exec of your company, you are faced with a nervous CEO/CFO/COO who wants to cut costs amidst economic uncertainties. Understanding the potential benefits of a move to cloud technology in reducing total cost of ownership, they have tasked you with exploring the expedited migration of certain application assets to the cloud. How will you proceed?

We talked in past posts about technology strategy. If you have one in place, this can help you convince the leadership that jumping too fast to a new platform can be detrimental to the organization.

You have not retooled your processes or retrained your staff, and you certainly don’t know the impact on the business by moving too quickly. What about contact center support?

In our technology strategy we have the following step:

7. Envision Target State and Assess Gaps: The IT mandate and analysis of the current environment should allow for definition of strategic goals and a conceptualization of the future state. To achieve this goal, follow an Enterprise Architecture modeling approach that allows for depiction of a potential future state.

By clearly defining what the target environment should look like – to support the business goals – you will have an idea for the training needs of the organization. You should also begin to understand the costs of such a move, and the impacts on how the business operates today.

Manage expectations

Operating without a well-thought-out strategy exposes technology leaders to inherent vulnerabilities.

You will not only have a difficult time maintaining the target platform because you won’t have the correct skills, but you’ll also need to support the current platform because you’ll need overlap… assuming you can even move everything. Don’t underestimate the cost to train your people and support your technology environments.

If you are re-platforming (just moving) applications from on-site to the cloud, you’ll find that they may not perform as well and need retrofitting, which is costly. This could also leave you with technical debt, such as back versions of software, and systems components that could be eliminated before a cloud move.

In general, transitioning your cloud (or any platform) may result in increased expenses for the company and potential job loss. Ultimately, it is crucial to leverage your strategy when considering technology shifts to ensure comprehensive planning and mitigate risks effectively.

Protect Yourself from Layoffs

You may have noticed that many tech companies are undergoing layoffs, affecting employees at all levels, and even executives aren’t immune to this trend. The tech industry is experiencing upheavals due to various factors such as economic shifts, changing consumer demands, and increased competition. However, there are steps you can take to better protect yourself from layoffs. For instance, continuously updating your skills, expanding your professional network, and staying informed about industry trends can fortify your position. While these strategies can enhance your job security, regrettably, no guarantees exist, and the landscape remains unpredictable.

Why are layoffs happening?

During Covid, traditional service businesses faced layoffs, while tech companies thrived and supported the adoption of hybrid working models. The shift in work dynamics due to Covid benefited software and consulting companies that offered remote working solutions. As businesses normalize, tech companies reduce staff to cut costs. Economic uncertainty affects purchasing decisions, especially for commodity software providers, consulting organizations involved in software installation and customization, and technology services.

So, with all this happening, how do you protect yourself from layoffs?

Unfortunately, no one is immune or indispensable. Consulting companies often have an overstock of benchwarmers who become dispensable during slow periods and are usually the first to be let go. In companies facing reduced purchasing, layoffs generally impact higher-ranking leaders due to the bigger cost-effectiveness of staff reduction. As a leader, one must never be complacent, particularly during economic downturns.

Here are some actions to help protect yourself from layoffs:

If you often come across as disagreeable and difficult to work with, it’s crucial to change that impression swiftly. Although it’s challenging to shake off a negative reputation, those who don’t are often the first to be let go.
Enhance your marketing messaging to highlight your strengths and the value you bring to the organization. Ensure that your immediate supervisor acknowledges and agrees with your contributions.
Regularly update your boss—I’d suggest weekly—on your activities and the perception others have of you. Highlight any positive contributions and, if possible, have others vouch for your work. If a client, such as a business leader, deems you indispensable, your chances of maintaining your position will improve.
Ensure your colleagues appreciate and enjoy working with you, and that they speak positively of you. Refer back to the first point: if you are not well-liked, it could give your leadership a reason to consider removing you.
If you’re engaged in projects deem important, ensure your boss recognizes the value they bring to the company. If there’s a chance to transition to a high-impact project, now is an opportune moment to advocate for that move.

In these uncertain and stressful times, it’s crucial to stay prepared for any changes that might come your way.

There is no true way to protect yourself from layoffs. However, keeping an updated resume is a fundamental step in ensuring you are ready for new opportunities. Additionally, reaching out to executive recruiters can significantly aid your job search, as they have access to a wide range of job opportunities and can connect you with potential employers. Many companies are actively hiring, despite the current climate, so leveraging platforms like LinkedIn to connect with recruiters and industry professionals can greatly enhance your chances of finding a suitable position. Networking and maintaining professional relationships can be invaluable in navigating the job market during challenging times.

Click here for a post on the importance of laid-off employees supporting one another.

Tech Strategy – Developing a Project Charter

In a prior post we discussed the important topic of building a strategy. As a tech executive, it’s crucial to not only develop but also deeply understand your strategy, even if a specialized team is creating it for you. This understanding allows you to direct the project’s course effectively and make informed decisions. A fundamental element of any project, including strategy development, is the project charter. The project charter is a guide outlining objectives, scope, and stakeholders, ensuring everyone is aligned and focused on the same goals.

The Project Charter Comprises:

Objectives: Clearly define the project’s primary purpose and its overarching goals. Identify previous work, research, or experiences that can boost the project’s success and explain how to integrate them into the current strategy.
Critical Success Factors: Establish the rules of engagement, including key performance indicators and measures of success. Identify the key conditions, resources, and support needed for the strategy’s success, highlighting the importance of stakeholder involvement and commitment.
Scope: Clearly delimit the range of activities and coverage that the strategy will encompass. Focus on identifying specific deliverables and processes, while utilizing existing data and capabilities to refine these elements. This ensures alignment with the project’s objectives and resource availability.
Governance: Outline the detailed planning process, including the team structure, roles, and responsibilities. Describe the collaboration, communication, and decision-making methods used for effective planning and execution, ensuring transparency and accountability.
Methodology: Document the framework that will guide the project from inception to completion. Specify the steps, phases, and milestones to achieve success, highlighting best practices or industry standards to follow throughout the project.
Deliverables: Clearly describe the expected deliverables, including their characteristics, quality standards, and intended outcomes. Explain how these deliverables connect to the methodology and processes, ensuring each aligns with the project’s goals.
Timeline: Provide a comprehensive timeline that details the project’s phases, key milestones, dependencies, and durations. Explain the scheduling rationale, highlighting critical paths and timing risks, to ensure stakeholders understand the activity sequence and timing.

The charter helps manage expectations by clearly outlining the objectives, roles, and responsibilities of everyone involved.

The charter is an excellent collaborative document for all stakeholders, serving as a reference point to ensure alignment. By developing a shared vision as a team, members can contribute their expertise, significantly enhancing the chances of success. This collective understanding helps to prevent misunderstandings and fosters a sense of unity and commitment toward the project’s goals.

Click here to see the technology strategy framework page.

Technology Strategy Framework

As a tech exec, a well-defined technology strategy is crucial for supporting the IT direction in your organization. This strategy helps gain consensus on budget allocation and focuses effort by aligning technology initiatives with business priorities. In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, it is essential to stay ahead of the technological curve and utilize emerging tools and resources to drive innovation and growth.

One key factor in developing a successful tech strategy is understanding the needs and goals of your organization.

This includes analyzing current processes, identifying pain points, and determining where technology can play a role in improving efficiency and productivity. By involving key stakeholders from various departments, you can gather valuable insights and create a comprehensive roadmap for implementing new technologies.

Another aspect to consider is the ever-changing digital landscape. With advancements such as cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things (IoT), there are numerous opportunities for organizations to leverage technology for competitive advantage.

Key to the success of building a technology strategy is ensuring that you have capable staff, and they are regularly engaging key stakeholders.

To begin the build process, you need a solid technology strategy framework to shape strategy. Here are the key pieces:

1. Develop a Charter – to get initial agreement on scope of the strategy

The charter will serve as a proposal for the strategy effort and help to ensure buy in by outlining the scope. The charter also helps sell the idea to business and technology leadership. See more about the Charter at this post.

2. Capture the Business Context – vision, mission, values, and strategic goals

It’s critical to the success of the strategy effort to understand and align with business priorities. At this point it’s important to capture and document a clear understanding of the business direction and needs. See more about business alignment at this post.

3. Develop IT Mandate: Vision, Mission, and Objectives

Review current strategies to align with vision, mission, and objectives. Define Technology’s high-level goals to set IT’s purpose and guide activities in the strategy. See more about IT Mandate at this post.

4. Define Critical Success Factors (rules of engagement)

List success factors to establish high-level requirements that require top management support for the Strategy’s success. Details will be defined in future steps like governance and implementation roadmap, setting the initial baseline. See more about CSF’s at this post.

5. Analyze Current IT Environment

A large piece of the strategy build effort occurs in this step. Here analysis of the current environment (current state, or status quo) is documented and reviewed in order to do reflections and backward looking. Here is a post about analyzing technical debt. The level of technical debt is something that you will discover as part of the as-is analysis. See more about analyzing the current environment at this post.

6. Identify Strategic Actions and Outcomes

After analyzing the current technology environment, define and document the list of strategic actions and outcomes. These items would need to be discussed and refined via debate with stakeholder leadership. This step is critical for feeding the upcoming benchmarking exercise. See more about strategic actions at this post.

7. Envision Target State and Assess Gaps

The IT mandate and analysis of the current environment should allow for definition of strategic goals and a conceptualization of the future state. To achieve this goal, follow an Enterprise Architecture modeling approach that allows for depiction of a potential future state. See this post target environment visioning.

8. Develop Governance – to facilitate and enforce strategy execution

Establish a governance team and structure to ensure that the plan will be executed, communicated, monitored, and reviewed once established. This governance team should comprise key technology and business stakeholders. See more about governance at this post.

9. Develop Roadmap – initiatives with priorities, estimates, ownership and schedules

Finally, outline tangible activities that need to be executed in order to bring the Strategy to life. This is the implementation plan that ties strategic initiatives with the organization’s goals and/ or themes. Strategic initiatives are the result of analyzing the gap between current and target technology states. See this post of the initiative roadmap.

If you would like to see all the posts related to building a technology strategy, please see this page.

Year: 2023