Playbook –

In this week's episode of CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am discussing the importance of a 90 day plan. Why is it important to have one. How you can leverage a consistent 90 play more than just in your first 90 days as a leader. Focusing on the pow...

In this week's episode I speak briefly to some of the questions I have received. Including would you outsource IT? There isn't a lot of show notes this week because it is a short week to celebrate Thanksgiving in the US. So I am covering just a few items. Have a listen to the audio and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am interviewing Tom Atkins the President of Tramore Group. We discuss the importance of project management to an organization's ability to accomplish its strategic objectives. Tom Atkins is President of Tramore Group and is an adviser to public and private sector organizations on strategy, operations and improving the effectiveness of enterprise-wide project management. He is immediate past chair of the board of the Rouge Valley Health System. His professional designations include Certified Management Consultant, Project Management Professional and Certified Director. He has been awarded both a Level 1 and Level 2 Credential by the Health Care Trustee Institute of the Ontario Hospital Association and has completed the Director Training and Certification Program at the University of California at Los Angeles and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants, the Project Management Institute, The Institute of Corporate Directors and the Toronto Board of Trade. A summary of the interview is below, to get the complete interview listen to the audio version. What is your business? We run a project management consulting company. We help large corporations develop their capability to deliver their large initiatives effectively. Including providing people who can do the work and develop processes to find better ways to deliver products. We also recently purchased a software company that provides project management solutions on demand.  The product is HTML based and is used throughout the world. How did you get into what you do Life takes us in a lot of directions. I was a single father for a large technology company that kept me travelling across three continents. I wanted to be home with my son and the only way to do that was to start my business. I was able to change my lifestyle by getting my workload Toronto based. What do you like best about what you do? I like helping very very smart people achieve their objectives. I get the good fortune to work with men and women that run some of the largest corporations in the country. Talk to them about their biggest initiatives and help them find solutions to their significant problems. It is incredibly satisfying to watch these organizations absorb the ideas at the senior team level. What are your business goals? Let’s start with where we measure success. I have always felt as a leader in business that I am a general manager first. And that the most important thing I can do is ensure others see value in the products and services we provide. To date, with the exception of the public sector, we have not been subjected to a competitive bid process. When a big five bank directs business to us it is because we have a fair price, excellent value, and high quality outputs and that is really satisfying. What is the difference you bring that enables you to better the internal project management practice? I don’t think any of the components would surprise you. These elements include the quality of the people we deploy that allows us to put a round peg in a round hole. You get relevant experience at the right set of skills and the right chemistry mix for the environment. We also have the compensation room, which addresses a gap in the industry; an unwillingness to address the skill set in the executive ranks. We also have a support envelope around the people we deploy to ensure they get the support they need in the field. This breaks down to people, support, appropriate compensation, and managing the dialog with our clients. What is a characteristic of a successful project manager? That is easy, it is mandate focused. We work with our project managers to focus on what the mandate is. By being a role model to the team and staying out of things that are not their area of responsibility. I define mandate different from scope.

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I will be talking about how to construct an IT Strategy. As a technology leader have you examined what is expected in an IT strategy document? Do you understand what peers in your industry are thinking and ...

In this week's episode of CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am taking an interview look back. I will take you through an exploration of some highlights from the early interviews this year. Reflecting on some really interesting learnings from these professionals who came on the show to share with you their knowledge and experience. Hopefully you will find them just as fascinating as I have. The excitement of learning from top leaders who are facing the challenges you are facing and hearing how they have successfully addressed them. Not to mention some of the cool technologies they use to support their businesses, whether it is the technology business they are in or another line of business. Back in March of this year I did my first interview with Dave Kubersky SimCorp’s head of North American. I had a chance to corner him in the Copenhagen airport before he flew back to the US and ask him about his leadership style. The bottom-line: give your people authority and make sure you are communicating frequently. Good ideas come from all over and at all levels. Every quarter we gather our leadership team together. Where we have open forums with an open microphone so that anyone can get up and say things. It is core to our culture. People see that when they raise concerns about things that are not right and when they are raised they are addressed. Then it wasn’t until episode 53 that I had another interview. And boy did this turn into a great interview with the Guided Futures team on the importance of strategy to an IT organization. I sat down with Zeenat and Morrey and we ended up having a wonderful discussion that rolled into two episodes when we were finished. They had some interesting insights into the importance of IT strategy and how get the support for establishing it. Francis Pedreza of Everest provided us with some valuable insights from a start up organization's point of view and I especially like his discussion on learning from failure and the importance of falling in love with the company's vision. James Campbell of Tulkita technologies shared how CEO leadership often parallels the demands technology leaders face. Including successful leadership is about communication and connecting with people and understanding their problems and issues. How do you successfully communicate with your stakeholders. The final interview for this show is from Darcy Lawler from IBM discussing how we can build buy-in from our business partners for the Enterprise Architecture. When I asked how Darcy got into doing what he does his answer really hit the heart of what we as leaders in the technology space struggle with. And that is the gap between what is desired and what we are delivering. Thus the essence of architecture in helping us resolve this with our business partners. There you have it a quick review of some of the early interviews on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley. I will be coming back again next week with more interesting leaders and their thoughts  on leadership. Notes: Dave Kubersky Guided Futures Part I Guided Futures Part II Francis Pedraza James Campbell Darcy Lawlor Photo Credit: Mr. Thomas via flickr.com CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley is a podcast dedicated to the development of technology leadership hosted by Jeffrey Hurley, a seasoned global technology leader who has held positions with Fortune 500 companies throughout the world including diverse countries: Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, United Kingdom, and the United States. He is currently based in Toronto, Canada.  

I am continuing my interview with Thomas Becker of ManPowerGroup. Tom and I further expand our discussion on talent management and how leaders can manage their current and future talent needs. Thomas Becker is the Vice President of Recruiting for Manpower Group and is responsible for developing the strategy and overall operational framework for all North American billable resource recruitment activities, with a focus on creating a sustainable world-class recruiting organization across all of ManpowerGroup’s Lines of business. Examples of these responsibilities include: · The creation of innovative recruiting/sourcing delivery models and a strong center of excellence · The development of recruiting process frameworks and standards · The creation and deployment of an integrated recruiting technology strategy · Serving as the designated thought leader for billable resource recruitment · Collaborating with recruiting leaders in the business and functional leaders to drive results A summary of the continued interview is below: Is the fear of being displaced by cloud services a reasonable fear? We are seeing a trend, but a great developer, project manager, tester, etc. if they are really good and savvy they are able to move from one area of the business to another. You need to be confident in yourself to know you can leave full-time employment and consult to take up a new skill. You almost have to constantly refresh, if you don’t you get caught behind very quickly. What if our boss challenges you on our development activities? That would be almost like debating with your boss some years ago about the value of email. I think the talent mindset is about the business benefit to the employer. So I would suggest making the practical application of the work you are doing to the business you are in. It sounds like the career path is no longer linear? We are seeing a lot of that. The truly exceptional people did not take a linear path. For example if you are a project manager and you want to become a program manager why don’t you go into Finance or Human Resources for a time? Rotating people through multiple jobs isn’t something new, but you as an individual need to see the value in it. Many business leaders cannot accomplish their goals without technology? When you think about the leading companies in their space, for example the best travel companies are they really a travel company or a technology company? If you look at any of the best of breed companies, ask yourself, “are they over investing in technology” and the answer usually is yes. Kayak’s founder Paul English says that if he hears of a great engineer he focuses on hiring the individual in seven days. Google does something similar; they hire for talent first and find the job second. The companies that get the talent mindset are winning in the marketplace. Access to capital used to be the driver of business success, we believe it is moving to access to talent. Do you have the right talent for your organization at all levels? Where do we start if we want to shift our organizations to thinking about talent? Start first with alignment to the business strategy then infuse talent into the conversation all the time. Align your workforce planning model to your strategy; ask, “What are we doing to attract, engage, inspire, and then rehire top talent?” Do your organization’s investments align to your talent and how are you measuring it. How do you see this talent displacement evolving? I don’t want to be an alarmist. It is more like a death by a thousand cuts. Look at the economy, we have a jobless recovery. Companies are looking to reinvest internally. Yet those who are leading in their sectors are focusing on talent. We do have time but it is about challenging ourselves at every level. Ask this question, “when the economy slows down do you see it as an opportunity to go get talent or are you focusing on reducing your headcount?”

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I have the pleasure of interview Thomas Becker of ManpowerGroup on finding qualified candidates, talent management architecture, and looking at how engagement impacts productivity. Tom Becker is the Vice President of Recruiting for Manpower Group and is responsible for developing the strategy and overall operational framework for all North American billable resource recruitment activities, with a focus on creating a sustainable world-class recruiting organization across all of ManpowerGroup’s Lines of business. Examples of these responsibilities include: The creation of innovative recruiting/sourcing delivery models and a strong center of excellence The development of recruiting process frameworks and standards The creation and deployment of an integrated recruiting technology strategy Serving as the designated thought leader for billable resource recruitment Collaborating with recruiting leaders in the business and functional leaders to drive results A summary of the interview is below, I highly recommend listening to the audio of the interview as there is so much more that we cover. Can you tell us about what you do? I work for a Manpower Group which is a global HR company that drives talent. We focus on connecting human potential to business opportunities. It is the full spectrum everything from staffing, professional staffing, outplacement, plus consulting work all in the talent space How did you get into this profession? I don’t think there is a degree in recruiting. I went to Northeastern University and did an internship and when I graduated I was offered a job with the company. I really enjoyed getting people jobs it was a passion for me. I enjoyed talking to candidates and finding out what they loved. As I moved through my career it became about helping companies with their talent right. What is it that you like best about what you do in this space? I am really excited and passionate about how you connect people to jobs. The heart of what I love is helping organizations find the right talent. Then helping organizations determine if they have the right talent strategy. Many organizations don’t understand how human capital is a strategy. Can you tell us as technology leaders what the talent miss-match is? Manpower Group has been conducting several surveys for years. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey we have been doing for about 40 years. One survey we have started about 8 years ago is the Talent Shortage Survey that surveys about 40 thousand employers in 42 countries and territories. We ask them how much difficulty do they have in filling open positions? What are the most difficult positions to fill? Where are employees having difficulties and what are the impacts on the organization? What we are seeing is most companies are having challenges filling key positions. What is triggering such a low-level of employment in the Technology space? Our position is that there are four work trends driving it. Talent mismatch, customer sophistication, employee choice, and technology. Companies are becoming more productive. Services and technology are driving companies and technology is a key component of strategy. What can us as leaders do to close the miss-match gap? There is a big push by the technology companies to target high school students to think about technology. Colleges are working to catch up on development of technology graduates. It has been too easy to take things and outsource them. What we are now seeing is companies are starting to bring back their outsourcing to near-shore or on-shore solutions. Companies have gotten a lot smarter on their staffing plans and the ones that are driving real shareholder value focus on their talent. What changes are taking place in the recruiting space to address these gaps? There is technology that measures your influence in your network. There is Gild.

I have a great guest for you today. Vince Molinaro from Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions and the author of the leadership contract. Vince Molinaro has been studying leadership for 25 years. He knows firsthand the effect leadership has on employee engagement and organizational performance. As a consultant, he’s worked with thousands of leaders and hundreds of organizations. He’s held leadership roles, and currently holds an executive position at Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions. He knows at a personal level how challenging leadership can be if you want to do it well on a consistent basis. He also knows how great it can be when you get it right. Today, Vince is a Managing Director of the Leadership Practice within Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions. As a Senior Executive of this award winning company, Vince has helped create one of the leading brands in the Human Capital industry. As a leader, Vince sets the leadership bar high for himself and his team. He doesn’t just preach the leadership stuff – he works hard to live it. Over his career, Vince has worked in several key sectors including energy, pharmaceutical, professional services, technology, financial services, and the public sector. He is the author of three successful books: The Leadership Contract (Wiley, 2013), Leadership Solutions (co-authored, Jossey-Bass, 2007) and The Leadership Gap (co-authored, Wiley 2005). He also is an active blogger. Vince received his Doctorate from the University of Toronto and conducted pioneering research in holistic leadership. He also has degrees from Brock University and McMaster University. A summary of the interview is below: Can you tell me about what you do for Knightsbridge? At Knightsbridge I lead the leadership practice. As a firm we are an integrated human capital firm. We help our clients get people on the bus through our recruitment and talent acquisition side. We help our clients get people off the bus when they have to restructure operations. I have the privilege of working with people on the bus primarily working with leaders. I lead a team of leadership experts with expertise in coaching, assessment, organizational development, strategy and learning. Can you give us an example of some of your learning from failure? In the leadership area you can always look at how other leaders behave and get a view of their failures. You often ask, “how did they get themselves into that situation, how could that have happened to them”. I have learned it is never as simple as it might appear, there are always factors; some are within your control and some are outside of your control. What I have learned is to always course correct to mitigate against failure. Where I have failed has been on the people issues and it is when working with someone who is struggling and in your gut you know they are not going to make it. But you want them to make it and you try to help them; yet you don’t listen to your gut. Three months go by, six months go by, a year goes by and you are at a point when you realize you have to let that person go and that is a tough thing for leaders to do. The failure is in recognizing that you have to trust your gut, even though it is difficult because the people issues make it challenging. When I talk to my clients they struggle with this as well. It may not appear as a failure, but ultimately it is because you are not stepping up. Benefiting the individual, so they can get on to something else. But also making the organization successful. How do leaders take the next action to avoid making the mistake? You have to come back to what is your obligation.  When you are in those situations they are complicated and they are not easy. They are emotional and thus not easy. What you have to come back to is what is my obligation to my organization? What is my obligation to my team? If there is a chronic poor performer, everyone knows about it.

This week I am continuing my discussion with Tushar Deshpande on leadership and how experience leading large volunteer organizations translates into successful leadership in the corporate environment. This is Part II so I would recommend that you start with episode #61 if you haven't already heard it. Tushar Deshpande has served in leadership roles with global oversight in the Financial Industry in the Investment Banking and Data Management space. He has worked with Citigroup, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. In addition to his stellar professional career, he also served on the Board of Directors of the NY Chapter of Toastmasters International with oversight of close to 5000 members. He has achieved the Distinguished Toastmaster recognition twice, the highest recognition granted by Toastmasters International. His leadership skills in successfully turning around the NY chapter in the face of Super Storm Sandy in late 2012 were recognized by Toastmasters International. The summary of our continuing discussion is below:  How did you learn how to let people own the goals? There is no silver bullet to get it done. It all comes from learning from your failures. It starts with setting up the goal and get the buy in. That is where I start with my leaders and teams. Start with where we are, where we want to go, and how we want to get there. How we get there is where the delegation comes in. Delegation is very different from directing people and telling them what to do. There are multiple ways to get from point A to point B. The key behind delegation is empowering and letting them know you are entrusting them to come up with a solution. You then reason it out with them, helping them understand if their solution will meet the needs of the objective. Tell me about the importance of status in staying on track? First, explain what is in it for them in giving back a status. By improving communication and giving me an opportunity to talk to my leaders and provide guidance and assistance in accomplishing their goals. My goal is for my leaders to have an opportunity to become great leaders that can translate directly into their work environment. Is there advice you would give new leaders? The first thing I would say is, start working at the next level before you are officially at the next level. There is no need to wait to start working at the higher capacity at your current level. If you are already doing more than you are expected to do you can learn more while in your current role you will demonstrate leadership. The second thing is lay out a clear and simple strategy that explains the benefits, timeline, and phase in phase out aspects. Where you are coming from what you want them to do and how you are going to lead them. What is the best advice you have received? It is not done until it is 100% done. Stopping at 99.99% is not done. Do everything you can to ensure that something is delivered in its entirety at the expected level of quality within the expected timeline. Do not stop, do not rest until it is completely done. What was your leadership Ah Ha Moment? A leader should serve the people they are leading and not the other way around. I used to believe the leader was a director who sat in a chair and gave out orders. What I have learned is that a true leader serves his people and is willing to lead by example. A leader serves first and leads next. What do you do to keep growing? I thought when I had achieved the Distinguished Toastmaster designation I would have achieved it all. Yet I learned it was the journey that was leadership not the milestone. At this point, to grow and develop I use a rule of three: I listen, I learn, I then adapt. What is one piece of advice you would give a leader? Push yourself out of your safety zone. If you stay in your comfort zone you won’t be able to grow into the next level. What is next for you? For me it is to be able to create more leaders in my organization.

This week Tushar Deshpande and I have the opportunity to talk about leadership and how your experience leading in a large volunteer organization translates into successful leadership in the corporate environment. Tushar Deshpande has served in leadership roles with global oversight in the Financial Industry in the Investment Banking and Data Management space. He has worked with Citigroup, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. In addition to his stellar professional career, he also served on the Board of Directors of the NY Chapter of Toastmasters International with oversight of close to 5000 members. He has achieved the Distinguished Toastmaster recognition twice, the highest recognition granted by Toastmasters International. His leadership skills in successfully turning around the NY chapter in the face of Super Storm Sandy in late 2012 were recognized by Toastmasters International. A summary of the first part of our discussion is below: Tell us about what you do I worked in the investment banking space as global head of trading technology for a global organization. I was also a the Lieutenant Governor of Marketing for the New York District of Toastmasters International. How did you get into doing what you do? My professional life and Toastmasters life are connected. I used to work in the telecommunications industry and transitioned into the financial services industry. The financial industry has experienced increased pressure to do more with less and I learned quickly that you needed to motivate people and be able to present your thoughts in a structured, simple, meaningful way. That was the entry point that lead me to Toastmasters International. It is not enough to be good at what you do you have to have the ability to motivate people and do that beyond those who report to you. What do you like best about what you are doing? I enjoy the knowledge aspect of what I get to do and to be able to motivate people. I like enabling my organization to see in the same direction. Talking with people rather than at people. What was your initial goal when you joined Toastmasters? I wanted to be a good listener, when we talk about communication we talk about talking; yet communication is as much about listening as it is about talking. You have to learn to listen for what others are trying to express. I also wanted to be able to present in a way that enabled others to understand the points I wanted to get across. What was one of your biggest career challenges? Outside of Toastmasters one of my biggest challenges was setting up an offshore team in Asia. It was like setting up a new company. I worked through several organizational challenges including understanding politics and vested interests, securing funds, and hiring resources. Then acquiring the needed resources and working through the red tape of the countries we chose to operate in. I learned influence management skills, which is influencing people, that do not work for you, to work toward a common goal. As you moved up in the Toastmasters organization, how did you leadership style change? In any organization people can resign anytime. In a volunteer organization the organizational chart is inverted where the top level leaders are actually at the bottom. How do you motivate people when there are not the same incentives as in a corporate environment (compensation & promotions)? It is knowing what the individuals who are working with you want and what you want. Then coming up with a common denominator between your wants and their wants. This way they learn and improve by working with you and at the same time achieving the organizational goals. As a leader you learn to adapt as the situation changes. It is important to build and maintain relationships. Let’s talk a bit about inspiration. In my opinion inspiration is pure energy. We have to balance the daily needs of the organization, day in and day out, to keep the business running.

This week I have the opportunity to interview Darcy Lalor from IBM on the topic of enterprise architecture. This post includes Darcy's background and a summary of the interview. Please listen to the audio to get the complete interview. Darcy Lalor is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO for Energy and Mining within IBM Global Business Services Canada.   He is an Open Group Distinguished certified IT Architect and leader of the IBM Canada Enterprise Architecture Practice since 2008. Founded on more than 30 years of client dedication and experience in customer facing IT projects, Darcy has deep technical expertise in a range of methods and technologies plus a sustained track record of high performance delivery.   Through the past 14 years he has focused on innovative strategy and transformation projects that incorporate architecture disciplines.   Recently Darcy was the Chief Architect of a large capital project for a global mining company establishing the largest potash mine in the world. Darcy is a globally recognized thought leader in the Architecture profession, with extensive experience with both public and private sector customers.   Darcy is TOGAF 9 certified and is active in teaching EA courses to customers and IBM worldwide.   He is a leader of IBM’s global Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence where he works to further our Enterprise Architecture techniques, tools, teachings, and offerings including evolution into crucial new areas such as Service Oriented Architecture, TOGAF, business and information Architecture, and tooling. A brief summary of the interview is given below: Tell me a little about what your business is and what you do? I lead the enterprise architecture practice in Canada. My focus and passion has been around the topic of enterprise architecture as part of the IT solutions space for 30 years. In the 90s we realized the need to arrive at more predictable solutions for our businesses. How did you get into doing what you do? My starting point was doing custom software development for public and private sector companies, leading into the idea that we could build solutions from software. My experience was that often the solutions delivered did not match what was being asked for. Because of the complexity of the solutions being delivered and the abstract nature of software the business person could not easily see the solution and describe what their needs were. We needed to extend beyond requirements to modeling end solutions and this is what enterprise architecture is about. Modeling end state solutions to enable feedback from the end consumer. How did architecture in technology start? First, we were doing solution level architectures, we might not have called it architecture then. But we did do data flow diagrams and were able to visualize the end state. It then started to be called architecture from design. IBM started to become more forthright in the space and asserted a distinction between architecture and design. In the home building industry there is a design for your home and an architecture for your home. In order to get to the kinds of solutions we wanted in technology we needed to get to the difference between architecture and design. Enterprise architecture came from the need to see how 10 or 20 designs would fit together. John Zackman developed the concept of enterprise architecture in the 1980s while at IBM and published the Zackman framework for enterprise architecture. Enabling us to meet stakeholder requirements for these complex solutions How do we help our business partners understand the need for enterprise architecture? Zackman from the very beginning had a viewpoint that there is such a thing as business architecture. What we need to do is understand the architecture of the business and then align the IT architecture to it. Really what we want to do is understand how our business systems support the business lines.

What are some quick and easy presentation tips? How can you get ready for your next meeting? Is there a small change that will result in a big benefit in your next presentation? I will share several presentation tips in today's show. All good presentations follow a solid pattern and today I am going to share with you some presentation tips to enable you to quickly make better presentations. I have seven presentation tips: Plan Prepare Practice Present Manage your vocabulary Engage your assets Engage your audience I know you are probably very tired of hearing the oft used phrase “practice makes perfect” or “perfect practice makes for perfect performance” or any number of other idioms to remind us of the importance of practice. Mark Twain is known for saying if you need me to speak for a few minutes I will need a month to prepare if you want me to speak for an hour I can start now. Why is that? Filling time and space is easy, if you are looking for a succinct crisp objective or goal it will take preparation. I once had a good friend tell me he hated to prepare for a speech and felt he was much better speaking off the cuff. I asked him if he had ever recorded his speeches and listened to them afterward. He said, “No he hadn’t”. My suggestion was he should. I found that when I review my presentations afterward I find a lot of opportunities for improvement directly in relation to how much time I spent preparing beforehand. Plan your presentation Do you know your objective? Are you telling or selling? In most of our work situations there is an element of both. Think about your intellectual objective, for example are you just informing your audience or looking for them to take action. Your strongest objective will drive you to the best results.  Often we have to educate our listeners, our partners, and colleagues before we can begin to negotiate with them. What do you want your audience to do? Is there a decision to be made or an action to be taken? What will satisfy you at the end of the presentation? Stephen Covey admonished us to begin with the end in mind. When setting up your presentation, have you thought about what a successful presentation would look like? Is there a downside if you do not meet this objective? And what is plan B if your current plan A does not work out? Understanding your objective is important to how you set up your presentation. You do not want to get jammed by informing when you should be selling. Do you know your audience? Do you know what the makeup of your audience is? This could be what their history in this business or how long they have worked for the companies they are with. Are there needs, wants, biases, and previous mindsets that you will need to take into consideration? If you are presenting to a large audience ask the organizer to provide you with this information. Do you know others who have interacted with your audience and do these others have influence on their perceptions? Your colleagues can be invaluable in these situations, giving you background information and access to individuals who can give you further clarification. What do you know about each person and what could impact their willingness to listen to your ideas? Google is a very powerful tool for providing you access to numerous social media tools to find out further about your audience. Write down the three key points you believe will drive home your message. Then write down the three key concerns you believe your audience will want addressed. Finally, write down the response to these concerns, making sure your presentation addresses them. Do you know what approach you will take? Most of our workplace presentations are conversational. It is important to understand if you are to present or have a conversation; as this will influence how you prepare. Will you be presenting solo or part of a larger team? When you speak on a panel do you know who is speaking before and after you.

What do the University of Oregon Ducks football team have in common with succession planning? What can you and I learn from the Oregon ducks succession planning approach? No Interview This Week Today you have just me on the microphone. We have had some great episodes with interviews of some awesome individuals and I have more interviews lined for you. However, today we are going to focus on the Oregon Ducks football team and succession planning and how what the ducks have done can help you in your succession planning. I really like the fall season because American style football comes with the fall. I am a fan of both professional and college football. I talk a lot about sports from a perspective of coaching because I believe in the power of coaching’s contribution to individual and team success. Each of us, if we want to get to the top of our game, should be looking for coaching just like the top athletes do in their space. This is why I use analogies of sports to give us examples of success we can model in the business world. National Championships I am a University of Southern California graduate, the USC Trojans football team is my football team. Now the USC alumni believe it is our birthright to be playing for the national championship every year. This isn't necessarily a rational belief because the competition between schools is intense. The alumni, students, and administration all want to have a winning football program because that translates into increased donations to the university. Thus it is frustrating when we have the Oregon Ducks standing between USC and winning the Pacific 12 conference championship and thus being eligible to play in one of the big national championship bowl games every new year. University of Oregon I firmly believe team success comes down to coaching and coaching style. Mike Belotti was the head coach of the Oregon ducks from 1996 - 2008 and was planning for his retirement and made sure he had succession planning in place prior to his departure. Mike and his administration kept an eye on the coaches that ran offenses similar to the one Oregon was running. They found Chip Kelly from the University of New Hampshire and brought him to the organization. Chip Kelly brought a fast paced no huddle offense designed to keep defenses off-balance.  When Mike Belotti retired in 2008 Chip Kelly was promoted to head coach and in his four years as head coach he had 46 wins and 7 losses. When a coach has a successful winning program the NFL will begin to offer head coaching opportunities in their league. Mark Helfrich had been brought in as the offensive coordinator to replace Chip Kelly when he took over as head coach of the Oregon football program. Oregon announced that Mark would be made head coach if Chip Kelly took an opportunity with the NFL. Chip Kelly ended up taking the head coaching job for the Philadelphia Eagles and Mark Helfrich was made head coach at Oregon. Doesn't Everyone Have Dreams of Leadership? Now a defensive coordinator can become head coach. Linebacker coaches, special teams coaches, even the ball boy might have dreams of becoming the head coach one day. Do these coaches wonder where they fit in the succession line? By announcing ahead of time what the succession plan was, Oregon ensured leadership continuity.  When a new head coach is brought in from outside of the organization, traditionally all of the assists are fired and the new coach assembles a new coaching team. By filling the role internally, Oregon was able to hold on to the success of their program; the stakeholders are happy with the organization and the pipeline of recruits can be maintained because the recruits choose a school and program with knowledge of the coaches they are joining. If the coaching team is turned over the inbound recruits my request a transfer rather than walk into a program that is no longer familiar to them. Back to the Question,

In this episode of CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I have the opportunity to interview James Campbell Tulkita CEO. James is the President and CEO of Tulkita Technologies Inc., a boutique management consulting firm specialized in helping organizations achieve excellence in IT Optimization and Quality.  Prior to co-founding Tulkita, James held IT Senior Leadership positions at Accenture Inc. and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board where he was responsible for leading a 10,000 person global Test Practice and overseeing IT strategy and sourcing, respectively. James is a globally recognized expert in IT Strategy, Governance, Quality Assurance and Outsourcing.  Through his 15+ years of ‘hands-on’ experience in IT management consulting, James has had the privilege of working with over 225 of the world’s Fortune 500 companies, where he has learned first-hand the common sources of inefficiencies that exist within the IT organization and how to fix them.  Once more, his tenure in IT and Quality Sr. Leadership positions has allowed James to design and build practical solutions that are specifically focused on improving the effectiveness of your organization’s IT practice. Jamie, tell me about where the idea of Tulkita technologies came from. I started my career 15 years ago focused on strategy with Accenture. I had a broad breadth of experience there. I was asked to create a new practice area for testing and project management; which was a brand new experience for me and a transition from pure consulting and into building a global business. That is where I got my entrepreneurial spirit and began to broaden my experience. So you had profit and loss responsibility? Yes, I did. It didn't give me all of the features of running a company because it was within the broader Accenture organization. However, I did learn about the importance of defining a strategy building a road-map, understanding the capabilities the customers wanted and how to operationalize it. I learned about taking a strategy and delivering on the strategy and building something of it. When you founded Tulkita what was the opportunity you saw that caused you to build your own company? I was seeing a lot of organizations struggling to focus on the glue of an IT organization. A lot of large consulting companies are focusing on large offshore development or large technology implementations. Yet many companies were struggling with their sourcing models. So we built Tulkita on the premise that we can provide the harmonization of the organization; focusing on program management, testing, and quality to improve service to the technology customers. Do you target large or small IT shops? Our premise was to focus on mid-sized companies bringing the skills of the large consulting firms at a more economical price point. What has happened is many of the larger technology organizations have heard of our services and now 85% of our business is with Fortune 500 firms. It is complete opposite of what I had originally planned for, but ultimately all good at the end of the day. What was one of the biggest challenges you faced starting your organization? I would say resources. Not in terms of people but access to the things you need to run a company. In a larger organization you have teams; you have a finance team a HR team, and people who are dedicated to those practices. In a smaller organization you have to do more with less and be open minded to understand the basics of what needs to be done. How do you balance the operational aspects with the work you provide to other clients? I would say it is easier said than done. We have tight roles and responsibilities. We spend time on governance roles and responsibilities and time commitment of 15% to 35% on operational activities that benefit the future of the organization. I spend 30% of my time on operations, 40% on client delivery, and the remainder on strategy and business development.

In this episode of CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I have the opportunity to interview Francis Pedraza Everest CEO. Francis Pedraza is CEO and co-founder of Everest, a technology start-up helping people reach personal goals and live their dreams. He previously founded DoBand and dreams to one day to run all of England’s National Trails. The definition of Everest from their website is: “Founded on the belief that there is no separation between creating a better self and a better world, Everest exists to unlock human potential. Whether people dream to run a marathon, travel the world, learn how to DJ, or read more nonfiction, Everest helps them keep taking the next step. Everest helps you live your dreams and achieve personal goals. From traveling the world to getting in shape to learning Italian—Everest is a place to capture all your dreams, big and small, and focus on a few. Break goals into small steps, learn from others, and beautifully capture your journey.” Francis did you start Everest? I did. After graduating from Cornell I came out to silicon valley. Had a vision for using technology to unlock human potential. I was able to meet victor. Both he and I had done a project in college and had a similar vision for the product. We were then introduced to Katherine by an investor. How did you come up with the idea for the product. Where did the idea come from? I want it. Richard Branson has a famous line, “I am the market”.  I feel the same way about this. All of us at the company are building the product that we want. Everything that is driving us forward comes from us being users and wanting more from it. That desire came from a desire to live life to the fullest. To be a human being in this world is such a blessing and opportunity. The adventures you can go on and the skills you can create. There is so much potential in each of us and there is so much potential in the world. I wanted to lead a full life yet I lacked organization or support. There was so many things that I wanted to do and felt stuck. I realized that a lot of people felt the same way. Technology should be able to help us with the things we are bad at. There was nothing out there to really help me with this part of my life, my desires. Everyone has things they want to do and that they don’t do. Things that are part of their identity they are part of what would make them fulfilled and there is frustration. People lack organization; don’t right down the things they want to do and they don’t have a process to figure out what steps they need to take or to figure out how to fit those steps into their busy lifestyle. So they need a tool to help with the lack of organization. People lack support; they don’t share what they want to do with their friends. They don’t share the progress they make. So they don’t benefit from encouragement and suggestions, accountability, companionship, learning, or inspiration. Tools plus community equals Everest. How do you go about figuring out the process and the steps of accomplishing a dream? Part of it is realizing that you can’t possibly have all of the answers. We have a feature that allows you to ask for suggestions. We also have a feature that allows you to search and then copy others steps onto your dream. If steps are working for others they will probably work for you. And when you do copy a step the person whose step you copied is notified that they inspired you. We also have an algorithm that will offer steps based upon demographics. We are also working with brands. For example, Nike knows a lot about running. We will have an area that will allow brands to provide guides and challenges and steps that will help you accomplish your goals. We are approaching this from various directions. Tell me about dream storming and how that contributes to building a plan in the Everest application. A dream storm is kind of like a brainstorm. For example,