The Science and Art of Business Leadership

May 27, 2015 / G C Network / Comments Off

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“Cloud Musings” Named A “Top 50 Blog”

By G C Network | August 27, 2010

My appreciation and thanks goes out to Jeremy Geelan for including “Cloud Musings” on his list of the Top 50 Cloud Computing Blogs. Thanks is also in order for “HighTechDad”…

Will Oracle Buy Informatica?

By G C Network | August 25, 2010

According to 1,250 ERP Software Advice readers that will be Oracle’s next acquisition. Terradata came in a close second in this race, suggesting that Oracle will “…play it safe next time…

What’s Next For Oracle?

By G C Network | August 14, 2010

Watching Larry Ellison and Oracle over the years as it has morphed itself is a real study in market dynamics. It’s transformation from database company through middleware provider to now…

Enterprise Architecture Enables Innovation: Melvin Greer, Lockheed Martin

By G C Network | August 11, 2010

Earlier this week, my good fried and NCOIC colleage, Melvin Greer was interviewed by Rutrell Yasin of Government Computer News. In the interview, Mel focused on the importantance of entrprise…

Are You A Cloud Architect? NJVC Needs YOU!!

By G C Network | July 31, 2010

If you are a cloud computing architect, have I got news for you! NJVC, one of the largest IT solutions providers supporting the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), is building…

“Army Private Cloud” RFP Released

By G C Network | July 28, 2010

Last week the US Army released a procurement solicitation for the Army Private Cloud. This $249M solicitation calls for a 1-year base period with four, 1-year options. Department of the…

In response to request, the inaugural “Cloud Musings Direct” newsletter was launched this week. This bi-weekly electronic newsletter will highlight important government cloud computing industry trends and events. If you…

CloudExpo Europe 2010: Not Your Father’s Prague

By G C Network | June 30, 2010

When my good friend Jeremy Geelan invited me to speak at CloudExpo Europe in Prague, Czech Republic my imagination went into overdrive. Being a child of the 60’s and a…

NCOIC Plenary Highlights Collaboration and Interoperability

By G C Network | June 29, 2010

Last week in Brussels, Belgium, the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium highlighted it’s support of collaboration and interoperability through an information exchange session with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and…

GovLoop “Member of the Week”

By G C Network | June 22, 2010

Thank you to Radiah Givens-Nunez and GovLoop for the honor of being their Member of the Week for June 21-25, 2010. Created in 2008, GovLoop is an online social network…

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Business leadership is both science and art. The scientific aspects revolve around finance, organization, products and service. Artistic aspects include relationships, market trajectories and business strategies. While many focus on the science through books and training, the art of business is best learned from real practitioners. That is why I jumped at the chance to meet Dimension Data’s Steve Nola during the company’s analyst event, Perspectives 2015, in Prague, Czech Republic. Steve is the company’s ITaaS Group Executive and prior to this, served separate stints as Chief Executive Officer of the Cloud Business Unit and Dimension Data Australia region. Meeting over dinner, Steve shared his views on how businesses should deal with today’s dynamic information technology environment.

In his opinion, cloud computing is destined to harness more of the IT market and organizations that participate in just about any industry must decide what they are going to do about it.

“Cloud a key change agent for business and the critical skill in this environment is managing the rate of change within your enterprise”, says Steve. “This is crucial because change drives innovation and innovation fuels the internal experimentation needed to maintain marketplace relevancy.”

Businesses must also build and maintain an effective partner ecosystem. This actually reduces business risks as IT transitions to the “as-a-service” model. IT professionals must build and maintain a fluency in bridging technology to business outcomes. Companies must also use cloud services in order to tailor technology’s contribution to the chosen business strategy.

While virtualization is a necessary component of any IT modernization strategy, virtualization without optimization for cloud may preclude the necessary alignment of IT with today’s dynamic business models. This wise counsel highlights why business science and business art must be
synergistic. It also puts a spotlight on why a corporate IT ecosystem is also needed. Modern business models are created, launched, modified and retired quickly. In some industries such a cycle could transpire over a timeframe measured in hours. A traditional corporately owned IT platform is unable to economically deal with such a fast pace of change. This is why traditional IT support models in some verticals are rapidly giving way to shared IT infrastructures and IT as a service. Traditional architectures aren’t designed with an ability to cycle up and down. They are also not typically metered and monitored. Companies facing this type of industry disruption need trusted IT service partners. According to Steve, enterprise IT product vendors are being disintermediated by this transition to the IT service provider model. “2009 saw a $142B decrease in enterprise IT product industry revenue. That money went to the IT as a service market”

Dimension Data itself is not immune to these forces. As a global IT service provider, it too needs to have a strong and reliable partner ecosystem. The importance of partners to Dimension Data has been made obvious by winning 23 channel partner awards at the most recent Cisco Partner Summit and Deloitte’s selection of its Managed Cloud Platform for the management firm’s business transformation clients.

The key takeaway from this discussion is that successful IT leaders effectively leverage both business science and business art as day to day leadership tools.

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

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