The Science and Art of Business Leadership

May 27, 2015 / G C Network / Comments Off on The Science and Art of Business Leadership
A group of people standing in front of a large screen.

2018 AT&T Business Summit: Security “in” and “of” the Cloud

By G C Network | November 10, 2018

While public cloud is undoubtedly an outsized piece of the conversation, news headlines of the latest data breach can make this move a very frightening proposition. The question of how…

A group of people standing in front of a display.

My Brush with Royalty: Queen Latifah

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Queen Latifah! Hip Hop Icon. Movie Star. Television Star. Fashion Model. Songwriter. Producer. Entrepreneurial Genius!? YES! Dana Elaine Owens, her given name, is co-owner of Flavor Unit Entertainment, a firm that includes…

What’s New in Puppet 5?

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Puppet 5 is released and comes with several exciting enhancements and features that promise to make configuration management much more streamlined. This article will take a comprehensive look at these…

5 Reasons Why Ansible is the Best CM Tool Out There?

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Amidst volatile markets, dynamic technology shifts, and ever-increasing customer demands, it is imperative for IT organizations to develop flexible, scalable and high-quality applications that exceed expectations and enhance productivity. A…

Machine learning APIs for Google Cloud Platform

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is considered to be one of the Big 3 cloud platforms among Microsoft Azure and AWS. GCP is widely used cloud solutions supporting AI capabilities to design and…

What Is The Most Important Part of Architecture?

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

I always find it interesting to hear what people view architecture as. A lot of people think it’s just about the design aspect, where you get to put pen to…

Cloud migration best practice Part 4: Executing the migration

By G C Network | September 16, 2018

This series has stepped through cloud migration best practices. After providing an overview, we discussed: Classifying business-critical data. Updating organizational IT governance policies. Application screening and cloud workload selection. How to…

Cloud Migration Best Practice Part 3: Application Portfolio Analysis

By G C Network | September 16, 2018

In part three of this series on cloud migration best practice, I will focus on migrating the application itself. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read our recommendations from part…

Why Use Immutable Storage?

By G C Network | September 11, 2018

Data has become a global currency, and its value has nowhere to go but up.  According to The Economist online, the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but…

CLOUD ACT: What Does That Mean for Your Cloud Storage

By G C Network | August 31, 2018

When Congress names a law after you, it’s getting serious.  That is where we are now with cloud computing.  The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act or CLOUD Act (H.R. 4943) is…


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.
https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/569759/dimension-data-bring-tour-de-france-billions-cycling-fans/

( 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.)

Cloud Musings

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2015)

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network

Cloud Computing

Cybersecurity