By silicon.com, 29 September 2004 17:10
NEWS Maybe you made it to our big conference on Monday. Maybe you couldn't. Either way, what follows are some of the most memorable statements of the day, from a variety of our panellists. Whether on CIO leadership or prospects, offshoring, innovation or other subjects, these will give you a reminder/flavour of the proceedings
"Mañana, mañana, mañana."
The decision-making process within too many company IT departments, as seen by René Carayol, ex-CIO, broadcaster and silicon.com columnist.
"Innovation is about learning. If I dont keep learning I will die. Or kill myself."
DrKW CIO JP Rangaswami on the need for UK businesses to keep challenging themselves.
"Innovation equals experimentation, a willingness to take risks."
Menzies Distribution IT director Frank Coyle gives a definition of the i word.
"I'm not overwhelmed with British vendors."
BA CIO Paul Coby explains that he's open to local suppliers but doesn't always hear from them.
"The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is the greatest thing to happen to India since Y2K."
Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, author of Outsourcing to India.
"Our data doesn't move outside the company - whether it's Bangalore or Baltimore"
Kevin Lloyd, Barclays CTO, keeps customers' data nailed down, even when it's offshore.
"The US does more great stuff but also does more totally stupid stuff. The net gains are the same."
CNET Networks editor-at-large Esther Dyson on the difference between the US and UK.
"There's a realisation that it is easier to teach a business person about technology than teach a technologist about business."
René Carayol laments the numbers making it from the IT department into roles such as CIO.
"There's a danger we spend so much time talking about how wonderful we are, there's a backlash from the line managers"
Kenneth Coleman, CEO ITM Software, rues the modesty of CIOs.
"They're not looking for me to innovative [with technology], they're looking for me to deploy technology innovatively."
Claire Hamon, CIO at the Crown Prosecution Service, on how the CPS views her role.
"If I can sit at home in bed and send email via Wi-Fi but cant do it at work then I start to ask questions."
Autonomy founder and CEO Mike Lynch gives an insight into what he gets up to in his boudoir.
"Progress is measured by the number of shopping trolleys in the lift."
Chris Rawson, CIO, Lloyds of London, looks longingly towards a paperless office.
"What we have seen over the last 10 years is boardrooms who have completely lost faith in IT."
Another warning from Carayol.
And finally
"Polar bears must have the best PR companies - ruthless killers yet everybody still likes them."
Mike Lynch betrays his concerns about the PR industry.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
One of my favouritees was from David Butler, it went something like...
"I'm going to divulge a secret to you all, vendors are people too"
2. anonymous
I normally agree with what Renee Carayol says but I can't agree with his view that that it is easier to teach a business person about technology than teach a technologist about business.
One of the big problems UK Plc has is that there are too many "business people" from an accounting or legal background running UK companies. Don't expect these to provide leadership and vision when it comes to technology or markets.
Technologists might need some help to get to grips with some of the business issues but if companies want to move ahead in terms of attacking new markets and new products then having technologists at the head of companies who can provide the vision is critical.
Proof of the pudding is that most successful US companies have leaders from a techy background.. In the UK the opposite is true which goes a long way to explaining our lousy market position. Techies tend to be opportunistic and very alert.. Beancounters and legal eagles are not usually endowed with those sorts of skills but are essentially corporate civil servants.
3. G
I agree with Anon above on Carayol's comment which I find quite demeaning, especially so as I consider my ability to provide 'best fit' solutions to business problems one of my key assets.
The dangerous thing about business people 'learning' IT is that they belittle it in terms of its worth and complexity. The big picture is very easy to see with technology but the further down you drill into it the more complex it becomes. Technologists are interested in and capable of dealing with these minute details but business people are used to leaving small details to lackeys. The people in head of IT and its intended strategy should be technologists that interact with others at the very top of the business who can say 'I appreciate the business requirement for abc but this will affect such-and-such a system with xyz'. Business requirements are not complicated - increased efficiency, do more for less, increase revenue, et al are not complicated compared with visualising interoperative computer systems and their associated HW/SW/Middleware/etc.
I think the difference might be in mindset - technologists _might_ be less ready to cross certain moral boundaries that business people will happily leap over to get that extra buck. Good for the business for about five minutes but good for society in the long term? Just a theory...
4. anonymous
With reference to " We speak better English than Indians...."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/861604.cms