Adventures Assignment 1
Chapter 1: Why would Carl Williams ask a non-technical manager to assume the CIO position?
For a CIO to be successful, especially at times when IT presents a problem area, he or she has to have more than just solid IT background. The CIO needs to have good management skills; they need to be a fixer.
Jim Barton has the required management skills, he is considered as a great manager at IVK; he also had a lot of ideas regarding how IT should be run, and he used to critic Davies, the former CIO, on how to do his job. Therefore, he was a good candidate for this position because the company actually needed a good manager not a good technical. If you were Jim Barton, would you take the job? Yes, I would take the job. It is definitely a great challenge for someone with no IT background to become the CIO; however, a good manager should be able to run the business without having the deep knowledge of the matter.
I would get the required background through research and learning. What do the IVK Corporation exhibits tell you about the current state of the company? Given this information, what does IVK need from a new management team under CEO Carl Williams? IVK statements show that the company has grown recently; however, it was not well planned and that is showing in the huge increase in the operating expenses. This growth was not done efficiently which lead to the decrease in net income despite the increase in total service revenue. The new management team should focus on making proper planning as well as new strategies that focus on managing the operations and resources efficiently and effectively in order to decrease the operating expense and increase the net income.
Chapter 2: How do you interpret the kid’s advice, “You’ve got to know what you don’t know”?
I think what the phrase means is that in order to become a good leader, you have to know your capabilities and your deficiencies and to be honest with yourself, especially when embarking on a new job you have to position yourself correctly and to give good impression to your employees.
You have to know what is it that you lack and either try to learn about it or search for ways that your team could cover for the capabilities that you lack. The kid mainly meant that you can’t over-estimate yourself and like some managers do assume that you know everything about the matter, but rather admit your lack of knowledge in some areas and work on it. How do you think Davies got fired? How likely it is that Barton will be fired within the year? I think Davies didn’t have a strong connection with the CEO and his business peers, which lead to a communication problem between the management team and the IT department.
I think he may also lack the business skills and competencies. I think as a successful manager, Barton will be able to handle his job well. With his good managerial capabilities he will be able to develop good collaboration between the technologists and the management team; as well as enhancing and maintaining relationships with other business leaders. What kind of questions should Barton be asking of CIOs, analysts, investors, customers and other IT movers and shakers? How should he prioritize and organize these meetings? For the CIOs: His questions should be focusing on the nature of the job, the key roles of CIO and the depth of technical knowledge required. For the analysts: His questions should be on the IT impact on a company’s development. For the investors and customers: His questions should be about their views on the service the company provides and how to improve it. I think he should first meet with the CIOs to be able to understand his role and responsibilities, then with the analysts, then the investors and customers.
Chapter 3: Do you think IT management is different from management of other functions?
Yes I think IT management differs from other functions because in It technology moves fast, and you can’t keep up with the fast growing technology that everyday something new is coming up and you always have to be up to dated. Although IT managers were experts in their fields and knew the details about it, new technology comes along and the technical workers are the one who know the details about it and become experts in it to a level that their managers can’t reach.
On the other hand, in other functions, the manager can do the job of anyone in his department as well as any of his employees What did Barton learn from his trip to the bookstore and late night of studying? After his trip to the bookstore and late night of studying, Barton realized he can’t get to know in depth everything; it is too much to grasp. What depth of IT understanding must a CIO leader have to be effective? The CIO must have enough IT understanding that would give a general background on the matter to be able to assign who knows and does what in his team.
