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CIO Balancing Act and the Great IT Circus 
In the Wonderland of Information Technology


By Prem Kamble

 

About the Seminar

The CIO operates under very high expectations from his customers. The problems of a CIO are compounded because these sky-high expectations are based on some basic misconceptions about technology. The misconceptions are a legacy of the Industrial age. They are a result of the psychology of change from the industrial era to the information era.

The CIO manages one of the dumbest, most adamant animals in this great circus called business - the computer. The problem is compounded because this dumb and adamant beast also happens to be the most powerful animal. So whereas the customers think that he has a magic wand under his hood which can give instant and fabulous results, the poor CIO is actually messing around with one of the most difficult and in fact even inferior device. "Inferior?", you may ask. Yes, inferior if you deeply analyse this information age device with respect to the industrial age devices.

"This Seminar is a boon to the CIO. It covers just that what is required for top managers to be intelligent, constructive and understanding partner in the IT game."
The CIO is harbouring one of the most difficult animals. He is in fact sitting on a volcano - because there can be a disaster with the slightest of errors. So while most of his effort goes into managing, taming and learning about this beast, his actions are thought to be over cautious, at times too rigid. His customers keep wondering why he behaves the way he does when he has a magic wand, but the CIO alone knows how he manages the beast. This causes severe challenges for both the CIOs and the other managers resulting in stress, misunderstandings and conflicts. The result is stress for the CEOs to manage this conflict between his managers.

This problem is not limited to underdeveloped or developing countries. It does not have to do with the technological backwardness of countries who have started late with automation. It is a mindset issue and is a global human phenomenon. It relates to the psychology of evolution of humans.

This seminar discusses the misconceptions, the reasons for the misconceptions, challenges for all managers, the ethical and unethical practices as a result of these misconceptions, skill gaps for CIOs, CEOs and other top managers, the losses due to this, the key success factors given the situation and the real possible solution to this imbroglio.

This seminar explains the impact of this human problem on all aspects of a CIO role, including his relation with users, his own employees, the impact of this on the IT professionals jobs and their work environment. It looks at all the following problems and practices (good and bad) and tries to find a solution to the existing stressed scenario.

 
 
 

Contents

  • Misconceptions about computers
  • Causes for misconceptions
  • CIO pressures due to misconceptions and high expectations
  • Resultant Stress levels and conflicts
  • Pressures on all IT employees and hence the pressure on CIO to manage them.
  • Ethical and Unethical practices due to this stress
  • Skills required to operate under this stress - technical and inter-personal
  • Impact of this stress on relations between IT, User and top Management
  • Misconceptions about IT professionals and their causes
  • The Big IT - Management Divide
  • Conflict of interests and contradicting requirements faced by CIO
  • CIO Best practices/worst practices
  • Managers' fear of technology and how it is related to Industrial Psyche
  • Psychology of change from Industrial era to Information era
  • The hardware/infrastructure and Software functions of CIO
  • Future of infrastructure function under cloud?
  • Change management skills required
  • Team Building - CIO - CEO - Users
  • Causes of Success/failures of ERPs/other Enterprise solutions
  • Skill deficit at all levels
  • Spiritual practices - Do they have a place?
  • Games IT Managers play, Games Other managers play, Blame game
  • CIO Dilemmas - Should you educate the people or do you benefit from their ignorance? Do you spread light or do you take advantage of the darkness?

Why this Seminar?

Benefits for CIOs

"There is a very subtle difference in the way we should look at computers. When we realize this distinction, there will be a marked difference in our comprehension of computers"

  • The managers will learn how to collaborate rather than confront
  • They will learn to empathize with IT folks
  • CEOs will learn to take a more balanced view and be more effective change managers thereby helping IT projectsManagers will learn not only to manage IT-Driven change, but to be a catalyst to change.
  • With higher involvement and support from your functional managers and CEO, your solutions will be more effective and IT projects more likely to succeed 
  • The transition to your automated systems will be less stressful.

 

Benefits for Functional Managers

This training benefits managers personally - both in terms of their success in the company and their personal growth as professionals. Managers with IT awareness are in greater demand in the corporate world. There is already a great digital divide, Managers who are IT Aware and those who are not. The seminar will help them to be on the right side of the divide.

Managers will be able to better utilize technology without the frustrations and pains, which most managers go through. They will be able to interact with the IT folks more intelligently and thereby use technology more effectively to their own advantage.


Benefits for your Company

While it benefits the CIOs and other managers personally, it benefits the company too. Businesses are incurring heavy losses on account of failed implementations - leave alone the opportunity cost and productivity loss due to friction and frustration among senior managers. The seminar helps save cost through faster and more effective automation.

      

Who Should Participate?

Participants can be CEOs, Entrepreneurs, CXOs, Business Heads, Department Heads, Line Managers,  etc. In other words, any managerial staff at any level.

Participants can cut across all functions. Whereas the program is useful for non-IT managers from all functions like Finance, production, materials, procurement, HR, Admin, etc., it is equally useful for IT managers like CIOs, Sr. Mangers, Project Managers, Analysts, implementers, program managers and team leaders.

Whereas it is particularly useful for companies which are at an early stage of implementation or those who are planning to implement it in the near future, it will be useful also for those who have already implemented applications.

  

     

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Why Us

Prem Kamble is a Computer Professional with MBA from IIM Calcutta and B.Tech. from IIT Bombay. He has passed Advanced Management course called "Energo Cybernetic Strategy" with flying colors from Germany. He has also attended self-development programs like Est, Forum, Advanced Course, SELP (Self Expression & Leadership Program), etc. organized by Landmark Education Foundation, USA (earlier Centers Network) which have helped him to develop a broader outlook and a different way of thinking.

He has successfully overseen technology transitions for over 25 years. During his career, he has been a keen student of IT Management, Change Management, particularly the people and psychological issues of IT transformation. Here he shares his rich experience and learning with Top Professionals like you.

He has very closely interacted with people and lived with them during the struggle of technological changes. He, therefore, knows their fears, discomforts, anxieties and frustrations as they go through the implementations. He also knows what exactly they think they need to know of this technology, and what they should actually know.

He has worked both as Software Delivery head in SEI Level 5 companies and as Head of Technology in manufacturing companies. As Software Delivery Head in SEI Level 5 company, he created records of

*    Delivering all projects on time

*    Highest Repeat Orders

*    Highest Resource Utilization

As Head of IT in companies like Essar, Sutherland, Pidilite, Modi Rubber, etc. he has been extremely successful in conceptualizing and implementing computerized systems in the toughest of situations. He has expertise right from high-level IT Strategies and Management of IT-Driven-Change to down-to-earth software delivery.

He started his career as an analyst/ programmer and in less than five years was heading the IT function for a group of companies. He has major contribution in introducing computers for business applications in reputed companies. His areas of interest are business orientation and human orientation in Information Technology, study of the psychology of evolution from industrial era to information age, etc.

With a right mix of People, Process and Technology (PPT) expertise, he specializes in Business Process Automation focused on business objectives and people. Having managed IT on behalf of both IT user companies and SEI CMM Level 5 software manufacturing companies, he has expertise right from high level IT Strategies, Change Management, Strategies for IT implementations, upto down to earth system architecture and software delivery. With his close study of the businesses and people, he brings the insight to develop business solutions that work for businesses and people.

He has published articles on InfoTech management in the country's leading magazines. Most of the articles display an 'out-of-the-box' thinking and a knack to see what is not so obvious. He has also written on an objective analysis of God and Religion. Though these two areas of IT Management and Religion may seem to be poles apart, Prem believes that they are actually very closely related - both are a study into the human psychology of change.

Credentials

Success Stories/ Real Life Case Studies

*  On Business Orientation in IT

*  Prem Kamble's IT Strategy to get maximum Business Benefit was published in Times of India. This is an excellent real life case study of ways to maximize your business benefits in IT. Click here to Read

*  On People Orientation in IT

*  Prem Kamble created a record in a SEI Level 5 company by delivering all projects on time and to specs, to the utmost delight of his overseas customers. He penned down the success factors in an article. Click here to Read.

*  On Successful IT Implementation Strategy

*  His Implementation Strategy and People orientation which led to the success was published as a cover article in Computers Today. This makes a good case study in key success factors of IT Implementations in companies. Click here to Read.

 

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