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Innovation:an IT Mandate

for 2005

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You’ve Puzzled It Out

• 1996: Re-Engineering

• 1998: Dot Com

• 1999: Y2k

• 2001: Dot Com Bust

• 2002: Sarbanes-Oxley

• 2004: Outsourcing

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and Understood the Message

• keeping the network up

• getting projects done on time

• controlling/reducing costs

• aligning business and IT

• keeping the network secure

• proving IT’s value

• yadda yadda yadda

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But Beware . . .

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The Signs Are There

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What Are We Looking For?

• “It’s an Epiphany, an aha.” S. Warren, FTC

• it’s approaching a similar problem in a new and different way

• it’s a leap

• it’s not a matter of scale

• it’s not the next logical improvement

• sort of like pornography– both defy definition, but you know it when you see it

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Enigma of Tenured Staff

What’s Wrong?

• you suffer from in-breeding / have no “expert”

What Should You Do?

• supplement staff with training

• periodically “rent the expert”

• get an “A” player

• develop an “upgrade” plan

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Enigma of Methodology

What’s Wrong?

• you limit flexibility

• you don’t take risks

What Should You Do?

• hire/encourage “slow learners”

• “tweak” the prioritization criteria

• break the “rules”

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Enigma of Good Control

What’s Wrong?

• you are not creative

• you do not take risks

What Should You Do?

• force creativity

• allow for parallel tasks

• hire uncomfortables

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Peak Demand at AG.com

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Perfect Storm Planning

• Challenge– triple the peak-peak capacity– for less than $1 million– do it in 6 months

• Approach– keep management at bay– “unusual” teams– inside and outside ideas

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Perfect Storm Results

• Innovations– use of page caching– de-Oraclizing– load testing– program optimization– asynchronous processing

• Valentine’s Day Execution– flawless

                                                        

                      

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The Precious 2 Hours

• For the PDB group, set aside 2 hours per week per staff member– unstructured, anything goes– report to group monthly

• Failed– wasn’t part of our anatomy– succumbed to the moment

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Enigma of Business Partnering

What’s Wrong?

• you are not a business leader

What Should You Do?

• defend

• become part of the corporate process

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The 6-Step Internal Plan

• People• Processes• Values• Projects• Internal Communication• External Communication

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Roadmap for AGI Tech.

• tap into staff ideation– structured

• experiment with the “PDB” situation

• hiring of dedicated staff– pipeline

• avoiding dashing expectations

• meetings with CEO/CFO

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Seeking a Larger Role

• Find the area(s) in your company that are speaking the “I” word– “Market Development”, “Product

Development”, “Business Development”

• If you find them, then insure that IT has representation

• If they don’t exist, then be an advocate to begin setting them up

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AG’s Program

get the story

get the idea

get it started

get the details

get it right

get it going

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Mapping Your Strategy

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Finding Good Guides

http://www.thinksmart.com/index.html

                                         

http://www.innovationtools.com/

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Seeking Inspiration

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Google Envy

• text search (well yeah)

• image search (fantastic)

• groups, news, Froogle (shopping)

• Local

• Desktop search

• Google Labs (maps, Japanese Suggest, video, Google Compute, Google sets)

• and….well, you get the picture

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Summary of Findings• call to action

• do “something”

• make that “something” as relevant to your situation as you can while you can

• start with IT

• secure a place corporately

• it’s a journey, not a destination

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Breaking the Da Petro Code

Hint:

Ask Key Code Questions

A

email me the answer at btpetro@ag.com and get a free year’s subscription to AG.com

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The End