2010

{{post_terms.hashtags}}

recrEAtion: Realizing the Extraordinary Contribution of Your Enterprise Architects

Simon is a seasoned Enterprise Architect who joins a corporation in New York as their first-ever Vice President of Enterprise Architecture. On his very first day, he meets the global Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who asks Simon What do you do? Simon’s reply triggers the CEO to respond in a way that our hero least expects. What follows is a journey across continents and oceans in which Simon uncovers the true meaning of Enterprise Architecture, who is doing it, and how successful they are. On his travels, Simon teams up with senior executives around the world to integrate Enterprise Architecture into their strategies and business plans, and to innovate in the architecture of their enterprise. Everyone he meets has some wisdom to offer, and is looking for his in return. Finally, Simon has to make a choice between the kind of Enterprise Architect he used to be and the one he has become. Join the characters in this sequel to the highly-acclaimed business novel fruITion, as they contribute to Simon’s journey and he makes his final choice. Share in his thoughts and experiences, and join the author in observing key messages along the journey.

Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology Is Reshaping the Economy

A wave of business innovation is driving the productivity resurgence in the U.S. economy. In Wired for Innovation, Erik Brynjolfsson and Adam Saunders describe how information technology directly or indirectly created this productivity explosion, reversing decades of slow growth. They argue that the companies with the highest level of returns to their technology investment are doing more than just buying technology; they are inventing new forms of organizational capital to become digital organizations. These innovations include a cluster of organizational and business-process changes, including broader sharing of information, decentralized decision-making, linking pay and promotions to performance, pruning of non-core products and processes, and greater investments in training and education. Brynjolfsson and Saunders go on to examine the real sources of value in the emerging information economy, including intangible inputs and outputs that have defied traditional metrics. For instance, intangible organizational capital is not directly observable on a balance sheet yet amounts to trillions of dollars of value. Similarly, such nonmarket transactions of information goods as Google searches or views of Wikipedia articles are an increasingly large share of the economy yet virtually invisible in the GDP statistics. Drawing on work done at the MIT Center for Digital Business and elsewhere, Brynjolfsson and Saunders explain how to better measure the value of technology in the economy. They treat technology as not just another type of ordinary capital investment by also focusing on complementary investments–including process redesign, training, and strategic changes–and ton he value of product quality, timeliness, variety, convenience, and new products. Innovation continues through booms and busts. This book provides an essential guide for policy makers and economists who need to understand how information technology is transforming the economy and how it will create value in the coming decade.

The Power of Pull

Exploring the paradigm shift in business brought about by innovations in communication technology, this collaboration from three consultant-authors provides a succinct metaphor for the shift in the information economy-from “push” to “pull”-but little else. Though they provide an effective survey of the effect of more interactive, ubiquitous and on-demand communication, it already feels dated; the essential messages that Hagel, Brown, and Davison derive-networking is key, you should pursue your passions, many traditional ways of doing business are over-are old news in the business self-help section. The examples they provide focus primarily on individually-driven collaborative efforts (wikis, online gaming) and make poor analogies for someone looking to revitalize a corporation or present a compelling case for change to colleagues or an intransigent CEO. Professionals who already know that the Internet isn’t just a phase will need more information than this book provides.

Greening IT

Information Technology is responsible for approximately 2% of the world’s emission of greenhouse gases. The IT sector itself contributes to these greenhouse gas emissions, through its massive consumption of energy – and therefore continuously exacerbates the problem. At the same time, however, the IT industry can provide the technological solutions we need to optimise resource use, save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We call this Greening IT. This book looks into the great potential of greening society with IT – i.e. the potential of IT in transforming our societies into Low-Carbon societies. The book is the result of an internationally collaborative effort by a number of opinion leaders in the field of Greening IT.

The Attack of the Unexpected: A Guide to Surprises and Uncertainty

Everything in life is, in a sense, unexpected. From the people you meet to the events you experience. But sometimes the unexpected attacks. It eats at you and fundamentally changes where you are and where you are going. September 11, the credit crunch, and the rise of the World Wide Web are recent examples of agenda changing megaevents that we were forced to react to in some way or another. This book, by one of the world’s leading trendspotters, is designed to help you understand the nature of unexpected events and how we are affected by it on an individual, corporate and societal basis. Building on studies of and interviews with people who have in some way been “attacked” and significantly affected by the unexpected, its aim is to help you stop fearing uncertainty and start embracing and leveraging it to your advantage. About the Author: Magnus Lindkvist is an acclaimed trendspotter and popular speaker around the world. He is the author of Everything We Know is Wrong (Marshall Cavendish, 2009) and was selected as Sweden’s Business Speaker of the Year in 2009. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden.