Frank Buytendijk Blog

Slowly but surely we are expanding the scope of the Journal of Management Excellence. Download issue no. 7 here.

In this issue we discuss 'business transformation'. Business transformation has many different facets, and we discuss a number of them. Thomas Oestreich looks at the perspective of the CIO, and how IT needs to grow from a supporting function in the value chain, to a force that drives innovation at the core of the business. Kevin Narain, managing partner at European consulting firm INEUM discusses finance transformation, in an excellent article called "Learning the Ropes". If there is one thing we (should have) learned from the economic situation, is that risk and performance management should be transformed to be more integrated, and Brian Gregory describes how to do that. Kathy Horton describes cultural transformation, using two case studies. Dr. Bill Stratton of Dixie State University of Utah takes a wider approach, and expands the idea of business transformation to the complete value chain. Jim Gurowka of the Institute of Management Accountants introduces the idea of a Performance Architecture. Sandeep Banerjie describes the relationship between eliminating IT complexity and business transformation. And as always, Mark Conway provides some interesting pointers for further reading.

It seems to me, looking at all the articles, that business transformation itself has transformed over the years. Gone are the days of reengineering the complete business in a big bang project style. Business transformation today is a series of smaller steps, gradually and in a controlled way leading to a new desired state. Most transformation is driven by the external world, by political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal change. These external forces change, and it is not always possible to drive them yourself. Agility is the key to successful business transformation. The goal may be clear, the grand vision may still stand, but the way is continuously reevaluated.

Lastly, I'd like to introduce you to my colleague Toby Hatch, who will drive the next phase in the maturity of the Journal of Management Excellence, as the next editor of the Journal. The theme for the next issue will be "creating options". Send your contribution to toby.hatch@oracle.com.

frank

PS. All issues of the Journal can be downloaded here.

As you may have noticed, I am running this global survey for my upcoming book, at www.frankbuytendijk.com (if you haven't filled it in, please do so!). I have over 500 respondents already, and it is time to start to think about analyzing the results.

Honestly, I don't like spreadsheets, and I don't feel like writing macro's. So, I decided to use what is now known as Oracle OLAP Option. My first job was at IRI Software, that got acquired by Oracle in 1995 (and I left the company a year before that). I haven't worked with the technology since then, 15 years ago.

But if I close my eyes, I can still remember how it used to work. The version I am using is over 10 years old, and it has progressed immensely in the meantime. So I set out yesterday evening, loaded all the data into a data model, and am ready to start analyzing.

If you still know how to operate a tool, after 15 years, it says something about the power of its logic.

Ohhhh... am I having fun. Just like old days.

frank