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Category: Strategist

Technology is just a means to an end

March 9, 2021

Too many people are treating technology as an end. Technology, unfortunately, is just a means. We need to use technology to drive outcomes. This is why Amazon doesn’t call itself an AI company even though Amazon probably has invested more in AI than anyone else. One of the clients that I have been working with is a NEO bank start up in US. I have been helping the client develop their technology plan to support the launch of the bank. In one of our weekly check-ins with the CEO, he told me a comment that

Chief Technology Officer vs. Chief Business Technology Officer

February 9, 2021

For many companies, technology doesn’t really matter because they don’t have the right leaders to help them identify opportunities to deploy technology to change their business. A Chief Business Technology Officer is one of the opportunities for companies to identify the right leader to help them accomplish their ambition of becoming technology-empowered! I was recently working with one of the largest travel companies in the world to help them define their technology strategy for the next 5 years. During the first week of the project, the team and I found out that the client hadn’t

“Contract Coding” – the next frontier for IT Supply Chain

January 28, 2021

To truly be able to deploy technology across all facets of the business, companies should explore the 7 habits of Tech-Empowered Companies and embark on a journey to transform themselves. As Marc Andreessen famously said in 2011, “software is eating the world”. Technology is becoming an essential part of every industry and every business. More and more companies are making the statement that they are becoming a technology company.

Architecture MVP – An Agile approach to IT architecture development

December 17, 2020

Architecture changes are hard. An MVP approach to architecture can eliminate many of the problems current architecture design faces. Instead of PowerPoint marketecture (i.e., architecture in a nice picture, as marketing brochures), an MVP for architecture would enable architects to design the key components, test the feasibility, and identify any underlying challenges. This way they don’t have to wait until late application development stages to realize the underlying architecture issues. In 2001, I was a part of the team that helped a major payment network re-engineer its mainframe based transaction process systems. Sixteen years later,

10 Questions for Tech Strategy consultants

December 10, 2020

Majority of consulting firms are now talking about the same topics: agile, AI, cloud, micro-services, ecosystem, and API. One would almost wonder if strategy, which is fundamentally about choices, is still relevant. In addition, with the integration of business and technology, many of the so-called digital consultants actually don’t know much about technology. Is technology strategy still relevant? What should companies consider when developing a technology strategy? And how should they pick technology strategy consultants? Whenever I speak with a CEO about technology, I would hear that the CEO wants to embed technology into all

7 Levers for Accelerating Technology Transformation

August 5, 2020

Leading companies are increasingly using annual reports to discuss their digital ambitions and their journey to become a technology empowered company. In the annual reports, they clearly articulated their technology vision, their accomplishments so far, and their future digital direction. Companies are even launching Technology Committee in their Board of Directors to further elevate technology’s positioning within their companies. As more and more companies shift towards making technology an essential part of their businesses, discussions on technology strategy will become a core part of every annual report. As technology becomes the driving force for companies

10 Questions for PE Firms Evaluating Target’s IT Landscape

June 17, 2020

One of the questions that consultants must always answer is how to win client work. Clients issue RFPs and they employ scoring criteria to select consultants. The scoring criteria are typically centered around technical competency and commercial arrangements. Clients’ procurement teams will lead the charge, score the vendors, and go through the selection processes.

A 4R methodology to digitally improve business processes

June 11, 2020

Many companies are looking for a systematic methodology to apply technology to digitize and improve existing business processes. 4R, from Results to Root Causes to Remediation to Rhythm, is a proven way to identify process improvement opportunities, apply technology to optimize processes, and ensure impact out of the investment. Many approaches have been taken in the past to reengineer business processes. Examples would include Six Sigma’s DMAIC, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), etc. Most of these approaches were created before the arrival of the current wave of technologies, Big Data and Advanced Analytics, and agile development

Eight lessons learned when reviewing IT cost

May 6, 2020

While most IT organizations have been conducting IT budget reviews regularly for years, there are always opportunities to further improve the processes and get even more out of the IT cost review effort. COVID-19 further amplified the need to review IT budgets and reallocate precious IT resources. Having done this exercise many times for clients across different industries over the last 20 years,  I am sharing my eight key lessons learned in this blog. When those issues are resolved, I have seen opportunities to rebalance 15-35% of the IT investment portfolio. Companies are increasingly conducting

Business is the right brain, IT is the left brain, and we need the whole brain

May 5, 2020

While most companies still talk about business and IT alignment, the alignment between business and IT implies that business and IT are still opposite of each other. Companies are transforming themselves to become technology-empowered and make technology a core part of their business. For this transformation to work, companies should be thinking about the relationship between business and IT as the left and right sides of a human brain. Just like no one can function fully with only one side of the brain, business and IT must work together for any technology-empowered company. I had

Building Technology Proficiency in Business

May 3, 2020

Future businesses will all be centered around technology and technology will be a core part of the business for every company. Companies must be bi-lingual across the language of business and the language of technology and both business and IT can fluently speak the languages of each other. Building technology proficiency in business must be a critical undertaking for every single company. More and more companies have realized that to compete effectively in the future, they need to make technology a core part of their business. This implies that the company must be bi-lingual: business

Flywheel over “Field of Data Dreams” – A better approach to generate analytics impact

May 1, 2020

Only 31% of companies view themselves as data driven in 2019. According to a recent McKinsey survey, only a small fraction of the value that could be unlocked by advanced-analytics approaches has been unlocked – as little as 10 percent in some sectors. This is partially driven by the fact that many companies take a field of dreams approach to data platforms – “If you build it, he will come”. To scale the impact of data analytics across the enterprise, companies should instead adopt a flywheel approach to focus on use cases and total cost

7 Timeless Classics for Aspiring Consultants

April 6, 2020

What books should budding consultants read? How can consultants build the skills to solve clients’ most urgent issues, build long lasting client relationships, and continue to evolve consultants’ own toolkit? Are there good books that can help? Over my course of consulting careers, seven books have helped me tremendously. For every vacation, I will take one and try to re-read, refresh, and rejuvenate myself using the wisdoms imparted from the books. Over the last 20 years, the one question that I get asked over and over again by both MBA students during the campus interviews

Which industry are tech giants going to disrupt next? Maybe it’s consulting?

March 19, 2020

Globally, a number of technology giants such as Amazon and Alibaba are getting into the consulting space. They are not only providing advisory services on the implementation of their hardware and software capabilities, they are also starting to become the advisers on digital strategy and digital transformation. What is driving their thinking? Is consulting the next industry the tech giants are going to disrupt? An interesting recent trend of digital transformation is that a number of technology giants are getting into strategy and management consulting. Some recent developments include: Amazon is significantly expanding its professional

7 Levers for Accelerating Technology Transformation

March 19, 2020

Technology transformation is often similar to replacing an airplane’s jet engine while flying at 39,000 FT in the air. Past approaches to technology transformation took too long and often didn’t create immediate benefits. By the time the transformation was finished, not only the technology chosen was already obsolete again, and business was also still frustrated with the pace of technology changes. A new approach to technology transformation is required. Here are the 7 levers that will allow companies to accelerate the transformation. While digital transformation often focuses on leveraging technology to change business models,  products

Technology Metrics Framework for Tech-Empowered Companies

March 19, 2020

For tech-empowered companies, a new set of metrics are required to measure the outcome of technology investments and evaluate if the foundation is sound to enable companies to continue to evolve with technology advances. Current commonly used IT metrics won’t suffice for those companies. When I met the CEO of a major $100+B healthcare company for the first time, he asked me these questions: “Parker, how should I think about IT? I don’t even know what metrics I should ask my CIO to measure himself, let alone for me to evaluate if the numbers are

Four Criteria for Selecting a Strategic Advisor

January 7, 2020

One of the questions that consultants must always answer is how to win client work. Clients issue RFPs and they employ scoring criteria to select consultants. The scoring criteria are typically centered around technical competency and commercial arrangements. Clients’ procurement teams will lead the charge, score the vendors, and go through the selection processes.

Seven Habits of Tech-Empowered Companies

January 7, 2020

To truly be able to deploy technology across all facets of the business, companies should explore the 7 habits of Tech-Empowered Companies and embark on a journey to transform themselves. As Marc Andreessen famously said in 2011, “software is eating the world”. Technology is becoming an essential part of every industry and every business. More and more companies are making the statement that they are becoming a technology company.

How to Discuss Technology in Annual Reports

January 7, 2020

As technology becomes the driving force for companies across industries, more and more CEOs are viewing technology as a core part of their top agendas. In the meantime, many companies are still struggling to raise the profile of technology within their companies.

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