Stories by Owen McCall

The relentless pursuit of sameness

You are unlikely to create greatness simply by replicating others. It's the business equivalent of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.

Written by Owen McCall05 April 16 08:03

​The technology puzzle

It is very difficult if not impossible to design a jigsaw puzzle by getting independent actors to design certain pieces only and then expect them to work together - yet that is what a lot of organisations today are doing with their business technology systems.

Written by Owen McCall11 March 16 06:30

How to avoid the ‘technology hammer’

“Here is a technology, it's really cool, now, let's identify a problem that we might be able to ‘hit’ with this technology.” Sounds familiar?

Written by Owen McCall27 Oct. 15 16:30

​Wizards in the workplace

Waiting for four hours for a three-minute Harry Potter theme park ride gave me prime insights on working with Gen Y.

Written by Owen McCall19 Oct. 15 06:30

Focus equals progress

Most teams try and do everything, please everyone. Owen McCall discusses why this can impede the goal to build a world class IT team.

Written by Owen McCall08 July 15 07:06

Montessori at work

Businesses can learn from the principles espoused by a doctor and educator that changed the game for schools at the start of the 20th century – and continues to today.

Written by Owen McCall27 Jan. 15 07:45

The eight-step change process guide for CXOs

These steps will help create a powerful, flexible and adaptive culture that will not only allow you to survive a crisis, but set you up to thrive through change.

Written by Owen McCall10 Oct. 14 08:00

Owen McCall: 'Short-term gain, long term-pain'

Often, we work really hard on a project and once we achieve our goal, the gains are short-term. Inevitably, organisational focus moves on, and the organisation rebounds back to the way it was. How do we break this cycle?

Written by Owen McCall11 April 14 06:00

Are you winning?

I am constantly astounded at the number of people who cannot answer this question or can only answer it with generalities or anecdotes. They have no or very little objective data, writes Owen McCall.

Written by Owen McCall18 Nov. 13 07:36

The CIO’s first order of business

Before you can be influential you need to be seen as fundamentally competent, writes Owen McCall. You have to be strategically relevant, that is, you have to understand your business and the issues your peers are dealing with on a daily basis. You have to be influential with your peers so that when you talk knowledgeably about how IT can deliver value to the business or how IT was altering the competitive landscape, they listen.

Written by Owen McCall21 Aug. 13 06:10

Leaders, get out of the middle

Are you focused and calm or have you got too many thingsgoing on and rushing around? Do you come away from meetings with your leadersclear on what's needed and focused - or confused and frustrated?

Written by Owen McCall17 Dec. 12 15:53

Don't align, synergise

I have written about strategy before and in particular my dislike of our industry's obsession with the need to align IT with the business. The very act of trying to align IT and the business is perhaps the source of our issues as alignment assumes separateness where no separateness exists. IT is a part of the business as a whole.

Written by Owen McCall22 Oct. 12 14:03

The fat man and the marathon

In the early 1990's my wife Jo and I had the opportunity to live in Atlanta Georgia. While we were there my wife decided to run the Peachtree Road Race. The race is a prestigious 10 kilometre event and one of the largest fun runs in the US with over 85,000 people participating each year. As Jo told me about the race, I became enthused and decided to enter and do the run with her.

Written by Owen McCall13 Aug. 12 14:45