Ade McCormack

If the IT function is presented as an internal supplier, the customer mentality may soon breed user contempt

They call at the most inconvenient times and have recently taken to determining our IT strategy. Their insatiable desire to own the latest gadgets might be one of the reasons the IT industry has looked to the addictive substances market to borrow the common term coined for their customers – users. read more

Politics 101 - You will gain greater traction in the boardroom with the CEO and CFO if you are genuinely interested in what is important to them

You are invited to report on IT at meeting of the board. You systematically work your way through the list of items you want to bring to the senior management team’s attention. The last of which is the two-day website outage that took place the previous weekend. read more

As a CIO it is worth asking the question, what results am I looking to achieve?

Kaoru Ishikawa was a Japanese academic who advanced the notion of quality in part based on the work of the renowned US quality consultant W Edwards Denning. He graphically depicted cause and effects in what many may remember as the fishbone diagram. read more

Create a shadow model to your IT function that exists primarily to explore the business value that can be levered from emerging technologies given the macro trends that are playing out

One of the symptoms of the digital economy is that the small group of early technology adopters is growing rapidly. read more

It would appear that many of our CIOs have reached the summit and are well placed to lead the next generation of IT leaders to similar heights.

CIOs have found their place in the organisation which enables them to do good work regardless of whether they have a key to the executive washroom. read more

Do you have what it takes to live the dream?

Being transformational is easier said than done. Ade McCormack give some advice on the practicalities of metamorphosis read more

Three sequential events, each tougher than the last

Just like business executives, athletes concentrate on preparation, game-plan and execution,says Ade McCormack, who offers this guide for CIOs to get on top of their responsibilities read more

You can be the hero that allows your organisation to get the most out of its workforce

Working in one office is on the way out, says Ade McCormack, who warns CIOs must compete or collobarate with property management and HR to bring about high performance working read more

The top 10 actions CIOs need to take to ensure the talent pipeline does not dry up

The top 10 actions you need to take to ensure your talent pipeline does not dry up. read more

Grade your personal brand identity

The way your peers and colleagues view you has a bearing on how successful your projects are going to be. Ade McCormack recommends this method of assessing your personal branding read more

Ceasing hostilities with users is the first step to being recognised as board-level material

The service desk is the CIO's primary contact point with the rest of the business, but Ade McCormack believes many of them have what he terms an emotional intelligence improvement opportunity read more

The next steps in creating a partnership between the IT department and the rest of the business

Build your own partnership board, says Ade McCormack, if you want to pass on some of the IT responsibility to the business lines that use it read more