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I wrote a piece called Mugged in Data Hell.

It told the story of a CIO who was hoodwinked, cajoled, bullied, bribed and patronized into doing the wrong things, continuously.

As my mate Bill said, “It packs big punches, and doesn’t hold back with the shit-kicking truth”.

Unscrupulous, unethical and irresponsible are not terms normally associated with the IT business,.

They are difficult to identify because they loom so large.

It’s not about wishy-washy black swans that piss in your cornflakes, but mature Spanish fighting bulls magnified to the power of 3.

These are the kinds of ‘animals’ that will really ruin your day, stab you in the back, gore your gut and screw-up your career.

As I was writing, the piece ended up being much longer than I anticipated.

So instead of one piece, I ended up with four pieces.

The first part lays out the background,

https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/02/creme-brulee-mugged-in-dantes-data-inferno-part-1/

It’s the ‘who, what, where and when’.

The main protagonist is a character called Crème Brûlée, a newly appointed CIO of a ‘high-street legend’ and ‘household name’.

The second part introduces a ‘major’ corporate acquisition and the ‘need’ to integrate and merge IT applications and facilities.

https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/02/mugged-in-data-hell-perils-of-embracing-the-faustian-side-of-it-part-2/

Part three looks at the realisation that maybe things are not going quite so well for the CIO and the various programmes and projects she is ultimately responsible for.

https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/03/mugged-in-data-hell-perils-of-embracing-the-faustian-side-of-it-part-3/

Nonetheless, the visible cracks are quite soon taken off the radar thanks to a lot of razzle-dazzle, bluff and bluster, and smoke and mirrors. The soothing siren calls of “don’t resist” and “go with the flow”.

Part four, winds up the piece.

https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/04/mugged-in-data-hell-perils-of-embracing-the-faustian-side-of-it-part-4/

It’s about ‘dog eat dog’, recrimination, brutality and cunning, with victims, perpetrators and villains lumped all together in a Faustian pact.

It’s not a morality tale.

It just warns CIOs, or anyone else for that matter, that there are a lot of venomous snakes, crocodiles and bears in the Information Technology pit.

So what’s the take away? Your biggest weapon should be ‘street smarts’.

Part 1: https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/02/creme-brulee-mugged-in-dantes-data-inferno-part-1/

Part 2: https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/02/mugged-in-data-hell-perils-of-embracing-the-faustian-side-of-it-part-2/

Part 3: https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/03/mugged-in-data-hell-perils-of-embracing-the-faustian-side-of-it-part-3/

Part 4: https://goodstrat.com/2014/10/04/mugged-in-data-hell-perils-of-embracing-the-faustian-side-of-it-part-4/

Enjoy!

Yours strategically, Martyn

На Бо́га наде́йся, а сам не плоша́й – Trust in God, but lock your car.

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