GOOD STRATEGY REBELLION

Category: Polemic

  • Consider this: Clueless in IT! Can‘t listen. Aren‘t learning. Won‘t win.

    Consider this: Clueless in IT! Can‘t listen. Aren‘t learning. Won‘t win.

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    Aranjuez, Spain

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Bruxelles 19th May 2019

    Listen well

    I am a big fan of listening well and in continually improving listening skills. Yes, there are times when we can over-listen but this is also linked with skills of diplomacy and politics. How we listen should inform us a lot about what we and others really are.

    So, whilst I am a big advocate of listening well I see that the world of business, and especially the sub-world of IT, is plagued with vain, impulsive and badly informed vote-takers who stubbornly resist the need to listen well and who will attempt to deftly fill the whole of the available time bashing their gums in communicating what are to all intents and purposes vacuous inanities and long litanies of meaningless clichés, full of terms that they either abuse or misunderstand; or even a bit of both.

    And, as anyone who has worked with IT will know, I am not making this up. We used to call this charlatanry now we simply call it consulting. It still isn’t turning a pig’s ear into a silk purse, no matter how much people insist. But, there it is, in all its magnificent mediocrity.

    Some people tell me it’s because IT attracts people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome; whatever that is.

    I tend to put this refusal to listen down to other things; my money is firmly on arrogance and ignorance.

    But, they just don’t get it, do they? (more…)

  • IT’S POLITICS: UK: Better off with Brexit

    IT’S POLITICS: UK: Better off with Brexit

    Picture6Martyn Jones

    Bornheim, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany – 25th August 2017

    When you offer people all of the benefits of the single market and the customs union, but without any of the EU bureaucracy, constraints and costs, what happens?

    We ran an experimental consultation last year in the UK just to demonstrate what happens when bat-shit-crazy mad-cow Britain has a chance to throw a spanner in the works. Some people will inevitably believe the boloney whilst others will use it as a mere tool in a simple-minded and obtuse attempt to rationalise their own irrationality and misanthropy. Nobody can throw a spanner in the works quite like the Brits.

    (more…)

  • IT’S POLITICS: Brexit: MPs must act, now!

    IT’S POLITICS: Brexit: MPs must act, now!

    Picture2Martyn Richard Jones

    Bonn 14th August 2017

    To paraphrase a famous quote, ‘Now is the time for all good MPs to come to the aid of the United Kingdom.’

    Brexit is the enemy at the gate, the wolf at the door and the most significant threat to our collective future. This is our darkest hour of greatest need and Brexit must be stopped.

    Of course Brexit must be stopped.

    And, we have the power to do it. (more…)

  • Consider this: Social Media Big Data killed Ad-land

    Consider this: Social Media Big Data killed Ad-land

    Hold this thought: Big Data is the future of online business and interactive advertising is its profit.

    Much is being made of Big Data and its role in social media and online interactive advertising. The advertising industry itself has a “big crush” on Big Data, and it fuels the elevated revenues, profits and share prices of a number of online companies.

    (more…)

  • CONSIDER THIS: Did Big Data Kill The Statistician? 2026

    CONSIDER THIS: Did Big Data Kill The Statistician? 2026

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    Blue sky data

    Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    Hold this thought: ‘There are big lies, damn big lies and big data science’.

    Statistics is a science. Some argue that it is the oldest of sciences. It can be traced back in history to the days of Augustus Caesar, and before.

    In 1998, Lynn Billard wrote a paper that laid out the role of the Statistician and Statistics. She stated that “no science began until man mastered the concepts and arts of counting, measuring, and weighting”.[1]

    (more…)
  • Mugged in Data Hell – Perils of embracing the Faustian Side of IT – Part 1 – Remaster 2026

    Mugged in Data Hell – Perils of embracing the Faustian Side of IT – Part 1 – Remaster 2026

    Martyn ‘Rhysiart’ Jones

    Spain

    It’s Friday morning in Canary Wharf, and I have been asked to facilitate a meeting of a chapel of IT Dogma Suckers and Digital Snake-oil Victims, the self-help recovery chain for people who have fallen victim to the pernicious and debilitating effects of IT dogma and professional rip-offs. (more…)

  • Understanding IT Failures: A Path to Improvement – REMASTER 2026

    Understanding IT Failures: A Path to Improvement – REMASTER 2026

    My original intention was not to write a book on the decline and fall of so many projects, but rather to pen a short essay, a sort of hard-hitting criticism of the litany of IT failures. Of course, this is rarely enough; it wasn’t enough because it identified the issues without provoking debate, and it highlighted common issues without providing guideline suggestions, which meant that it appeared upon reflection to come across as too much like a hi-tech hit and run exercise, beating up on IT failures without actually offering tangible solutions.

    (more…)

  • Transforming IT: A Guide for CEOs – REMASTER 2026

    Transforming IT: A Guide for CEOs – REMASTER 2026

    Far too few CEOs regularly think about IT on a habitual basis, and especially as something that is potentially integrated into everything their companies do and could do. This, however, is not at all surprising; there is a general lack of time for any CEO to be actively involved in what IT does, and they will generally have some degree of misunderstanding of both the historic roles and the relative successes and failures of IT.

    (more…)

  • Transforming IT: Strategies for Business Success – REMASTER 2026

    Transforming IT: Strategies for Business Success – REMASTER 2026

    From banking to airlines, through communications businesses to pharmaceutical companies, the IT landscape is littered with failures of Homeric proportions, lost opportunities and profligate waste. Across the spectrum of commercial enterprise, the IT bottom line is inevitably familiar: in general, businesses expose themselves to unnecessary levels of disruption, and spend far too much time and money on IT projects, IT products and internal IT services that frankly suck.

    (more…)

  • Aligning ICT with Business Strategy for Growth – REMASTER 2026

    Aligning ICT with Business Strategy for Growth – REMASTER 2026

    Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    As a CEO, CIO, or student of Business Management, you will understand this. Information and Communication Technology (ICT, also known as IT) has become essential. It is crucial. It is a pervasive element in the fabric of corporate life. What I mean by ICT encompasses three essential elements: Processes, Information and Technology. ICT should be seen as an important corporate asset. More importantly, Information, Processes, and their Management (IM) should be considered as such. They should be made to work as contemporary business enablers. They should bring about value-adding alignment in business. Thus, they should be managed as such. Although it does work that way, it typically doesn’t.

    (more…)