24 Friday Oct 2014
Posted in information
Tags
Ask Martyn, Behavioural Economics, Business, business strategy, corporate assets, Corporate IT, Information Technology, Offshoring, Outsourcing, Strategy
Written by Martyn Richard Jones
“It’s not enough to give signals.” – Enzo Cucchi
I wanted to call this piece ‘A random drive down Camino Real’.
But that is an ‘in joke’ and no one would get it.
So instead I called in ‘Developing and Aligning IT Strategy’. Continue reading
14 Tuesday Oct 2014
Posted in Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones, son of Melbourne Jones and Mary Elizabeth Jones
A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular and significant goal.
As the text books state, the term strategy derives from the Greek word “στρατηγία” (translated into Latin as “strategĭa”), meaning “the art of directing military operations” or in business terms: “the set of actions planned in advance, and used to align the resources and potential of a company to achieve its goals and objectives”.
14 Tuesday Oct 2014
Posted in Architecture, Strategy
Tags
accountability, awareness, business analysis, constraints, Data Warehouse, Management, modelling, opportunities, organisational awareness, Strategy
Written by Martyn Richard Jones
2026 Mix
Strategic fit express the degree to which an organization is matching its resources and capabilities with the opportunities in the external environment.
Matching occurs through the practice of pre-strategy analysis.
That said, it is very easy to fall into the trap of oversimplifying high-level concepts and overstating the intricacies and interdependencies of strategic-fit factors. Continue reading
10 Friday Oct 2014
Posted in Data Warehouse, market forces, nine competitive forces, Strategy
Tags
Behavioural Economics, BI, Business, business analysis, Business Management, business strategy, Challenges, corporate assets, Creativity, Crisis, Data Warehouse, Dogma, Goal Setting, Information Technology, marketforces, operationalwareness, Strategy
Strategy and Market forces – Get your ducks lined upLet’s now take a brief look at my ‘nine competitive dimensions’ model.
This model will be familiar to some who will readily connect with the inclusion of government as an environmental dimension.
09 Thursday Oct 2014
Posted in Excellence, Methodology
Tags
Ask Martyn, Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Business Enablement, Business Management, Information Technology, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
Remastered for 2026
I came into IT at the tail end of the seventies, joining one of the original computing pioneers.
It was a conservative company led by veterans, engineers, accountants, and sales professionals, with many ties to the US administration, the Department of Defence, and intelligence agencies.
My interests at the time were in philosophy, politics and economics. I liked meeting people and talking, and I also enjoyed helping people solve real-life business problems, so I was always engaged with corporate staff and executive management rather than with the real hard-core technicians and engineers.
The thing is, I had no idea what constrained IT, so I never had that baggage when thinking about solutions.
08 Wednesday Oct 2014
Posted in Big Data, business, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, operational, pig data, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
Remastered for 2026 – Buy my books! Get my advice! Benefit from me!
I frequently include the term Operational Awareness in talks.
I think it’s important for strategy.
So I wrote a piece that tried to convey what I mean by the term. Continue reading
08 Wednesday Oct 2014
Posted in Business Intelligence, Strategy
Tags
Ask Martyn, Behavioural Economics, Best principles, marketforces, operationalwareness, reactionary, straegicfit, Strategy, tactics
What triggers a review of organisational strategy?
Well, typically organisations usually shy away from major strategy reviews when things are just ticking over quite nicely. The old axiom of “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it”, has a lot of power of persuasion, even in cases where the logical and coherent thing to do would be to continually review strategy.
06 Monday Oct 2014
Tags
Analytics, Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Big Data, Dogma, Economics, Financial, Goal Setting, Management, Marketing, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
Remaster 2026
Hi, I’m Ricky Jonesy-Innit, boss of Becci Boo Investments.
Last week, we said goodbye to our best commodity trader.
He’d been with us for years.
06 Monday Oct 2014
Posted in Architecture, Data Warehouse, Dogma, Excellence, Offshoring, Outsourcing, Strategy
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Best principles, business strategy, Creativity, IT Strategy, Management, Organisational Autism, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
Remastered for 2026
Like many people around the world, I have certain expectations.
When I want some artwork done for a sales campaign, yes, I expect the people that I commission to show a lot of creativity.
When I want to read a novel, go to the theatre or simply chill out watching a movie, yes, I do expect some degree of creativity.
05 Sunday Oct 2014
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Business, Business Enablement, Creativity, Dogma, Management, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
Remastered for 2026
Here are three stories that illustrate the connection between creativity and what we do in business. Jack’s Retail Story talks about the expansion of retail business; Jill’s Colour Book Story highlights a hugely pervasive tendency, even in these times; and Martyn’s Summer Story argues that there is a strategic time and place for some things.
04 Saturday Oct 2014
Posted in Architecture, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Knowledge, Peeves
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, business strategy, data integration, Demagogism, Dogma, enterprise data warehousing, Goal Setting, Information and Technology, information management, IT Strategy, MDM, Offshoring, Organisational Autism, Outsourcing, Strategy
By Martyn Richard Jones
Continued from Part 3, which can be found here -> Part 3
“The following week, the full high-powered delegation from The Taffia Connection and BogartSys flies in. It was as if an army had come to do battle with us. Uniformly slick, sullen and tacky. iPhone; laptop; knock-off Marks and Spark’s; check patterns; butt ugly ties; ‘plastique’ shoes; mismatching socks; ‘business’ rucksacks; all weather hoodies; and, worst of all, off-the-peg smirks just begging to be slapped”.
02 Thursday Oct 2014
Posted in Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Knowledge
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Best principles, business intelligence, Business Management, corporate assets, data integration, Demagogism, Dogma, information management, Offshoring, Outsourcing, Requirements management, Strategy, traditional assets
Written by Martyn Richard Jones
Continued from Part 1: Crème Continues…
Part 1 can be found here -> Part 1
“We had recently acquired a media news and entertainments business – Media Macaroni International, and we were planning on integrating their general ledger into the corporate IT landscape. One morning I received a call from the CIO of the newly acquired company, inviting me to their site for a meet and greet event.”
“So I moseyed on down to Tinsel Town and got a briefing from not only the CIO, but the full board of directors of Media Macaroni.”
“To cut a long story short, they basically put me on the spot. Either I integrated the entire Data Warehousing across the corporate in 9 months, or we would have serious problems of convergence. The message couldn’t have been clearer. Either I got my act together and made this acquisition work, or what looked like a humongous hot potato could be burning my mouth anytime soon.”
“I told the directors there and then that the mission was going to be incredibly difficult to fulfil. However, the mood changed.”
“Their CIO looks across the table and tells me that he can help me out of the hole. You see, we have employed a service company that does most of our IT work for us, and according to us at Media Macaroni they are the bee’s knees.”
“So ‘who are these guys’, I ask. Back comes the ominous response: The Taffia Connection”
“So, back home, I call all of my business managers together to discuss the next steps, and despite the misgivings of most of my department heads, and indeed my gut instincts, I become convinced that we should give The Taffia Connection a chance to tell us what they can do for us”.
“So, to cut a long story short, I bring in The Taffia, they give me a dog and pony show on what they can do for us… full data integration, enterprise application integration, enterprise data warehousing, business intelligence, MDM, CRM, Data Quality, Total Quality, IT Business Alignment up the wazoo, and I find the message so compelling that we initiate contractual discussions with The Taffia Connection”.
“As a result, and against all the best advice of my own best staff, I decide to outsource a large chunk of the integration, CRM, EAI, EDW and BI work to The Taffia Connection, work which I am assured will be carried out very cost-effectively by the offshore sister company Bogartsys (whose unofficial slogan at the time was ‘powered by gerbils, motivated by greed’) To be honest, I thought it was great; hell, my board thought it was great. You have to understand the mood of the times. It was all crazy. We were all crazy”.
“Then over the following two years I lost all my friends, my staff who once worshipped the ground I walked on, loathed me, my cat Lucky died of loneliness and depression, my family refused to talk to me, and every now and then a stray dog would pee on the alloy rims of my two year old beamer”.
Part 3 can be found here -> Part 3
Many thanks for reading.
File under: Good Strat, Good Strategy, Martyn Richard Jones, Martyn Jones, Cambriano Energy, Iniciativa Consulting, Iniciativa para Data Warehouse, Tiki Taka Pro
30 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in Big Data
You walk down the street, maybe in London, Paris and Rome. You look out of your spacious apartment in Manhattan, Unter den Linden or Mahim. You are cycling slowly along the streets of Amsterdam, Bonn or Zurich.
Got the picture?
30 Tuesday Sep 2014
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Business, Business Management, business strategy, Organisational Autism, Strategy
You’ve heard the stories. Little Johnny did this, little Johnny did that, little Johnny did god knows what.
23 Tuesday Sep 2014
Tags
Ask Martyn, business analysis, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, business strategy, enterprise data warehousing, information management, Organisational Autism, Strategy
It’s 9:45 on a cold and wintry Monday morning; crowds of people are huddled around the water fountains as gossip spreads throughout the building like wildfire. There has been a multiple data pile up in the Widget and Wodget data centre, there are a few casualties but no reported fatalities. No one knows what quite is going on, as shadowy rumour hints at flying pigs, rebellious ducks and rolling heads.
It was to be a big day for Widget and Wodget, “your neighbourhood’s favourite Prime Brokers”, it was billed as the Senior Mega Monday to end all Mega Mondays. A mega coup for the hallowed financial institution of W&W; today would be the day that would herald in the culmination of two major IPOs and one multi-billion global M&A deal signed off, as well as the launch of a raft of CDOs.
21 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Extract
Tags
BI, Business Enablement, business intelligence, business strategy, data integration, enterprise data warehousing, information management, MDM, Organisational Autism, Requirements management, Strategy
For more than 34 years I have been trying to convince IT organisations that it is not in their best interests to play Santa Claus, especially when it comes to strategy and data management.
I have tried – again and again, to make people pay attention to this advice, because I think that acting upon this take-away in an intelligent manner is absolutely central for the success of IT, for the benefit of business, and ultimately for the effective realization of Information Management; whether that is Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Decision Support, Data Analytics, Big Data or MDM.
Continue reading17 Wednesday Sep 2014
Posted in Extract, Masterclass
Tags
business analysis, business intelligence, Business Management, enterprise data warehousing, Goal Setting, Information Technology, IT Strategy, Organisational Autism, Requirements management, Strategy
HERE WE ARE!It’s a fantastically chic restaurant. It’s one of the best, if not the best in town. It’s Catalan or Basque, for sure. A group of twelve people sit at a round table. Silver service, starched white linen, spotless polished lead crystal glass, the works. There is even a minimalist arrangement of seasonal flowers. The owner of the exquisite restaurant walks across to the table, accompanied by one of her impeccably uniformed staff, who holds a notepad and pen in readiness; “Good afternoon, and, what would our esteemed ladies and gentlemen like today?” she asks.
Confused? If you haven’t seen this before then you should be. So just read on fellow traveller.
14 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in Snippet
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Business Management, Information and Technology, Information Technology, Organisational Autism, Strategy
People are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the quality and quantity of many self-styled data warehousing and business intelligence professionals, organisations, and individuals. The perceived and increasing degradation of professionalism and integrity in my own areas of specialisation also finds echo in other aspects of Information and Communication Technology practice, but for now, that is outside the scope of this piece.
14 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in Snippet
Tags
Information and Technology, Information Technology, IT Strategy, Organisational Autism, Strategy, traditional assets
Twenty years ago, you wanted a new bathroom, so you hired a building contractor to come in and build a bathroom of your own design.
14 Sunday Sep 2014
Tags
Business Management, Information and Technology, Information Technology, Organisational Autism, Strategy
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.
14 Sunday Sep 2014
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Business, Business Enablement, corporate assets, Goal Setting, Information and Technology, Information Technology, IT Strategy, Organisational Autism, Strategy, traditional assets
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.
14 Sunday Sep 2014
Tags
Behavioural Economics, Business Enablement, Information Technology, Organisational Autism, Strategy
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.
14 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in Snippet
Martyn Rhisiart Jones
Remastered for 2026
Reality bites down hard when it wants to, and more often than not when we are least expecting it. IT is seldom given importance for valid business reasons, such as its support of operational excellence or the quality support of valuable, mission-critical business, and bureaucratic reasons are not necessarily business reasons; they are frequently at the forefront of business life for primarily negative reasons.
Continue reading14 Sunday Sep 2014
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.
Continue reading