Ballmer’s Advice for CIOs
August 7, 2009 at 2:49 pm 2 comments
As I mentioned in my last post I got a chance to meet with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. He started the meeting asking what we wanted to hear. The 5 CIOs went around the table asking for information on various technical topics. The last CIO asked Steve Ballmer what advice he would give to CIOs. I wish I would have asked that question.
Ballmer had a number of suggestions, but two stuck with me as being most enlightening.
Firstly, he said that CEOs are frustrated that they have invested so much moneyin IT yet they have little additional insight into their business. He hears this often. He did not want to characterize this as business intelligence or push any technical solution. He shared that even Microsoft with all of their IT expertise does not have data about their total headcount – a revelation that gave me a sense of relief. He also said that he has a rule for his CFO, never give him data in a format that he cannot manipulate, preferably it would be a pivot table.
Ballmer also suggested that the future of enterprise IT can be found in the consumer arena today. This was the case with cloud computing and is likely to be the case in such areas as social networking. As IT professionals we should keep an eye on that space. It is our crystal ball. I loved that insight.
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1.
Chuck Musciano | August 10, 2009 at 6:52 am
Excellent advice! Thanks for some Monday morning inspiration! We should all strive to provide “additional insight” through our tools and systems.
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Mark Homuth | September 15, 2009 at 9:16 am
Having left Microsoft to work for HP, I totally agree with Ballmer and will make a shameless pitch for HP’s BTO software that helps CIO’s maximize their value to the business.
Good Day!