The Adventures of an IT Leader
The Adventures of an IT Leader is a fictional account of Jim Barton's first year as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at IVK Corporation, a financial services company. The novel follows Barton's experiences, including the challenges and complexities of information technology (IT) management. Barton gains expertise in determining IT-specific administration issues, recognizing fundamental concepts, effectively discussing and reaching decisions with his team, and managing the consequences as a result of his experiences.
Scanning and Analyzing Developing Technologies
In this light, this study will scan and analyze developing technologies, answer to Bernie Ruben's concerns, and investigate enforcing infrastructure technology standards, as represented in 'The Adventures of an IT Leader.' The contemporary times characterizes a competitive business environment both locally and transnationally. In fact, IVK is likely to fail without continually updating and adopting the fresh technologies. Moreover, Loshkovska and Koceski (2016), claims that technology is evolving at unprecedented levels. Lagging behind technology wise implies reduced production. For instance, individuals will probably perform faster and effectively with the integration of technology given its deep integration into the current workspaces. In this way, the IT department in IVK should maximally invest time and effort to scan and analyze the emerging technologies. However, the efforts and time of the IT department should concentrate customizing technology to suit the organization's goals. For instance, the IT unit should develop a website, soft wares and other toolkits that will enable the organization to perform faster and effectively (Ippolito & Cigola, 2017). Additionally, the IT department should continually evaluate the organization undertakings to pinpoint areas where the organization can innovatively take up technology to cut on cost and save on space among others.
Responses to Bernie Ruben’s Inquiries
Blogs embody an informative platform where individuals get to learn. People in the modern world spends most of their time on the internet. Further, individuals learn numerous issues affecting their lives online. As a matter of fact, an individual is likely to google any information they need instead of asking a person next to them (Baker & Hart, 2016). In this manner, on the first question, it is inevitable for IVK to open a blog. The organization’s clients are more probable to learn online about the organization than in television commercials or billboards. Additionally, the IVK clients’ are likely to interact more lively through reacting to the various issues posts on the blog which will, in turn, improve the company performance (Mahoney & Tang, 2017). On the following question, the IVK policy on blogging should incorporate the stipulation that the information shared on the blog should serve the purpose of marketing the organization’s product or prompting clients to share (Baker & Hart, 2016). Therefore, private information or other unnecessary articles should not be uploaded on the blog. Additionally, the organization policy on blogging should dictate that only original content generated within the organization should be posted on the blog. On the final question, the organization should periodically come up with workshops where the company workers can present innovative ideas. More so, the organization can send representatives to competing firms for benchmarking. The technological ideas developed from the workshops or tours shall be reviewed for applicability by cost-effectiveness and alignment with the organizational goal, mission, and vision. Lastly, the organization could sponsor learners who develop innovative technological ideas to incentivize them to join IVK on completing their studies. Such learners will bring in creative technological ideas.
Proposed Processes IVK should use
The best process to use in enforcing infrastructure technology standards is convening periodic workshops where employees meet and present innovative ideas that can boost the organization (Hollywood et al., 2015). This process is more appropriate as the current IVK workers comprehend the operations of the organization extensively. In this way, any innovative technology they propose will envision making the organization better. The other processes bring in outsiders who may or may not understand the organizational operations effectively.
IT Standardization and Innovation
For an organization like IVK, standardization and innovation are not in conflict. IVK is in a very delicate industry that is financial services. Therefore, as much as innovation would cultivate improvement of the organizational performance, it also facilitates numerous risks. Numerous corporations in financial services have suffered multiple losses springing from technological faults notably cybercrimes (Jakobs, 2016). As such, the adoption of any innovation shall be accompanied by increased standardization to minimize risks. The standardization, in this case, incorporates compliance with the various regulatory bodies.
‘Kid’s’ Toolkit Approach to Management
The Kid’s Toolkit Approach to management is suitable for an evolving and vibrant organizational context. The appropriateness is critical as it proffers management a chance to appraise techniques utilized in the management process (Austin, Nolan & O'Donnell, 2016). Therefore, the evolving organizational context or market mark the pragmatism of a particular condition of a circumstance in a firm. In this manner, the system changes in the information technology department ought to depict organizational needs and situations. Therefore, a particular circumstance needs to onset the array of strategies or approaches including determination of suitable infrastructure for the overall attainment of the company objectives and goals.
References
Austin, R. D., Nolan, R. L., & O'Donnell, S. (2016). The Adventures of an IT Leader. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.
Baker, M. J., & Hart, S. J. (2016). The marketing book. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Hollywood, J. S., Boon, J. E., Silberglitt, R., Chow, B. G., & Jackson, B. A. (2015). High-Priority Information Technology Needs for Law Enforcement. Santa Monica, Calif: RAND Corporation.
Ippolito, A., & Cigola, M. (2017). Handbook of research on emerging technologies for architectural and archaeological Heritage. Hershey: Information Science Reference.
Jakobs, K. (2016). Effective standardization management in corporate settings. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.
Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2017). Strategic social media: From marketing to social change. Chichester, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.
