Martin Davis' Blog

I was honored to be asked by ACOA (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) to present to all of their frontline workers recently (140+ staff). The core of the presentation centres around two things: Digital is about Business, not about IT – technology underpins and enables, but digital is about far more than that. The Customer is … Continue reading →

Are the traditional types of CIO still valid or are we now into the World of Transformational CIOs and CDOs? Is the World changing so quickly that anyone else is a Dinosaur? Historical types of CIO Six years ago I asked the question “What type of CIO are you?” Are you a transformational CIO, a … Continue reading →

The SmartIndustry conference takes place each year in Chicago during September. I was privileged to be able to share some of our experiences with use of wireless IIoT sensors. Abstract for my session: J.D. Irving and RtTech are working in the Industrial IoT space to connect more assets using wireless sensing and industrial edge devices … Continue reading →

Business is changing, everything is becoming digital, even our cars! So what does that mean to Change Management? Is Change going digital as well? Is it becoming easier? Or harder? Or just different? We constantly hear about Digital Business and Digital Transformations. Examples of purely digital companies like Amazon and Google are often quoted, but … Continue reading →

Organisational Change Management is a complex, interconnected set of events where people’s actions have a major impact upon success or failure. Common Change approaches like John Kotter’s Leading Change, Prosci’s® ADKAR® model and LaMarsh Global’s Managed Change™ all emphasise the need for strong leadership to achieve successful change. In order to try and understand some … Continue reading →

Over the last 25 years I have been involved in many projects as everything from a junior analyst, to project manager, program manager and in recent years overseeing them as a senior leader. This article is a follow-on to a previous article on Success with IT Projects and tries to build on those thoughts with some … Continue reading →

Why is strong leadership so important to the success of change programs? Why do so many change efforts fail or dwindle without committed leadership? “Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better”. Harry S Truman (1884 – 1972) Pettigrew & Whipp (1991) summarise in their “Receptive Contexts for Change” … Continue reading →

Why does change management lead to the failure of so many IT projects? What causes them to be particularly vulnerable and what can be done about it? This final article in the series draws on the conclusions from the previous articles and additional material to look at the drivers of successful IT related change. Before … Continue reading →

What makes the best CIOs so successful? Is it technical expertise, or business acumen? Is it the ability to run the day to day operations, or to deliver new projects? Is it driving efficiencies from the current set-up, or building a vision for the future? Where do people and relationships fit into this picture? Building … Continue reading →

Do you sometimes find your IT teams looking for opportunities to implement new technology? It often seems that we decide on a technology solution then start looking for an opportunity to use it, or we implement technology projects because they seem like a good idea. Possibly you feel that IT is leading the customer and … Continue reading →