Welcome to our blog, the digital brainyard to fine tune "Digital Master," innovate leadership, and reimagine the future of IT.

The magic “I” of CIO sparks many imaginations: Chief information officer, chief infrastructure officer , Chief Integration Officer, chief International officer, Chief Inspiration Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Influence Office etc. The future of CIO is entrepreneur driven, situation oriented, value-added,she or he will take many paradoxical roles: both as business strategist and technology visionary,talent master and effective communicator,savvy business enabler and relentless cost cutter, and transform the business into "Digital Master"!

The future of CIO is digital strategist, global thought leader, and talent master: leading IT to enlighten the customers; enable business success via influence.

Monday, November 27, 2017

The Monthly CIO Debates Collection: Five “WHYs” for Leading Digital Transformation

11:20 PM  Pearl Zhu  No comments

Debating is not for stimulating conflicts, but for brainstorming better ways to do things.
Due to the changing nature of technology, IT leadership role also continues to involve & shift the focus, to move up the maturity level. More and more CIOs are requested to take more responsibility and many CIOs present the breadth of leadership competency. The proactive IT debates help IT leaders to brainstorm innovative and better ways to do things and improve management capabilities. Here are the monthly CIO debates collections.


Five “WHYs” for Leading Digital Transformation

  • Why Is So Hard for Running IT “Out of the Comfort Zone” Technology is pervasive, information is growing exponentially. Business transformation or change initiatives today nearly always involves some form of information and technology. All forward-thinking organizations across the industries claim they are in the information management business. To adapt to the increasing speed of changes, organizations have to be more nimble about updating technology and managing information effectively. Hence, IT organizations today can no longer get stuck at the lower level of maturity to keep the lights on only or get struggling to make an alignment with the business. Digital IT organization must get “out of the comfort zone,” to explore better ways of running IT as a trusted business partner, proactive change agent, and hyper-connected innovation hub. "Continual improvement" is the IT mantra in the digital era.

  • Why is So Critical for Running IT as a Change Agent? At the industrial age, IT is often perceived as the department which is slow to change, acts as a controller only, and gets stuck at the lower level of maturity. However, nowadays, with increasing speed of change and exponential growth of information, IT is like the business's digital engine, CIOs are accountable for critical part of the business that is constantly changing and evolving and IT is also in a position to dig through underlying functions and processes of the businesses. Therefore, it is imperative to speed up IT and run it as a change organization of the business for accelerating digital transformation.

  • Why Has IT Been Perceived as the ‘Weakest Link’? FIT plays a more important role in the digital transformation of the organization. It is the superglue to connect both the hard elements of the business such as processes, platforms, technologies and soft elements of the organization such as information, knowledge,  culture and integrate them into a set of business capabilities, which underpin the business strategy. However, there is the perception gap between IT looks at itself and the business perceives IT. IT is often seen itself as a business enabler and change agent, but business often thinks that IT is slower to change and even be one of the “weakest links” for the business transformation. So why is IT not getting enough respect despite all good work and huge efforts were undertaken? Where does it link to improve IT brand? To deal with such a "He said, she said" dilemma: What are the different perspectives from each party, how to integrate them into a holistic IT view and reinvent the tarnished IT reputation.


  • Why is IT so Reluctant to Look at itself? With the rate of change is accelerated, it’s very important for contemporary organizations to continually do “self-reflection’ upon the business effectiveness, process efficiency, strength and risks, culture, and brand etc. IT is a critical component of the business, commonly IT self-evaluation ability is a reflection of overall business culture within the whole organization. Some say IT is so reluctant to look at itself, is it true??


The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 2.2 million page views with 4200+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

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Tailor Solutions to the Real Problem

11:14 PM  Pearl Zhu  3 comments

Either running a successful business or living a progressive life is a problem-solving continuum.

People have to deal with large or small problems on a daily basis. Especially at today’s “VUCA” digital dynamic, problems have become over-complex and interdependent. Can you diagnose the real problem? Does every problem have solutions? What is the best way to handle a problem? How can you tailor the best solution to the real problem?





Never assume you know what the problem is: The logical scenario to diagnose the problem include: Identify the problem, what is exactly wrong, out of balance, unjust, etc, leverage Systems Thinking to diagnose the root cause of problems, and understand the interconnected relationship between different problems, as well as potential solutions. Context aids us in understanding what’s relevant and what’s not. Often times, people have a tendency to try to fix a symptom which results from the actual cause of the problem. When they do this, they throw good money after bad, they allow problems to grow under the surface until it’s too late. Because the symptom will continue to return until the underlying problem is addressed. Thus, “seeing” the context you are part of, allows you to understand the problem with context, identify the leverage points of the systems and then choose the decisive factors, in an attempt to make the first step RIGHT- understanding the real problem before jumping into how to solve it.
Never think there is a short list of solutions you can pick from: With a greater understanding of the problems, the trick is to increase the influence and be part of the solutions. And there is no need to look at it in a reactive mode as a ‘problem,’ but it would be desirable to look at it proactively and have a ‘policy’ to solve it with FLEXIBILITY. It means that never think there is a short list of solutions you can pick from, and always be open to solving the problem in an alternative or better way. A solution should match a problem and with that in mind, the one thing change would be to have a phrase at the heart of everything the organization does. It’s important to leverage different thought processes to solve problems systemically or analytically or both. Look at the problem from as many perspectives as possible, leverage systems thinking to generate a variety of options for dealing with problems elegantly and solve them radically with less side-effect. A systems thinker solves each unforeseen problem as it arises. Solutions are made from a much broader and encompassing view that is not possible in linear thinking.
Test every assumption: Every situation has choices, every situation has known unknown and unknown unknowns, the only way we get to understand these is by not giving up and applying the higher level of thinking that we used to handle problems mindfully. Test every assumption if possible. Encourage learning but also be practical.  If we try to impose solutions or structures that are too far ahead of the curve, the result is alienation and rebellion rather than problem-solving. Using Systems Thinking now could possibly highlight these inter-communication and planning shortcomings so those involved can focus on relationships between things rather than characteristics of things, understand the outcomes of various relationships/actions in order to figure out the best-tailored solutions. Systems Thinking, coupled with design thinking, allows us to not only see systemic dynamics and relationships, but also how to step out of or beyond them, to see things differently, and therefore, have better opportunity to solve problems or improve situations creatively.
The problem-solving logic is just so simple - diagnose the real problem and solve it in the right way. However, the problem-solving thought process and practices will not be simple for many of today’s complex issues or vexing problems. Some problems can often appear to be unsolvable. It evolves both detail and the big picture, tolerates uncertainty, breaks down large problems to the smaller pieces, understands the interdependence of seemly separate problems, and comes out tailored solutions to the real problem ultimately.

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CIOs as “Digital Master”: Setting Stages to Keep Digital Flow

11:10 PM  Pearl Zhu  No comments

Digital means flow -mind flow, data flow, information flow, knowledge flow, idea flow, and business flow.

Digital means change, choice, fluidity, speed, and innovation. In a dynamic digital workplace, the organizational structure should be solid enough to keep people or things in order; but fluid enough to keep information and idea flow. Organizations, like individuals, need to be in flow to operate smoothly and adapt to change effortlessly. An organization can approach such a flow zone when people are ready for moving to a fluid structure, and digital leaders are eager to set stages to drive a frictionless, immersive, and relentless digital transformation.


Digital mind flow: Digital fluidity enables free thinking and intuition. On the business navigation dimension, we live in the digital era, it requires that we move from mindset to mind flow, from fixed mind to growth mind, to embrace changes, and ride learning curve for gaining insight from the sea of information and the abundance of knowledge, and ultimately improve digital fluency. The connecting mind or collective thinking in a digital business setting will have more antennae focused on the emergent business trends and foresee what’s going to happen and well prepare for the tide of changes. On the opposite, the fixed and rigid mind usually won’t allow a person to think beyond a point and get stuck at “We always do things like that” mentality. These mindsets can be described as defensive, resist or reject anything that affects the cozy comfort zone. From a change management perspective, keeping digital fluidity requires mind change at every level of the organization and gain an in-depth understanding that things cannot stay the same. Often, the imperative thing needs to change is the mindset of the management. Because radical change and digital transformation have to deprogram old mindsets, let go of “the voices from the past,” reprogram people's minds with new thinking to reflect digital norms, and attitude, and establish a new blueprint for how you want to create the digital future reality at the mind level.
Digital knowledge flow: We are moving from a considerably static industrial age with knowledge scarcity to the digital age with knowledge abundance. To adapt to the increasing pace of changes, it is important to create a dynamic business environment that encourages the utilization and knowledge flow. Why, because knowledge does not stand still, and knowledge today even has a shortened life cycle due to the overwhelming growth of information and the ocean of changes. Knowledge flows into the company and flows out of it, it erodes, it emerges, it flows to the customers of the company in terms of product and service delivery too. The knowledge stock should be perceived as something that changes the volume and shapes all the time. So, the information and knowledge management is about understanding and driving the change of knowledge stock at minimal cost in a way that fits the strategy of the business the best and ensures people can update their knowledge timely in order to make effective decisions and get the work well done. Knowledge Management, taken as a whole, addresses both stock and flow; connect and collect; share and create. Digital knowledge flow helps to unlock latent expertise, collaborate through communities with geographically-distributed teams, and arise the opportunity to analyze and reuse the information they create as they go about their activities, and from that to generate valuable knowledge that can be shared to help people and business growth as well.
Digital ideas flow: Digital is the age of innovation. For cracking serendipity code to achieve digital innovation premium, organizations should build a healthy working environment to encourage brainstorming and idea flow. It is important to develop the scalable innovation management framework and practices for sharing and managing ideas throughout the enterprise, even across silos and geographies. Because the main barriers to innovation are silos, rigidity, inflexibility, static mindset, or bureaucracy, etc. Ideas are seeds of creativity that can change a certain situation and future. Streamlining idea flow is not an easy task, getting crazy ideas isn't a problem; having too much information may cause a problem if it is not processed effectively. One of the real challenges to innovation management is how to accelerate idea validation and streamline innovation process to keep ideas flow, and set prioritization - select the ideas which can have a better opportunity to implement and maximize business value, build the competitive advantage, and stimulate the growth of business revenue and profit.


Organizations today have to become highly responsive, dynamic, and hyperconnected. Digital means flow -mind flow, data flow, information flow, knowledge flow, idea flow, and business flow. Winning the digital dynamic means engaging dynamic thinking, updating knowledge, streamlining idea flow, enforcing cross-functional communication and collaboration, in order to build the unique business competency.

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Sunday, November 26, 2017

The Popular Quotes of “Digital Master” Book Series to Celebrate Holidays: Thinking, Change, Innovation III Nov. 2017

11:02 PM  Pearl Zhu  No comments

“Digital Master” is the series of guidebooks (19+ books) is to perceive the multifaceted impact digital is making to the business and our society, help forward-thinking organizations navigate through the digital journey in a systematic way, and avoid “rogue digital.” Here is the set of popular quotes about thinking, change, and innovation to celebrate the holiday.


“Digital innovation is a dynamic storybook that has intricate chapters, with a serendipitous cover, which can be flipped over to the next level, but it is a book that never ends.”


“Innovation is to connect the dots - synthesizing that goes in one mind, and teamwork through collective insight.”


“The best way to foster creativity is to help people communicate in a way that instills confidence, not fear.”


“Creativity is an inherent ability that cannot be taught, only developed.”


“You can feel creative tension when you sense the freedom to be creative, the harmony not via compliance only, but through brainstorming.”





“Visionary minds are in demand to bear us into the dawn of the deep digital era.”


“You have to be able to look objectively at the problem, deflating the emotional part of it.”


“Insight is vision through the ‘mind’s eyes.”


“Open the mind to be on a path to a better version of yourself.”


“Cognition can happen in many different ways and combinations.”




“To think critically, it is first maturing and distancing a bit from self, no matter what level one lives on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.”


“It takes courage, motivation, discipline, and persistence to get out of comfort zone.”


“The psychology of the change is that “People like to change, but do not want to be changed and there is the difference.”


“Look at resistances to change as a source of energy and where there is energy there is still passion and potential.”


“Asking big “WHY” question is to dig through the root cause of changes, how to manage it and achieve a more tangible result.”


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The Monthly Insight of “Digital Maturity” How to Reach the High Level of “IT Maturity” Nov. 2017

10:59 PM  Pearl Zhu  No comments

Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology, both horizontally and vertically. Digital becomes the very fabric of high performing business, being outside-in and customer-centric is the new mantra for forward-looking and high mature digital organizations today. At the heart of digital, it is people and how to take a structural approach to move the next level of digital maturity?

         How to Reach the High Level of “IT Maturity”

  • CIOs as Chief Insight Officer: How to Reach the High Level of IT Maturity? If traditional IT organizations act more like a service provider and builder, and then digital IT acts more as a business solutionary and an orchestrator, to conduct an information-mature, customer-centric digital organization. To lead effectively, CIOs need to deal with constant ambiguity and digital disruptions, as they continue to be put on the front line, they need to ensure their organization is ready for changes, space and time are made to scope, plan, and execute. Due to change nature of technology and fast growth of information, CIOs naturally gravitate to a leadership role when things are unknown, things will change, technology is involved, or a tough business problem has to be solved. They must act as “Chief Insight Officer,” to bring the unique insight to the big table, and keep improving IT maturity to get digital ready.


  • Three Stages to Reach the "Art of Possible" in IT? Digital transformation is inevitable, the outlines of the fully digitalized world have long been sketched, now the phenomenon of digital is reaching the inflection point, yet we are now entering an even more rapid and extensive period of change, leading organizations have shifted from “Doing Digital” to “Being Digital.” IT plays a critical role in the digital paradigm shift. To improve its maturity, IT has to reinvent itself, and top business leaders need to reimagine how to leverage information & technology to build differentiated business competency, explore the art of possible, and reach the next stage of IT innovation.
  • Three CIO Debates to Assess IT Digital Maturity IT has become strategically important, it is imperative for IT and business leaders to work effectively and efficiently together to ensure that they are leveraging IT across their companies to attain enterprise-wide digital transformation; not just using IT as a digital extension, but running IT as a digital engine.
  • Three “Don’t” to Improve IT Maturity: Change is inevitable, IT is facing both challenges and opportunities at the sea of changes and abundant growth of information. Whether it's a challenge or an opportunity depends on the relationship between the business and IT and how IT sets the priority to build a balanced “Run, Growth, and Transform” portfolio. There are still many roadblocks on the way, and numerous pitfalls to fail the initiatives for business transformation. It's a challenge if the business and IT “don't work as a whole.” It's an opportunity if the business and IT work together. IT needs to develop the next practices, but also manage a set of “DON'T” list via "lessons learned" in order to reach the next level of maturity.
  • CIOs as “Digital Master”: How to Ride Three Learning Curves to Improve IT Digital Maturity? Due to disruptive nature of technologies and exponential growth of information, the CIO role also becomes more dynamic and multifaceted. Compare to the other executive positions, the CIO role continues to be shaken up, refined, reinvented to get digital ready. A digital CIO has to focus on guiding the company through the digital transformation. At the very least, IT must be a business partner within the organization. Regardless of which industry sectors or the nature of organization you are in, being a digital CIO will need to ride the multitude of learning curves promptly and lead digital transformation effortlessly.
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 2+million page views with about #4200+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom, to inspire critical thinking and spur healthy debates. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

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CIOs as “Chief Innovation Officer”: Three Aims of Breakthrough Innovation

10:51 PM  Pearl Zhu  No comments

The purpose of Innovation Management is to prepare everything to maximize the transformation of an idea to innovation.
There are both incremental innovation and breakthrough innovation. Breakthrough innovation is disruptive, with high return and high risks. There are many areas within a company where the innovation process can be applied to create value, from product innovation to service innovation, from process innovation to business model innovation, etc. The innovation context goes beyond the traditional scope and extends to the full spectrum including both hard disruptions and soft touches. Innovation breakthroughs that really hit the spot are often the radical new approach that makes a leap of the business to the next level of the growth cycle and achieves the high return on investment. Here are three aims of breakthrough innovation.
Respond to a true human need: With unprecedented convenience that the digital technologies bring to us, business leaders and professionals should ask themselves: Why is innovation so important or even more important whereas technology becomes more advanced? The matter of fact is, the pace of change is significantly increasing, innovation is the only path and the core activity of human evolution to changing of the environment for unlocking business performance, for profit, for resource optimization, and for customer satisfaction, etc. The breakthrough innovation has to respond to the true human need. The speed of change is expedited, so does the speed of innovation. Innovation is not an invention, it must prove its value in the market. Customers must be willing to pay for it, be it a products/processes/ services innovation. Thus, people must be the center of innovation. Innovation is both art and science. To manage innovation and control risks systematically, the scientific processes should be in place, and the science of innovation can be understood via “retrosynthesis process” - start at the products, with what you want to see, do, or have. Then, think backward from there to what the next simpler step is, and then back to what are the next simpler components, and back to what you have on hand. Thus, customers should always be involved, it is not a question of whether the customer is right or not, it is more of whether you are truly and proactively listening to their needs and gaining a deep understanding of the customer through empathy. Responding to the true human need is the very goal of doing innovation. When managing the innovation life cycle, customer involvement at all stages often elicits highly valuable information.
Ride on emerging trends to figure out the better way to do things: Nowadays, often technologies are the disruptive force behind digital innovation. The highly innovative organizations depend more heavily on its technological knowledge and market capabilities to develop and commercialize innovation. Innovation is the differentiated business capability enabling the business to ride on emerging trends and beat down competition effortlessly. From an entrepreneurial perspective, innovation is the essence of new and independent companies that act as the agents of changes in either emergent or traditional industries. The essence of innovation is made of trying the new combination of known things to create new stuff and figure out the better way to do things. By introducing new products or new methods of production, by opening new markets or utilizing new resources, by leveraging digital variety for brainstorming and gaining new ideas, the highly innovative organizations can seize precious business opportunities and innovate.


Innovating business models to rejuvenate organizations: A business model is a description of the way in which an enterprise intends to make the profit. Businesses can explore the concept of a business model by addressing some core questions such as, who are your target customers? What need is met for the customer? What offers will you provide to address that need? How does the customer gain access to that offering? Which role will your business play in providing the offering? Etc. The business model is an entire frame of elements that describe the intents and constraints of a business or an organization. Business model innovation is often breakthrough because if an established firm identifies a new business value proposition that requires a change in the business model or the creation of a new one, and then, it’s strategically important to develop the new venture for improving organizational growth and profitability depending on the company’s competitive environment, their impact perhaps increase over time. In fact, with the hyper-competition we live in, no competitive advantage is set forever. So, any operational advantage in creating value is likely to be copied fast. To avoid this fast obsolescence, besides focus on execution or incremental improvement, the business model needs to allow space for innovation.
The purpose of Innovation Management is to prepare everything to maximize the transformation of an idea to innovation. The goals of innovation, especially breakthrough innovation, should focus on people and the long-term trends and business vision. All humans are naturally creative. Create and nurture an environment in your organization where humility is appreciated, curiosity is encouraged, and creative thinking is rewarded.

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