
The Machiavellian CIO: Morality versus reality
The discrepancy, or gap, between doing and achieving is a persistent problem in business. Although every experienced leader knows that functional success is fundamental to sound management, doing a good job doesn’t necessarily lead to career recognition or personal reward. Niccolo Machiavelli, one of the most intriguing political philosophers in Western history, focused relentlessly on […]

The Sad State of The Industry Analyst Business And The Need For A Code Of Ethics
Unchecked Bad Behavior Plagues Both Vendors And Analysts. I’ve dreaded writing this post for a long time. I normally think the best of everyone. Yet, in the course of building our business at Constellation Research, I have to say I’ve seen everything that can go wrong with the industry analyst business. I’m almost embarrassed to […]

IT’s Ethical Dilemma
It hit me last week while attending Oracle’s Analyst World briefing. We convened in a conference center on the Oracle campus in Redwood Shores to learn about Oracle’s latest developments in hardware and software and to be briefed on the company’s future roadmap. How extensive was it? Let’s just say that my brain hurt when […]

The IT failures greed / blame cycle
Greed and blame play a profoundly important, and deeply negative, role on IT projects. The best CIOs skillfully re-direct stakeholders in a positive direction.

Friday Rant: Apple & Beyond – Hiring the Right People to Preclude Procurement Fraud
Procurement fraud is a topic that continues to gain increasing attention, albeit in a quiet sort of way. I am hearing about it more and more, from headline grabbing stories such as this one highlighting employee fraud and IP thef…

The ethics around the HP matter
Image via CrunchBase Over the last few days, as the news around HP has unraveled I have asked myself a few times : if the incident had happened in March, would I have included it as a scenario in Chapter 20 of my book? That chapter is titled Ethics: In an Age of Cyberwar and […]

Digital Ethics: we need to move way beyond privacy
As we go through another round of hand wringing around Facebook’s privacy policies, it is a good time to acknowledge that privacy crowds out many other nagging cyber-ethical issues. In my book, I dedicate a whole chapter to other ethical issues. I interviewed several professors, attorneys and thoughtful peers. I also laid out 8 ethical […]

Friday Morning Green Numbers round-up 01/29/2010
U.S. pledges 17 percent emissions reduction by 2020 – washingtonpost.com
The United States pledged Thursday to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels under an international climate agreement, though it made its commitment contingent on passing legislation at home. […]