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Tech CEOs: Will they step up in a downturn?

This article seems to be for companies in the higher echelons of the industry, who are still able to use acquisition as a means to improve their business.  What about the companies struggling to maintain their own business - and not end up as an acquisition if they really are looking to remain independent?  Any examples come to mind to any of you out there?

Marlene

Previously appeared on December 2nd, 2008
Posted by Larry Dignan

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=11032&tag=nl.e019

Technology CEOs worth their paychecks are going to use this economic downturn to revamp business models and position for the so-called post recession era. It sounds rather obvious, but why don’t all CEOs follow this playbook?

We’ve heard the mantra repeatedly: Reload in a downturn. And a report from Forrester the latest to repeat the downturn playbook. Forrester Research analyst Navi Radjou argues that technology CEOs need to implement a five-point innovation program in 2009. Some CEOs–IBM’s Sam Palmisano and Cisco’s John Chambers–get it, but most are too mired in restructuring efforts to notice the opportunities. Radjou notes that Palmisano acquired PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2002 to bet big on services. The bet has paid off.

Radjou writes:
For tech CEOs, the coming 2009 to 2011 period is going to be repeat of the recessionary 2000 to 2002 years. Constrained by shareholders’ short-term demands, tactically minded tech CEOs will focus on cutting costs or driving incremental product and service innovations. But forward thinking, bold tech CEOs will emulate what IBM’s Sam Palmisano did in 2002: They will choose to invest in their firms’ long-term success. By 2012, when the global economy fully recovers from the prolonged recession, these visionary CEOs will dine out on their success, as their firms are handsomely rewarded by both Wall Street and their customers, leaving competitors in the dust.

Will Tim Cook be the next Steve Jobs?

It would appear that Steve Jobs is very comfortable with bringing Tim Cook even further into the fray by having him appear along side him at important meetings and conferences. Interestingly enough, the negative response in the Fortune article about Tim Cook is from someone who was only identified as "...a Silicon Valley investor who travels in the Apple orbit..." .  Well, that could be one of any number of sycophants, wannabes and hangers-on, couldn't it?  Anonymous remarks carry as much weight as a wet Kleenex.  So - anyone  have any suggestions about any other candidates that would be a good choices to "shadow" Jobs?  Do I hear any votes for Jerry Yang?            Marlene

Previously appeared on November 10, 2008
Posted by Sam Diaz,a senior editor at ZDNet

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10762&tag=nl.e019

Last month, after a press event at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, I made an off-the-cuff observation about the future leadership of the company. In short, I commented on how Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who took a portion of stage time from Jobs to talk about new notebooks, was wearing blue jeans and a black shirt - Jobs’ signature outfit. Granted, a wardrobe does not make anyone worthy of a CEO title. But, given concerns this year about Jobs’ health, it suddenly felt like Cook - who filled in as CEO for two months in 2004 while Jobs recovered from pancreatic cancer surgery - could be the successor when and if Jobs no longer carries the big title.

 Now , Fortune magazine has published a pretty lengthy piece, called “The genius behind Steve,” which looks at Cook - as well as a couple of other execs - who could be positioned to take the reins. (Techmeme) It’s a good read that offers a deeper look into Cook as an executive and a human being. Consider these excerpts from Fortune:

Jobs has seen to it that Cook is getting public exposure, especially on Wall Street. He is a fixture on Apple’s quarterly earnings calls, and he speaks at select investment conferences. “Operationally, when you think about what they’ve done - a massive retail-stores ramp, an expanded sales-channel presence, delivering new products without glitches, and managing huge seasonality - all speak to a company that is exceedingly well run,” says (Toni) Sacconaghi, the Sanford Bernstein analyst, referring almost wholly to aspects of the company that Cook oversees.

10 tech leaders who could become Obama’s CTO

Previously appeared on November 10th, 2008 posted by Jason Hiner http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=850&tag=nl.e019

As a presidential candidate, part of Barack Obama’s technology policy platform included hiring the U.S. government’s first chief technology officer (CTO). If Obama follows through on this, who is likely to get the job? Here are 10 top candidates.

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama used technology to organize, communicate, and raise funds in innovative ways that gave him an advantage over opponents in both the primaries and the general election. It’s clear that Obama views tech as a powerful catalyst, and with the U.S. facing an unprecedented array of economic challenges, Obama will need to use technology to drive efficiency and institutional transformation.

A part of his policy platform, Obama has stated that he plans to hire the nation’s first chief technology officer (CTO) to play quarterback in driving these changes. A CTO is typically an organization’s top engineer and focuses on outward-facing technologies (see What’s the difference between CIO and CTO) but based on Obama’s policy statements he wants to use the national CTO position to:

• Build a 21st centrury technology infrastructure

• Unite and lead the CIOs and CTOs of various federal agencies

• Architect innovative tech solutions to help solve big problems.  

As a result, Obama is going to need a visionary tech leader who can rally both technologists and standard Washngton bureacrats around a common purpose. It also wouldn’t hurt to bring in a big name — someone who already has a strong reputation that will translate into political capital.

Here are top 10 candidates.

10. Shai Agassi

This former technology head of SAP has the business experience and the interest in larger societal issues to do well as America ’s CTO. However, he’s recently founded his own company,Better Place, to create an entirely new business model and power system to run the electric cars of the future. Because of his passion for that project, it’s doubtful he would want the U.S. CTO gig.

Former IBM exec blocked from running iPod, iPhone engineering teams

Previously appeared on Nov 9, 2008
Posted by Gregg Keizer

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9119643&intsrc=hm_list

November 9, 2008 (Computerworld) A federal judge on Friday ordered a former IBM executive who was recently hired by Apple, Inc. to stop working for the company, court documents showed. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas ruled that Mark Papermaster, who was announced as Apple's new vice president of devices hardware engineering only last Tuesday, must "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this court."

Karas did not explain his reasons for the order, saying only that he would issue an opinion at a later date. Friday's move was the result of an IBM motion for a preliminary injunction designed to block Papermaster's move to Apple. On Oct. 22, IBM sued Papermaster, claiming that a noncompetition agreement he signed in 2006 bars him from working for competitors for a year after leaving the company.

According to IBM, Papermaster had information of "highly confidential IBM trade secrets" that would "irreparably harm" the company if he's allowed to work for Apple. Apple hired Papermaster to run its iPod and iPhone engineering group. The same day that Apple announced Papermaster's hire, it also said that Tony Fadell, who has been credited with jump-starting the company's iPod business, was leaving his position as senior vice president in charge of the player, but would remain as an adviser to Jobs.

Gartner's top 10 technologies IT leaders should watch for 2009-2011

In some of the articles we have posted this year, some of the Top 10 on the list in this article have been discussed.  What would you add - or take away - if  you formed your own version of a list like this?      Marlene 

Jason Hiner  Gartner Symposium 2008
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=865 

October 14th, 2008

On Tuesday, Gartner analysts Carl Claunch and Dave Cearley gave a crowd of IT leaders at the Gartner Symposium IT Expo 2008 a list of the top 10 technologies that will provide important strategic advantages to IT over the next three years. They encouraged the leaders to keep these technologies in mind as they formulate budgets and long-term plans.

Claunch and Cearley delivered their list in the presentation “Top 10 Strategic Technology Areas for 2009″ at the Orlando event. Here’s how they defined the “strategic technologies” that made the list:

“A strategic technology is one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt. Companies should factor these technologies into their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years. Sometimes the decision will be to do nothing with a particular technology. In other cases it will be to continue investing in the technology at the current rate. In still other cases the decision may be to test/pilot or more aggressively adopt/deploy the technology.”

Here’s the list:

Gartner: Projection for 2009 IT budgets? Could be worse

Gartner also listed the top 10 tech IT leaders to watch for 2009 - 2011.  Watch for the list on Wednesday, Oct 29th.    Marlene

This post was appeared previously on October 15th, 2008
Author: Larry Dignan

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=867

Gartner has revised its 2009 IT budget prognostications, a move that isn’t surprising, but the firm’s projections could be a lot worse.

Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president of research at Gartner, outlined the research group’s new projections in his opening keynote at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando (all posts and the firm’s Twitter feed). Gartner’s opening keynote is an analyst relay that is part sales pitch and part pep talk to urge technology managers to innovate, manage through tough times and be aligned with the business better.

The meat of the talk, however, was the downturn. The upshot:

• Gartner had expected budgets to grow 3.3 percent in 2009.
• Now the most likely case is IT budget growth of 2.3 percent to 0 percent;
• The worst case is that IT budgets will be down 2.5 percent.

While Sondergaard noted all of the gloom and doom, he said information technology execs are most suited for this upheaval. Why? IT folks have already been through this–has anyone really forgotten 2001 to 2003?

His overall message is that IT has options. Sure, it would be silly to think that budgets written two weeks ago are going to stick. As for overall technology spending, financial services customers, the public sector, retail and manufacturing are all likely to curb spending.

However, Sondergaard said budgets aren’t likely to totally collapse. “IT is embedded in your business now. You can’t invoice somebody without IT,” he said. Sondergaard also noted that Western Europe has the worst IT spending outlook, but Asia Pacific will still grow at a healthy clip. North America looks flattish.