Chuck's Blog

Learning To Escape The ROI Trap

Of all the intellectual tools foisted on business professionals, I have come to loathe the familiar ROI (return on investment) discussion.

On one hand, there is nothing wrong with expecting some sort of return on any investment.  And it's always a good intellectual exercise to figure out exactly what you expect to achieve from your efforts.

My rant isn't so much about the tool; it's about the widespread misuse of the tool.  I think it's been responsible for shutting down more promising ideas in corporate environments than anything in its class.

I find myself in meetings occasionally getting very agitated when I see the egregious misuse of the concepts.  I think word has gotten around here at EMC -- don't bring up ROI in front of Chuck unless you're very sure about what you're doing.

Originally a simple concept around financial investments (money in, expected money out), it's now morphed and mutated in many large organizations so that it's become almost unrecognizable. 

More concerning, it's often become a weapon to extinguish investment in the big ideas that every organization could benefit from.

My Friday Rant: Overcoming IT Vendoritis

I'm continually inspired by people who've overcome challenging circumstances and backgrounds to achieve great things.  Through a great deal of persistence and intestinal fortitude, these individuals have risen beyond their humble circumstances, and can be held up as an example to all.

Working for an IT vendor can be challenging as well.  There's all sorts of reinforcement loops for unproductive behavior.  

Not everyone can rise above the fray and make a meaningful contribution to their customers, or perhaps the industry as a whole. 

But I'd like to think that anyone can succeed at overcoming obstacles.

Part of the challenge that we all face is recognizing the inherent challenge at hand, and working to become more self-aware.

So, as a public service to my IT vendor colleagues, I'd like to offer up a quick diagnostic to help you assess just how bad you have IT vendoritis -- the somewhat crippling condition of becoming mildly brain-damaged by swimming in too much IT vendor koolaid.

Why?  Because admitting you have a problem is the first step to overcoming it.

More Friday Ranting

It's Friday.  

Those of us in New England are looking forward to a few days off to shovel yet even more snow, fix our leaking roof, look despairingly at the meter of ice-encrusted snowpack in our yards, etc.  

Please don't send me tweets from whatever warm spot you might be in -- we're collectively not in the best of moods right now.  

As I sometimes do, I'd like to use this post to get around to a few issues that are bothering me.  If you don't like random rants, this is not a post for you :-)