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He's widely regarded as the best-known and perhaps most successful CEO the business world has ever known, but he didn't talk much about corporate strategy, grand plans, or sweeping vision. […]

Ah, credibility: Last week, I talked about cleaning the stables, a reference to one of the labors of Hercules. But in that same column, I made a pretty stupid mess […]

He had a voice Orson Welles would have envied (not to mention, in the wake of the Super Bowl, the stentorian tones of the guy who was the original voice […]

Judging by the reaction of our readers to last week's column, teen-agers really do think differently than the rest of us. Here are some responses to our look at the […]

Now, I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on television. And I'm not a chief security officer, but I will play one-however superficially-for the purposes of this column. […]

Never in my wildest dreams (nightmares?) did I ever hope to receive an honorary membership in the plaintiff bar, but I think the disclosure I'm about to make would make […]

Contingency planning task force. Disaster-recovery strategy meeting. Business-continuity overview. Cybersecurity vendor selection. Physical security updates. New training. New policies. Decentralize the network. Recruit top-notch chief security officer; restructure to give […]

Earlier this year, I was engaged in a lively discussion with some marketing executives from the software industry over what they felt was the major issue of the day: In […]

I don't understand stem-cell research as thoroughly as I'd like. Heck, I don't understand it as vaguely as I'd like. But in spite of my ignorance, it's clear even to […]

While it might not have all the cachet of dimpled chads or underwater stock options, customer loyalty is nevertheless a hot topic these days. What does it mean, how do […]

A dear friend who's a cell biologist by training but an IT genius by avocation is always trying to persuade me to let him take my notebook computer for an […]

I had a drink last week with a friend who is-was?-a pretty successful fund manager. He's a guy with the grit of a triathlete and the indefatigable constitution of a […]

A couple of weeks ago, I asked for some ideas on your companies' biggest challenges and obstacles in 2001. Here are some of the replies: Challenge: "I think one of […]

If you were a stock-picker (not, I admit, a terribly pleasant thought in recent months), and the professional position of CIO were a stock, and you had to decide whether […]

What's the mood inside your company right now about the coming year? Have budgets been trimmed and extras clipped? Have expectations been lowered, new objectives reined in, horizons diminished? Or […]

Please consider this an official RFH: request for help. What is the line, and who said it, that discusses the benefits gained by those who can keep their wits when […]

Do you help make your customers more successful? Do you help them assess not just where they are now, but where they should be in six or 12 months? Do […]

Oh so now chief technology officers have been officially dubbed as corporate America's new rock stars and you as CEO have taken to wearing a tad more black these days […]

Who was it-Winston Churchill?-who said, "I didn't have time to write a one-page letter, so I wrote you a five-page letter"? By the way, a couple of weeks ago, PBS […]

If the Great Bird of Happiness came wafting through your neighborhood, would your company put out some birdseed and a birdbath, or would you reach for the shotgun and fire […]

These days, everybody's striving to understand their customers better, to see things from the perspective of the customer, to interact as effectively as possible with customers, and to make that […]

My friend Rich Florida, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, says we're entering a time in which young business IT professionals are beginning to identify their professional base not so […]

Someone once said that even a broken clock is right twice a day (I think we're talking analog here). As bromides go, that one isn't terribly comforting; it's hardly the […]

I was chatting the other day with my daughters about books and literature and favorite characters. When it came my turn to list some of my best-loved people who exist […]

Denial: "A rejecting or refusing to acknowledge; a refusing to receive, believe, accept, or embrace." Those are the formal dictionary definitions; in more everyday patois, it might be defined as […]

What theme will dominate the coming decade? At InformationWeek, we'd say we're entering the Decade of Opportunity. Boundless, mind-boggling opportunity. We know these opportunities will come from the combined strength […]

One of the great promises of E-business is the more-immediate and widespread flow of information between business partners-for example, between your company and one of your key suppliers. But one […]

What will be the top priorities for customer-driven, IT-intensive businesses in 2000? Or, examined in a different way, what will be your customers' top priorities in 2000? And are you […]

On Nov. 15, you're scheduled to give the executive committee a presentation called "IT-Driven Business Opportunities in the Coming Year." That gives you about four weeks to look into the […]

We in this turbulent world of technology-powered business innovation spend a great deal of time thinking about The Future: what it means, what it will bring, what role our companies […]

Customer-relationship management died last month. It was two years old. The cause of death is still being investigated, but sources close to the coroner's office say a report from Forrester […]

About a year ago, I was chatting with a couple of members of the InformationWeek Editorial Advisory Board (see list of members, p. 12) at an event we were hosting. […]

Picture yourself on the board of directors of a solid, well-run company that's doing well but not dominating, generating some new ideas but not really innovating, and showing some nice […]

Answer: Innovation, speed, customer intimacy, corporate culture, knowledge sharing, global focus. Question: What should people who manage technology in business be obsessed with once year 2000 challenges are under control […]

If King Lear was the original Grouchy Old Man, I don't want to be the next. He had some fairly solid issues to grouse about-ungrateful children, scheming in-laws, unjust gods, […]

Is there widespread bias against hiring IT professionals who are more than 40 years old? This was the subject of a column I wrote here a couple of weeks ago, […]

I recently hit the midpoint between birthdays, so I'm now closer to 43 than 42. While that shouldn't mean anything to you, let me generalize that out to all people […]

The legendary baseball pitcher and philosopher Satchel Paige, who pitched at an extraordinary level of skill in the major leagues into his 50s, once opined on the need to focus […]

So it has come to this: the specter of lawyers and litigation-lots of them, and lots of it-moving ever more aggressively into the world of technology in business while brandishing […]

Sometimes it feels as if all of us in this world of managing technology in business would benefit greatly from some kind of industrywide and all-knowing global-positioning system. Imagine a […]

About a year ago, the concept of knowledge management-once a fairly hazy concept that made game theory seem highly tangible-became one of this business's primary buzzwords. As so often happens […]

T omorrow, Aug. 18, is more than just the birthday of the greatest rightfielder ever to put on a major-league uniform-Roberto Clemente. Indeed, Aug. 18, 1998, marks the day from […]

At a recent party, I overheard some self-dazzled blowhard intone high-mindedly though hollowly, "I only watch public television." Culture, I guess, was the point of his disclosure-he has culture, it's […]

Idon't know if IBM CEO Lou Gerstner and Microsoft executive VP Steve Ballmer agree on too many things, but they surely concur in their views on the degree to which […]

Perhaps it's fitting that the chronological transition from 1997 to 1998 is being accompanied by another transition, one whose impact goes far beyond the world of IT:the shift from traditional […]