Tag Archives: Green

Spring 2010 edition of CIO Connect magazine

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The spring 2010 edition of CIO Connect magazine was printed and posted during my recent paternity leave. The magazine hoasts the usual mix of business IT features and leadership profiles, including extended articles on sustainability, social media and leadership success.

As ever, thanks to all the CIOs, business leaders and technology experts who contributed their time and opinions. Below is a full list of featured participants (in order of appearance):

  • Natasha Davydova, group head of strategy for global technology and operations for Standard Chartered
  • Jody Goodall, head of research and development at Trader Media
  • Omar Haque, managing director at AxiomCSG and formerly consultant at RS Components
  • Dave Fleming, head of ecommerce and innovation at Shop Direct
  • Andrew Abboud, CIO at City University London
  • Professor Lee Schlenker, chair of emerging economies and technologies at EM Lyon Business School
  • Scott Herren, managing director and vice president at Citrix
  • Ian Pratt, vice president for advanced products at Citrix and chairman of Xen
  • David Head, director of La Fosse Associates
  • Dominic Batchelor, senior associate at Ashurst LLP
  • Inbali Iserles, professional development lawyer at Ashurst LLP
  • Danièle Tyler, solicitor at Ashurst LLP
  • Robin Johnson, CIO at Dell
  • Stephen hand, CIO at Lloyd’s Register
  • Alistair Russell, advisory services director at CIO Connect
  • Maggie Berry, managing director at womenintechnology.co.uk
  • Bobby Cameron, principal analyst at Forrester
  • David Southern, head of IT at WWF UK
  • Phil Collard, head of business and operational support at Scottish and Southern Energy
  • Tony Young, CIO at Informatica
  • Steve Palmer, CIO at London Borough of Hillingdon and President of Socitm
  • Lorie Buckingham, CIO at Avaya
  • Les Taylor, director for business development and IS at the Disposal Services Authority (DSA)
  • Robbert Kuppens, European CIO at Cisco
  • Dan Matthews, CTO at IFS
  • Myron Hrycyk, CIO at Severn Trent
  • Jane Kimberlin, IT director at Domino’s Pizza Group
  • Phil Durbin, head of IT at UNICEF UK
  • Matthew Pontefract, CTO at Glasses Direct
  • Alistair Cox, chief executive at Hays
  • Ian Woosey, IT director at Carpetright
  • Heather Corby, HR director of BT Innovate and Design
  • Eachan Fletcher, CIO at Sporting Index
  • Ian Cohen, CIO at Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group

Wanstead, Tesco and the changing High Street

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I live in a place called Wanstead. If you live in London, it’s on the Central Line loop; if you don’t, it’s to the east. Wanstead is nice. My Dad is always saying: “What I don’t get about this London is that even when a place is nice, there’s something really grim just round the corner.”

He’s right, of course, but he lives in Warwick. And that is basically the posh Midlands. So, he’s a bit spoilt. But Wanstead – when it comes to London and it’s rather frustrating mix of nice and grim – is fairly grand. That sense of grandness is provided by the wide, tree-lined streets, some splendid period architecture and some lovely open spaces, such as the green on the High Street and Wanstead Park.

The village – if you can call Wanstead a village when it’s five minutes from the M11 and served by two Underground stations – has managed to retain a strong identity, particularly as the rest of east London is either being smashed for the Olympics or going to the dogs (or not, in the case of the former dog track at Walthamstow Stadium).

Then last week, a Tesco opened on the Wanstead High Street. It’s been a source of conjecture, debate and protestation. The store takes the place of a former Woolworth’s (RIP, you good retail friend). The protests against the store have been long and loud (hence the delay in the store opening). A particularly vocal compaigner has been a chap called Ashley Gunstock, who admitted using the Leytonstone Tesco branch after being ‘outed’ by a local newspaper. It’s been that sort of debate.

People objecting to the store say Tesco will kill shops on the High Street. Like elsewhere in the UK, shops are always opening and closing in Wanstead – and I guess the presence of a retail giant is hardly likely to help the independents. And the community of Wanstead – and it does have a nice community; we know all our lovely neighbours – seem keen to ensure the shop is empty.

Which is why I was surprised to see people virtually fighting to get into the Tesco earlier this week, while the local Co-op – which is normally packed – was the retail equivalent of the Mary Celeste: “It’s always like this now,” said one of the workers to me at the Co-op.

Change, eh? Who needs it? Virtually everyone, it would seem.

CIO Connect forthcoming features

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I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from PRs that are pitching for what they believe to be forthcoming features in CIO Connect. The pitches are always welcome – but many of the suggested features have already been written and are about to be published.

Take the corporate social responsiblity (CSR) feature, which has received a lot of attention in the last week-or-so. Some nice ideas, too. The problem is that the feature is due to come out in July’s spring edition and was finished a long time in advance. I’m actually now working on content for the autumn edition, which goes to bed mid-summer.

One PR told me she’d got the details for forthcoming features from ‘Features Exec’. It’s a regularly repeated story – don’t believe everything you read on a database; better to get it from the horse’s mouth (in this case, me). Here’s what I’m currently working on for the autumn edition:

  • Hyperconnectivity – How can collaborative technologies help CIOs to boost connectivity? Potential areas include mobile devices, next-generation web and the future office.
  • Information management – How can CIOs control information management? Potential areas include content management, security, next-generation search and retrieval.
  • Executive partnership – How can IT leaders create effective partnerships with other executives? The feature will draw on the significance of senior team relationships.
  • Finally – and as ever – I’m also looking for interesting business people with an interesting story to tell. So, that might be CIOs, it might also be other c-suite executives, business gurus, leadership experts and futurologists.

There’s also the back page slot, which gives technology chiefs the chance to talk about out-of-work interests (we’ve recently had mountain climbing, round-the-world sailing and marathon running). Ta.

I’m looking for CIO comment

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I’ll be starting to work on the following features for CIO Connect magazine in the next week-or-so. As usual, I’m looking for one-on-one interviews with IT leaders (CIOs, CTOs and IT directors) of big name organisations. The briefs cover the following areas:

  • Environmental responsibility and carbon neutrality – We will look at how corporate social responsibility and carbon neutrality can help drive increased value and operational efficiency.
  • Migration strategies – How should enterprise software be deployed? Potential areas include bespoke development, legacy retirement, porting applications and SOA.
  • Next generation leaders – What strategies can help CIOs create top class, next generation leaders? And how can IT leaders create a strong framework for succession planning?
  • C-Suite executives – I’ll also be looking for one-on-one interviews with CxOs (CEO, FD, HR director, etc.).

Mail me if you have any pitches. Thanks in advance.

Carbon cost of electronic Christmas cards

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There’s been a lot of guff about the carbon cost of Google searching during the last couple of days, with the debate prompted by research from a Harvard academic, which suggests two Google searches produces the equivalent C02 as boiling a kettle. If you’ve found this post through a Google search, I hope you’re enjoying your ‘equivalent’ of half a cup of tea.

The research doesn’t really tell us anything we don’t already know – in short, searching for stuff, using energy-hungry computers and data centres, eats a lot of power. So, I started thinking about stuff we’re doing that eats power – especially the stuff that is meant to be green.

Take Christmas cards, for example. No one posts Christmas cards anymore (except my wife and her Mum). People send emails, Facebook pokes and electronic cards – it’s meant to convey the same message and can be sent with a cheery: ‘I am saving the environment by not posting a paper card’.

Except you’re not, because all this electronic stuff eats carbon, too. And it’s rubbish anyway – cards are much nicer and much more personal. And I bet posting a card causes less of a drag on resources that all those tweets, emails and pokes. Long live the Christmas card!