Mark Samuels

There’s a debate on the finance of football taking place now on BBC News and a bunch of other public broadcast channels (actually, is such repetition a new way for the Beeb to cut costs in light of announced programme cuts?).

The debate’s been quite interesting so far. Not brilliant, but quite interesting. The most pertinent fact has been that 53 English clubs have gone into administration since 1992. That’s unbelievable; administration has simply become a business norm for football clubs.

Now – given the travails of Portsmouth – everyone is saying the debt associated to British football clubs is far too high. Apparently, everyone has now recognised that debt is wrong; it’s a means of cheating your way to success.

But if it wasn’t for Portsmouth, and the wider global financial crisis, would anyone have cared less? Numerous clubs have bought their way to success, unbalancing the balanced playing field of top flight football. When I was kid, I genuinely used to think the Villa had a chance of winning the League every year. Now, such thinking would be just folly – and it’s got nothing to do with the wisdom of age, and everything to do with the level of debt swilling around in football.

So, while I agree football needs to get its house in order and apply good governance (which seems to be the watchword for tonight’s debate), I can’t help thinking it’s far too little far too late.

“Never use ‘I’ in columns,” was one of the first lessons I received as a journalist. Oh, there I go – breaking the rule…

Still, my errant behaviour is a small ripple in comparison to the first-person obsession of modern journalism. The thinking behind not using ‘I’ is simple; the reader wants to read your opinions on a subject, not the story of your life. Few people are interesting enough to write in the first-person (God, yes. The Queen, maybe).

There’s another reason for not using the word ‘I’. You’re writing a column, so everyone knows it’s your opinion. In other words, you’re stating the obvious. And it’s boring.

Which makes the national media’s obsession with first-person accounts slightly baffling. The Mail, for example, presents a daily collection of extended rants – telling the reader how the journalist bravely gave up fish paste for Lent. Or something of that ilk.

No paper is immune. This weekend, The Guardian Magazine on Saturday splashed with one man’s story of why he doesn’t eat meat anymore (there was another cover story from the same author in today’s G2). I don’t eat meat either; can I have a book contract?

So, what’s to explain the rise of I-journalism (see Steve Jobs, I can be clever with ‘I’ too)? Probably a combination of factors: limited resources; the rise of celebrity culture, where every one is famous for 15 minutes; and the cult of the individual, where everyone believes they have something interesting to say – and everyone is meant to find it interesting.

Which begs one final question. Why am I writing this self-obsessed blog…?

My wife knows nothing about technology. She doesn’t have a Facebook account and watching her search the web is more frustrating than watching Aston Villa fail to score in four successive Premier League matches.

She cares nothing for the bits and bytes of technology, like much of the world (an oft forgotten detail). But she did mention that she’d heard Apple had released some new technology.

“The Apple iPad,” I said, recognising that while she cares nothing for Steve Jobs’ latest device, she is equally unable to avoid media hype. The iPad – depending on your chosen review – is either a big phone, the greatest innovation ever (since the last Apple innovation, anyway) or the saviour of the publishing industry. Such hype suggests we’re all about to start reading books and papers on our iPads ; my wife’s response to that suggestion?

“Reading is all about relaxing, so why would anyone choose to read a computer screen?”

Quite (now get your own Facebook account and stop using mine to connect with your mates).

Football is a business. Actually, it isn’t – it’s a sport. But there’s a chance you might have forgotten, given the media’s obsession with football clubs and their cash concerns.

There’s one type of cash concern in football, like Accrington Stanley struggling to survive. And there’s another, where big clubs are struggling to stay as big clubs. Take Liverpool, for example.

Ex-footballers gracing screens with their oh-so-obvious banter keep telling the watching populace that Liverpool “simply have to qualify for the Champions League”‘ because of cash concerns and a need to attract the best players. But it’s a sport and I couldn’t give a stuff about who needs to be in a specific competition because of business issues.

Then there’s the big club justification – “Liverpool are a massive club that deserves to be in the Champions League”. Liverpool, of course, are a massive club with a “brand” (another dreadful term that has become associated to Sky-era football) that commands global recognition. Good for them. But such prestige does not mean Liverpool – or anyone else – has a divine right to be successful.

Look at Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, et al – all of whom are big clubs, finding they have no divine right to be in the top flight, never mind Europe.

Football is cyclical, you see and teams drop from the elite. Nothing is more sure. Liverpool are struggling, Manchester United have their own financial concerns – Manchester City are spending big, Spurs are on the up. Things change.

Look at the Villa. We were the biggest club in the world in the late ninteenth and early twentieth century; we were the global “brand”. Post-Second World War football in Aston has seen some high points and quite a few low points. At the minute, the Villa are thinking about being successful again. We shall see.

But no club has a right to success. And no club “has” to be in any competition, despite what the pundits would have you believe.

The winter edition of CIO Connect magazine was printed and posted pre-Christmas; it’s probably hitting desks around now. The magazine includes an interview with BA CIO Paul Coby, keynote speaker at CIO Connect’s recent annual conference. There’s also a special report on sourcing, a feature on delivering change and an article on eating your own dog food – where CIOs of leading suppliers explain how they innovate for customers.

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:

• Paul Coby, CIO at British Airways
• David Cooper, CIO at TalkTalk
• Mark Brown, IT director at ISS UK
• Dave Allerton, IT director at RHWL Architects
• Fiona Capstick, vice president and geographic integration executive at IBM’s Office of the CIO
• John Johnson, vice president and former CIO at Intel
• Lorie Buckingham, CIO at Avaya
• Derek McManus, CTO at O2
• John Murphy, acting director of information systems services at Trinity College Dublin
• Andy Bellamy, IT Director at TDG
• Chris Evers, head of IT at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• David Bulman, CIO at Aegis Media
• Colin McLauchlan, head of IT at King & Shaxson
• Dharmesh Mistry, CTO at Edge IPK
• David Bason, IT director at Shoosmiths
• Peter Dew, CIO and group director of human resources at Ceva
• Robbert Kuppens, CIO at Cisco Europe
• Simon Hazlitt, co-founder of Majedie Assset Management
• Peter Rogers, senior project manager at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
• Paul Mendes, head of IT at Chesterton Humberts
• Dean Branton, group director of business transformation and infrastructure services at KCOM
• Ade McCormack, consultant at Auridian and columnist for the FT
• Gerry Cohen, chief executive at Information Builders
• Richard Bewley, chief marketing officer at Best of the Best
• Mark Ridley, IT director at Reed.co.uk
• Jim Boots, senior BPM advisor at Chevron
• Karl Deacon, CTO at Capgemini
• Martin Butler, founder of Martin Butler Research and former chairman at Butler Group
• David Head, director at La Fosse Associates
• Dominic Batchelor, senior associate at Ashurst LLP
• Danièle Tyler, solicitor at Ashurst LLP

The new edition of CIO Connect magazine is out and about, featuring the first profile interview with new Bupa CIO – and former FT operations and technology chief – Yasmin Jetha. There’s also a six-page special report on Agility, featuring the MD of BT Design JP Rangaswami and Darryl Salmons, IS director at the Financial Services Authority.

As ever, thanks to all the CIOs, business leaders and technology experts that contributed their time and opinions. Below is a full-list of featured participants:

• Yasmin Jetha, CIO at Bupa
• Mark Templeton, Citrix president and CEO
• Daniel Marion, ICT senior manager at UEFA Media Technologies
• Bob Tarzey, analyst and director at Quocrica
• Eric Brown, CTO at the Practical Law Company
• Phil Male, operations director at Cable & Wireless
• Andrew Tuson, head of computing at City University London
• David Butler, chief executive of TripleIC
• Nick Frost, senior research consultant at the Information Security Forum
• Steve Wright, senior manager at PWC’s information security practice
• Dominic Batchelor, senior associate at Ashurst LLP
• Inbali Iserles, professional development lawyer at Ashurst LLP
• JP Rangaswami, managing director at BT Design
• Darryl Salmons, IS director at the Financial Services Authority
• Karen Bridges, head of transformation development corporate business change at Birmingham City Council
• Sanjay Mirchandani, CIO at EMC
• Peter Cheese, managing partner for talent and organisation performance services at Accenture
• Peter O’Shea, CIO at ESB
• Gavin Dietz, CIO at Landis+Gyr
• Gary James, head of enterprise computing at The Co-operative Financial Services
• John Johnson, CIO at Intel
• Tony Eccleston, partner at Ernst & Young
• Alastair Sorbie, chief executive at IFS
• Tony McAlister, CTO at Betfair
• Stephen Pownall, CIO at NSG Group
• Graham Everson, head of information services and telecommunications at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust
• Derek McManus, CTO at O2
• Joop Janssen, chief executive of the broadcast systems division at the Vitec Group
• Ian Little, group finance director at Accounting Access
• Lisa Jobson, director of talent at Harvey Nash
• Laurent Allard, CIO at Logica
• Graham Benson, IT director at M and M Direct
• Christine Ashton, director of strategy and technology at Transport for London

List stories are great, aren’t they? Easy to produce and as addictive as super-strength editorial crack, journalists, bloggers and Uncle Tom Cobley churn list stories out like there’s no online tomorrow.

My Twitter feed seems to be a constant trickle of lists, with the latest bunch of social media gurus keen to impart their knowledge on topics like search engine optimisation and social networking. Good for them.

And good for me, as I jump on the top tip bandwagon and ride into the search-optimised sunset. Ladles and gentlespoons, let me unveil my top five types of numbered list stories:

• Top 10: The all-time favourite – most top tip lists come in tens and there’s a reason for that; it’s a round number
• Top 100: The ultimate list story – particularly good for top album blog entries. And for Channel 4 TV shows compiling clips from the 1980s
• Top 5: Half a top ten but not necessarily half as good. Great for your basic, short tip list
• Top 6: Also has a nice, round feel. Useful for list compilers that are aiming for ten, but who quickly run out of ideas
• Top 9: There’s an honesty about giving a top nine; the complier knows they’ve only got nine points and they’re admitting as much

I recently saw a ‘Top 9′ list story where one respondent complained that the journalist hadn’t bothered to round the list up to ten. That might be so, but at least the journo was honest – the scribe clearly got to nine and ran out of ideas. I mean, it’s not like these list stories take five minutes to put together.

The summer edition of CIO Connect magazine is out. Very pretty it is, too – with some lovely illustrations of wildlife, including butterflies and giraffes. There’s also some interesting written content, including exclusive interviews with new City University London CIO Andrew Abboud and Nick Masterson-Jones, IT director at VocaLink.

Here’s the full list of featured CIOs and business leaders. As ever, thanks to all contributors for your time:

• Andrew Abboud, CIO at City University London
• Ben Verwayeen, CEO at Alcatel-Lucent
• Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president, Gartner
• David Hopkins, regional IT manager at Park Plaza Hotels
• Peter Cochrane, former BT CTO and now chairman of Cohrane Associates
• Ian Cohen, former CIO of Associated Newspapers and MD of The Simply Great Group
• Prof. Leslie Willcocks, director of outsourcing at the London School of Economics
• Mark Reece, director of development at the London Stock Exchange
• Karl Deacon, CTO at Cap Gemini
• Dan Solace, responsible for high performance computing at Thomson Reuters
• Philip Buckley-Mellor, designer at BT Vision
• Tom Kilroy, vice president at Intel
• Paul Calleja, director of high performance computing at the University of Cambridge
• Peter Cheese, managing partner for talent and organisation performance services at Accenture
• Rob Rice, head of leadership at Atos Consulting UK
• David Rigney, group operations director at Nationwide
• Dominic Batchelor, senior associate at Ashurst LLP
• Les Taylor, director for business development and information services at the Disposal Services Authority
• Nick Masterson-Jones, IT director at VocaLink
• Chris White, firmer IT director at Ashurst LLP
• Paul Woobey, CIO at the Office of National Statistics
• Tim Mann, CIO at Skandia UK
• Mykolas Rambus, head of IT and special projects, Forbes
• Dave Williams, IT director at Confused.com
• Gerhard Eschelbeck, CTO at Webroot Software
• Anne Moises, CIO at Scottish Government
• Anne Weatherston, group CIO at Bank of Ireland
• Diane Bryant, CIO at Intel
• Andy Beale, technology director of enterprise operations at Guardian News & Media
• Christine Ashton, group IM Ssrategy and technology director at Transport for London
• Sanjay Mirchandani, CIO at EMC
• Richard Page, international purchasing director at Compass Group
• Karen Bridges, acting head of transformation development corporate business change at Birmingham City Council
• Glyn Evans, corporate director business change at Birmingham City Council
• Andrew Coulson, COO at Dimension Data
• Tony Bates, COO and group CFO at Colt
• Daryl Scales, UK finance director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car
• Andy Ross, CITO at SHL
• Zafar Chaudry, director of information management and technology at Liverpool Women’s NHS Trust
• Spencer Mott, CISO at Electronic Arts
• David Bason, IS director at Shoosmiths

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 was on holiday last week, during which time the sparkling spring edition of CIO Connect magazine hit the desks of the UK’s key IT leaders. In the lead-up to the release of the magazine, I’ve been busy modifying the content to include more forward-looking elements.

The changes are represented in ‘Foresight’, a new introductory section to the magazine that identifies the business and technology issues that will impact the work of CIOs in the next year-or-so. In short, change in business IT is so rapid that there is little point having a discussion about the here and now. CIO priorities are always about helping the business to work smarter and the ‘Foresight’ section will help IT leaders as they attempt to establish a competitive edge.

There are several other subtle changes in the spring edition, too – including more boxes and summary points in the main features. The aim is to give time-precious CIOs as much information as quickly as possible. As ever, the edition includes a series of exclusive features:

• Globalisation at Procter & Gamble – featuring Filippo Passerini, global CIO at Procter & Gamble, and Karen Winney, business services director for UK, Nordic and Ireland at Procter & Gamble
• Innovation and transformation at ITV – featuring Richard Cross, group technology director at ITV
• Equal opportunities in IT – featuring Intel CIO Diane Bryant, Scottish Government CIO Anne Moises and Christine Ashton, IM strategy and technology director at Transport for London

Finally, here are a list of the IT leaders and business experts that appear in the issue. As ever, thanks to all that contributed their time and thoughts:

• Richard Cross, group technology director at ITV
• Jon Inch, CIO at Christie’s
• John Suffolk, Government CIO
• Filippo Passerini, global CIO at Procter & Gamble
• Karen Winney, business services director for UK, Nordic and Ireland at Procter & Gamble
• Diane Bryant, CIO at Intel
• Anne Moises, Scottish Government CIO
• Christine Ashton, IM strategy and technology director at Transport for London
• Tania Howarth, CIO at Birds Eye Iglo Group
• Stephen Entwistle, financial director of McKeowns Solicitors
• John Thorp, chairman of the VAL IT Steering Committee at the IT Governance Institute
• David Woodgate, chief executive of the Institute of Financial Accountants
• Robin Dargue, CIO at Royal Mail
• Karl Deacon, CTO at Capgemini
• Neil McGowan, IT director at JD Williams
• Tim Mann, CIO at Skandia UK
• Olivier Uytterhoeven, director of IT at Starwood Hotels
• Nathan Marke, CTO at 2e2
• Tony Eccleston, partner at Ernst & Young
• Steve Pikett, head of IT at Rothschild
• Paul Mockapetris, domain name system (DNS) inventor and chairman of Nominum
• Martin Roesch, founder and CTO of Sourcefire
• Professor Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of business and technology at business school INSEAD
• Rob Spencer, senior research fellow at Pfizer
• Ray Johnston, group IT operations manager at Aspen Insurance UK Ltd
• Euan Semple, social media consultant and former BBC technology chief
• Richard Moross, chief executive and founder of online printing company Moo.com
• Peter Hinssen, programme director for Realising Business Performance Through IT at the London Business  School
• Dr Martin Clarke, director of general management programmes at the Cranfield School of Management
• Ian Cohen, former CIO at Associated News and managing director of SimplyGreatConsulting.com
• Ian Buchanan, former CIO at Alliance & Leicester
• Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, former director general of MI5