1.
"Vision/Mission is a paradox to new economy." – ALWAYS FALSE
Mission
explains why the organization exists – its overall purpose. The mission
statement also states what the organization does right now, in the most general
sense. In this way, the mission also sets parameters for what the organization,
through omission, does not do.
Vision
articulates the future of the organization and the community that it serves. It
implies the work still needs to be accomplished. In this way, it lends
credibility and motivation to the mission statement.
IBM’s
Mission and Vision
Mission:
“At
IBM, we strive to lead in the invention, development and manufacture of the
industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems,
software, storage systems and microelectronics. We translate these advanced
technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions,
services and consulting businesses worldwide."
Vision: “Solutions for a
smarter planet”.
2.
"“Customer is King” is a paradox to new economy." – ALWAYS FALSE
“Customer
is King” is the new age for marketing mantra. This means while planning the
product or service, designing the same, and in producing, marketing,
distributing and selling we should possess one central focus at the core of all
decision making, “THE CUSTOMER”.
Customers
are important in IBM. The company will not exist without them. That’s why one
of our IBM values is “Dedication to every client’s success.”
3.
"Cross Functional Team are effective and represent good form of
organizational structure." – MOSTLY FALSE
I
think IBM will disagree on this statement. So far, based from my observation,
there’s no such cross-functional team that exist in IBM. Every team has its own
individual expertise. Every team has its own function to achieve a common goal.
If you’re an expert in IT, you should be in the IT Team. If not, you may
consider your expertise with the other team, may be in Finance,
Admin/Logistics, etc.
Cross-functional
team is less unidirectional, needs greater scope of information, greater depth
of information, greater range of users, and fewer goals are dominated.
4.
"Workers are more interested in remuneration than challenging function." – MOSTLY TRUE
Employees
are more interested in high remuneration because of high cost of living,
especially here in the Philippines. They don’t care what type of work they are
doing, whether challenging or non-challenging job. Although some employees
prefer challenging work as well, because they want to practice their profession
and knowledge in their chosen career.
I
conducted a survey within the IT team, and I found out that most of them are in
favored of high remuneration. Out of 30 people, I got 25 votes; and this will
support my answer in this statement.
5. "Management
should discourage informal group of workers in an organization." – MOSTLY
FALSE
Informal
groups are evolving constantly, grass roots, dynamic and responsive, excellent
at motivation, requires insider knowledge to be seen, treats people as
individuals, flat and fluid, cohered by trust and reciprocity, difficult to pin
down, and essential for situations that change quickly or are not yet fully
understood.
The
negative aspect of informal groups is that they are resistant to change.
Whether new company policies, new members forced on the group or current group
members moving on, the group instinctively finds change menacing. Most people
want to belong and will conform to group desires. The informal group structure
controls its members and protects them from the enemy, which for workers is
usually perceived as management.
6.
"IT leaders should spend more time with colleagues, partners, and
customers than with IT staff, and vendors." – MOSTLY TRUE
IT
leaders are mostly in a client-facing role wherein they are always
communicating with their colleagues, partners, and customers. Colleagues – for
IT Projects, and decision making. Partners – for IT solutions, and expertise.
Customers – dealing with client’s need and concerns.
Although
they spent time with clients, they should not forget to spend time also with
their IT Staff. Their IT Staff is working in the background to satisfy the
needs and wants of the customers.
7. "IT
leaders should have a voice at the executive table which key business decisions
are made." - ALWAYS TRUE
All
business transactions, decisions, plans and IT Staff concerns are raised in
upper management. This will promote transparency and credibility in a company.
8.
"Leaders are more effective if they are more concerned about people than
task." – ALWAYS TRUE
Leaders
should know the capacity and capability of their people before they will assign
a task/job. They should also be sensitive about the feelings, opinions, and
concerns of their staff.
9.
"Leaders are more effective if they focus their efforts on improving
external-facing processes than business functional processes." – MOSTLY TRUE
Leaders
being the top-level personnel will definitely be more effective when they focus
their efforts in external-facing processes. As leaders, they are not expected
to get into the details of the business-functional (technical aspects)
processes because it is usually the mid-level personnel who are adept in these
processes.
Leaders
will be much more effective if they also know the operations and business
functional processes. Being an effective leader tend to have technical
expertise in the business.
10.
"Organizations are better off if CIO’s reports to CFO’s." – MOSTLY TRUE
Typically
the IT department is seen as a cost center and as such they tend to report to
the CFO. In such situation, the main focus is to make IT more effective and
efficient by reducing operational costs.
If
the CIO is to add business value by integrating the needed technology to the
business processes, then they need to have the power to make board decisions
along with the CEO, CFO and COO.
The
CIO must be effective in "translating" IT technical terms/jargons to
business-speak and thus I would argue that the CIO do not necessarily need to
be from an IT background. The trust must be there from the other COs' that the
CIO "gets" the business.
The
CIO needs to understand finance, business process, marketing, customer
management, sales and communications.
11. "IT-enabled
innovations should be the primordial concern of management." – MOSTLY
TRUE
In
IBM, IT-enabled innovations are the primary concern of management. This supports
one of our IBM values which states “Innovation that matters, for our company
and for the world”.
We
use Lotus Notes and Sametime as collaboration tools. For data access, we have a
W3 website which contains the entire employee’s needed information about the
company. IBM has a standard templates and automatic work flows. The company has
ways to connect other functions to the innovative processes.
Companies
aiming for the global market or mainstream economy must have their eyes set to
IT-enabled innovations. It will definitely give the company edge over its
competitors to have services and products which are out of the traditional
solutions.
12.
"Organization could careless in understanding business complexities and
processes than developing technology innovation and strategy." – ALWAYS FALSE
According
to a recent IBM survey of 1,500 business leaders, complexity was cited as the
most significant issue facing leaders today. Traditional tools and
methodologies have provided a platform for our continued learning and
understanding of business and economic systems, but are no longer sufficient to
address today's business challenges and opportunities. Understanding the
organization and the economy as a complex and fluid system is one of the most important
competencies for effective leaders today.
13.
"Organizational initiative successes are dependent on technology." –
MOSTLY FALSE
For
me, not all organizational initiatives are dependent on technology. Technology
may assist and be a tool for success, but it’s not a mandatory aspect.
Most
organizational initiatives can be successful without the use of technology.
14. "Communications
and relationships building skills are more important than technology skills." – ALWAYS
TRUE
In
the world of work, “hard skills” are technical or administrative procedures
related to an organization’s core business. These skills are typically
easy to observe, quantify and measure. By contrast, “soft skills” (also called
“people skills”) are typically hard to observe, quantify and measure. People
skills are needed for everyday life as much as they’re needed for work.
That’s
why in IBM, we have a lot of soft skill trainings than hard skill trainings.
Some of the soft skills trainings that I attended are Creativity and
Innovation, Effective Presentation Skills, Time Management, and Effective
Business Writing.
15.
"Service level agreements are measures of inter-department performance and
should be treated separately with the goals and objectives of the organization."
–
ALWAYS FALSE
A
service-level agreement (SLA) is a part of a service contract where the
level of service is formally defined. In practice, the term SLA is sometimes
used to refer to the contracted delivery time (of the service) or performance.
SLAs commonly include segments to address: a definition of services, performance
measurement, problem management, customer duties, warranties, disaster
recovery, and termination of agreement.
SLA
is
one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) which reflects the Organizational
Goals. Key Performance Indicator is quantifiable. That’s why
SLA should not be treated separately with the goals and objectives of the
organization.
16. "Measures
should be established across organization and to all departments to facilitate
organizational effectiveness and productivity." – ALWAYS TRUE
Key
Performance Measures are
FACTS about the business which allows the Company to:
o
Focus efforts towards meeting company’s goals
o
Assess quality of the core processes
o
Close gaps through corrective actions
o
Track progress towards company’s strategic plan
o
Support accountability and communication to the organization
