An operating system is nothing without apps

Deutsche Welle, 2 November 2012

With Windows 8 unveiled, Microsoft is in a desperate push to get developers to make apps to run on the new operating system. Microsoft knows it needs the apps to match or even better its rivals.

The message was clear: "Please go out and write lots of applications," pleaded Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer as he addressed 2,000 developers at a four day meeting near Seattle this week.

And just in case Ballmer's words weren't enough, Microsoft made sure it gave each paying attendee one of its Surface tablets and 100 gigabytes of free space on its SkyDrive cloud storage platform. Nokia provided free Lumia 920 smartphones running Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft knows it needs to convince developers that it is worth their while to create a thriving environment on the new Windows 8 operating system - an environment to compete with main rivals Apple and Google Android.

It's an area where Microsoft - the once dominant software maker - has been lagging behind.

All surface, no feeling

While Apple and Android based mobile devices have allowed users to swipe their way through the modern world, Windows users have - until now - been left clicking like the old days.

But that is to become a thing of the past. Windows 8 has a completely new look.

With the arrival of Microsoft Tiles, the company has changed its game. Desktops will no longer be filled with program icons - in fact, the company no longer even refers to programs - but apps - as everyone else does. And its customers are now "users." 

Oliver Guertler, director of Microsoft Germany, presents Windows 8 in Berlin

The tiles constantly update your status - users can see when new e-mails come in, check appointments, stock exchange figures or weather information. You can bid on eBay, watch YouTube videos and have Facebook and Twitter all in sight.

Touch technology has long been a feature on Apple devices. It released its first notebook with a multi-touch trackpad in 2008, making full navigation possible without a mouse.

Now, Microsoft has gone touchable - some have said Windows 8 will take some getting used to for old school desktop users.

But the company is making every effort to get in on the action, even on price.

Upgrades are available for an introductory price of 30 euros ($38). And even older computers running Windows 7 through to Vista and XP can upgrade to the new platform.

A fusion of laptop and tablet: Microsoft's Surface on display

Ripe competition

The arrival of Windows 8 coincides with that of Microsoft's high-end tablet, the Surface. A merger of tablet and laptop, the Surface has a widescreen and is docked on an ultra thin keyboard that doubles as a screen protector.

It's silenced some doubters and is starting to make the rest of the industry nervous.

Samsung, Acer and other big technological players, who use Windows, may face stiff competition from Microsoft's first real attempt at hardware. Apple has been quick to fight back by unveiling its next generation of MacBooks, iMacs and by launching the iPad Mini.

But Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer was keen to make a splash and staged a fancy Windows 8 release party in New York, where people could test drive the Surface tablet.

Microsoft's chief Steve Ballmer laid on a New York party to get people
 touching the Surface

"The Surface is really exciting," says Greg Lutz, whose company, ComponentOne, develops tools that software makers can build into their apps, such as calendars and charts. "It's been interesting to see people that would normally be critics of Microsoft surprised to see how good it is."

Microsoft hopes it can reestablish itself as a relevant platform for developers. It's also hoped that the release of Windows 8 will allow Microsoft to regain some of the street credibility it's said to have lost to competitors.

Once developers see the user base for Windows 8 grow, the momentum will start to have an effect, says Mike Cousins, a software developer in Calgary, Canada.

"All the new PCs people buy will be Windows 8 and people will start demanding Windows 8 apps from companies, and then they will start making them," says Cousins. "I think we'll see a wave of apps coming out pretty soon."

Lumia 920 smartphone running Windows Phone 8

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Obama appoints new chief technology officer

English.news.cn   2012-03-10      

            

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday appointed Todd Park as the administration's chief technology officer (CTO), filling a vacancy created by last month' s departure of Aneesh Chopra.

 Todd Park 

Since August 2009, Park has served as CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

"Todd Park has demonstrated a remarkable talent for enlisting innovative technologies to modernize government, reduce waste, and make government information more accessible to the public," Obama said in a statement. "In his new position he will bring those skills to the entire federal enterprise, ensuring that government will serve all Americans fairly, effectively, and efficiently."

The U.S. CTO, a position that Obama created on his first day as president, is responsible for ensuring the adoption of innovative technologies to support administration priorities, including job creation, broader access to affordable health care, enhanced energy efficiency, a more open government, and national and homeland security, according to the White House.

In his work at HHS, Park led the creation of HealthCare.gov, which promotes the president's healthcare legislation and allows consumers to compare health insurance plans by zip code.

Editor: yan

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Gaunt and frail, cancer battle takes its toll on Steve Jobs in first picture since he left Apple

Daily Mail, by DAVID GARDNER, 28th August 2011

Frail: Steve Jobs is helped into
a car by a friend outside his
 home in California

Looking gaunt and frail, this is Steve Jobs seen for the first time since his surprise departure from Apple last week.

This picture, taken outside the technology mogul’s California home, fuelled fears that Jobs was nearing the end in his eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

The 56-year-old Apple founder looked even thinner than he did during his last public appearance two months ago.

Jobs, who founded Apple in his garage in 1976, seemed almost too weak to hold himself up as he prepared to get into a waiting car in Palo Alto, northern California.

He wore a black long-sleeved T-shirt, black shorts and sandals instead of his familiar turtleneck and jeans for the trip to nearby San Francisco, the city where he was born.

Jobs made no direct reference to his health problems in his letter of resignation to the Apple board last week.

He wrote only that he had always said he would step down as CEO if he felt he could no longer do the job to his high standards.

A steady stream of flowers and gifts have arrived since the announcement at the house where he has mostly remained behind closed doors with his wife and four children.

Jobs had surgery to remove a tumour after being diagnosed with a rare type of pancreatic cancer in 2003 and had a liver transplant two years ago in a further attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.

Although Apple shares took a 5 per cent hit after Mr Jobs stepped down, market fears were allayed because he was staying on as chairman.

Now the picture underlines the fact that he is unlikely to play any major role in the day-to-day running of the company he founded in his garage in 1976.

Jobs went on medical leave in January, but still introduced the second generation iPad a couple of months later and has led the development of the iPhone 5 and iPad3.

On the day Job's announced his resignation, Apple board member Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech, issued the following statement on behalf of the Apple board: 'Steve's extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company.

'Steve has made countless contributions to Apple's success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple's immensely creative employees and world class executive team.

Gaunt: Steve Jobs in 2001 (left) and speaking in March this year
at the iPad2 launch

Though his resignation letter was short and to the point, it was obviously full of emotion as he thanked 'the best friends he made for life' at the billion dollar company.

More...

• Coming soon, Google on your goggle-box: Internet giant launches service that will allow you to surf on your TV
• From the love child he denied to the temper that terrified his staff, the dark side of the iPod god Steve Jobs
• 'I said if there came a day I couldn't meet my duties I would let you know... that day has come.' Steve Jobs, pictured left, resigns as CEO of Apple

He is seen as the heart and soul of Apple, with analysts and investors repeatedly expressing concern over how the company, based in Cupertino, California, would handle his departure.

He has now been replaced by former Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

Old and new: A young Steve Jobs holds the Apple II computer in
1977 (left) and in 1994

Cook ran Apple when Jobs went on medical leave and has taken over day-to-day operations since early this year, with the company racking up record revenue and profit.

He was previously responsible for Apple's worldwide sales and operations, including management of the supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries, according to ABC.

Gadget: Steve Jobs unveils the iPad in January 2010, it quickly|
became a big seller

He has been at the company since 1998 and was recently given a $5million bonus as well as 75,000 restricted stock units as a thank you for his 'outstanding performance'.

Apple officially  became the most valuable company in America this month and is now worth $338billion, $1billion more than Exxon Mobil.

Pancreatic cancers are generally some of the most lethal of all tumours, and the most common type often kills within six months.

Concerns: In April Steve Jobs seemed frail sparking speculation
he may resign

Jobs has battled a less common variety that grows far more slowly and develops in the hormone-secreting section of the pancreas, according to USA Today.

Although diagnosed in 2003, his illness was not disclosed until the following year, after he'd had surgery.

The fiercely private CEO has said relatively little about his health problems, although he did acknowledge his bout with cancer during a commencement speech at Stanford University, saying: 'No one wants to die. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.'

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Is your social media strategy S-I-C-K?

The Jakarta Post, Michael Wade, Sat, 04/16/2011

Most of us are regularly bombarded by technological innovations that fight for our attention.

More often than not, these ‘latest and greatest’ fads fail to make much of an impression on our lives (remember Second Life?).

What is true for our personal lives is also true for our professional lives, only the stakes are higher. Why did we listen to IT experts about Y2K, enterprise systems, business intelligence, web services, and all those other white elephants that continue to suck our budgets dry?

Today, the latest buzz to light up the IT universe is social media. But is this just more of the same? The answer, of course, is... that depends.

By now, most people know about social media. Yet, few managers have figured out how to use it in their organizations.

Most firms are dabbling around the margins or simply waiting on the sidelines to see whether it has staying power.

Indeed, fewer than half of the 50 largest firms in Europe have links to any social media applications from their home pages.

The situation is not much better in the US, where a 2010 study found that 36 percent of Fortune 500 companies have no social media presence whatsoever[i].

So, how involved should your organization be in social media, if at all?

In my opinion, organizational success with social media comes down to how SICK your strategy is.

SICK is short for:

1. Segmentation
2. Implementation
3. Critical mass
4. Knowledge integration

Segmentation

Social media has many variations, and you should decide what you want to do and where you want to play.

Indeed, segmentation needs to occur along three dimensions: segmentation by objective, segmentation by stakeholder, and segmentation by application.

Let’s look first at objectives. Organizations must identify what they want to achieve with social media.

Common options include branding, informing, innovating, selling, and recruiting. If the answer is not obvious, or cannot be clearly articulated, then the best approach is ‘don’t do it!’

It is important to clearly define objectives in advance, since the form of your social media strategy will vary depending on the choices you make.

For example, recruiting tends to work well on YouTube but not necessarily with Twitter, branding works well on Facebook, while informing is best done with RSS feeds.

If you are not clear on your objectives, then you run the risk of using resources on approaches that are not productive.

The second segmentation category is stakeholder. Different segments respond to different approaches.

The fastest growing Facebook segment, for instance, is women over age 55. Very few of them, however, are on Twitter.

The approach taken to entice an impulse snack food purchaser will be very different from the one used to communicate the benefits of baby nutrition to a new mother.

In short, you need to be clear on what segments you are targeting, and then adjust your social media strategy accordingly.

The third segmentation category is application. If you have properly segmented your approach by objective and customer, then it will often be quite clear which social media application to use.

B2B firms may have less need for Facebook than, say, Coca Cola, but they might get a lot of value from an innovation tournament, or an RSS feed.

You have to understand the pros and cons of each application and play to its strengths.

Implementation

Many firms today have a scattershot social media strategy. They may have a couple of brand-focused Facebook sites run by different divisions, and PR may have a Twitter account, but there is little consistency or coordination behind the scenes. Dangers lurk if a structured approach is not taken.

Many firms have paid a steep price for undisciplined social media practices — some recent examples include United Airlines (United breaks Guitars!), Kenneth Cole (Egyptian insensitivity), and Nestle (Kit Kats and Orang-utans).

Your social media strategy should be well coordinated. This means implementing rules and codes of conduct, training employees on social media norms, articulating a consistent corporate message, measuring performance, implementing strong governance, and avoiding unnecessary proliferation (including shutting down sites where necessary). This part of the strategy is a necessary evil.

Critical Mass

If you build it, will they come? Probably not, unless you make it worth their while. Of course, social media is only effective if there is a critical mass of people using it.

In this respect, it’s not really social media at all, but collective media. There is nothing sadder than a corporate Facebook page with 86 absentee fans and stale content.

Building critical mass is hard work. It requires lots of content that is updated regularly, and a high level of engagement — often including senior management involvement.

Practically speaking, it requires well trained, full time staff to monitor and respond to consumer questions, comments and concerns.

If you are lucky, you will have regular interaction with 10 percent of your community, and for a site to have the required amount of communication ‘liquidity’, in my experience it needs at least 100 participating users.

That means that your site better have 1,000 or more members (Facebook fans, Twitter followers, YouTube views, etc).

Building such a degree of engagement is tough, but organizations are getting creative.

The airline JetBlue hit a home run with its ‘All you can jet’ Facebook promotion. Some progressive firms are even providing discounts to prolific bloggers and tweeters in the hopes that they will spread a good word or two about their experiences with the company.

Knowledge integration

The final piece of the social media puzzle is knowledge integration. Social media provides a wealth of information about products, customer experiences, competitors, and areas for improvement.

It is the proverbial canary in a coal mine for many organizations.

Unfortunately, many firms are still very poor at integrating and acting on the information they receive through social media channels.

They often lack a mechanism to filter and capture insights, and feed these into the decision making apparatus. Some companies take this very seriously.

For example, when Starbucks learned through its social media channels that customers disliked having to throw away their paper cups, the company implemented a campaign encouraging the use of reusable containers, and offered a free cup of coffee in return.

Given its massive user base and rapid growth, social media is likely here to stay.

However, organizations who want to be involved need to approach it with care. There can be benefits, but also risks.

When it comes to social media, it’s good to be SICK!

Michael Wade is a Professor of innovation and strategic information management at IMD (www.imd.ch). He teaches in IMD’s program Strategic Marketing in Action.

Google Apps: A Love Story

How the BI-LO grocery chain found happiness in the cloud.

InformationWeek, by Thomas Claburn, March 16, 2011

After exiting from bankruptcy last year, BI-LO got serious about saving some money on information technology. The grocery retail chain, based in Mauldin, South Carolina, needed a new e-mail system to replace an aging, unsupported version of IBM Lotus Notes.

"It was eating us alive from storage costs and support costs," explained CIO Carol Dewitt in a phone interview.

White Papers

• Best Practices for Converting from Lotus Notes/Domino® to Google Apps
• Security Whitepaper: Google Apps Messaging and Collaboration Products

But change is seldom easy. Implementing a new e-mail system was seen as a significant disruption to employees and to the company's business. "We kept postponing and procrastinating until we got to the point where we were having lots of issues with the system," said Dewitt.

Finally, something had to be done and the company decided to consider cloud-based options, including Google Apps.

There were concerns about security, at least initially. BI-LO has pharmacies, so it has to maintain HIPAA compliance. It's a tier one credit card merchant, so it has to maintain PCI compliance. And the company tries to maintain SOX compliance, even though it's a privately-held company.

"We went through rigorous testing and evaluation and we found out that Google was actually more secure than we were," said Dewitt. "We just thought we were secure."

Dewitt says there were also concerns that Google Apps might represent too much of a change. But the prospect of having access to applications like Docs and Sites proved enough to overcome those reservations. Gmail would save money for BI-LO, on the order of $200,000, and the company might be able to derive some benefit from other Google services.

Those benefits only became clear after BI-LO, with the assistance of Cloud Sherpas, a Google reseller, turned on Google Apps and migrated data for 1,500 corporate employees over the course of about three months. Now, says Dewitt, communication and collaboration have gotten much easier.

Dewitt says the company only trained a few power users but found usage soaring almost as soon as Google Apps became available.

"All of a sudden the adoption rate went crazy," she said. "I was just astounded at how quickly people stopped using desktop office productivity tools and started using Docs, just because it made their lives easier. They could share their information and track the changes. And it was that easy. No training. They just started using it."

Blame the consumerization of IT. BI-LOs users learned how to use Google Apps and similar Web applications in their personal lives. According to an internal company survey, 30% of employees already used Gmail at home and another 25% used a different Web-based e-mail service, like Windows Live Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. That familiarity translated into prior training -- training the company didn't have to pay for -- and pre-existing affinity for the cloud.

Google also made the transition easier by creating Docs in Office's image.

"It's so close to Microsoft, it was not that hard for them to do that transition," said Dewitt.

Microsoft may still dominate large enterprise accounts, but its popularity appears to be shakier among smaller organizations like BI-LO. Office 2003 is still being used at BI-LO but its future looks bleak. "I don't have any plans to upgrade [Office 2003], except for a small group of people," she said.

Thus does an observation made last year by Dave Girouard, president of Google's enterprise group, seem less like wishful prophecy and more like inevitable destiny: "I think all companies will have Office; they just won't have as much of it," he said. "Office will become something like Photoshop, something that a few users need. It's not really the right tool for most people."

Excel remains perhaps the greatest anchor for Microsoft. It's used widely and deeply and, for some, fanatically. But at BI-LO, Dewitt says that most people only use a fraction of Excel's capabilities. For most of her users, the spreadsheets in Docs are enough and bring the added benefit of mobility.

"You can work on projects from home," said Dewitt. "You're traveling and if you need to access something, you don't need to lug your laptop with you. We find that people are using other mobile devices. That's been our biggest excitement; it's given people the freedom to use other devices. iPads are prevalent here. We actually supply them to our executive committee."

In fact for Dewitt, the most significant problem with Google Apps is that it's too appealing.

"Our big issue is keeping people from using it too much," said Dewitt. "They like to create their own little sites. And then you find information that's pertinent or important to the company, you don't know where it is anymore because they weren't thinking in terms of the broader picture. So we've had educate people about what's appropriate and what's not. But the good thing with Google is they give you tools so you know who did what."

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Google expands social collaboration features in Docs

Goodbye Outsourcing, Hello Insourcing: A Trend Rises

More IT groups are ending outsourcing deals and bringing certain work back in-house. Is this the answer to your cost, control and quality issues?

CIO, By Stephanie Overby, Thu, February 17, 2011

CIO — Looking back on the last twelve months, most outsourcing analysts agree that the level of IT services deals sealed has held relatively steady, year-over-year. The total value of outsourcing contracts signed in 2010 was $62.4 billion, according to outsourcing consultancy TPI, a figure that's pretty consistent with their last five years of total contract value data. The number of IT services deals inked in 2010 grew by six percent, according to outsourcing consultancy Everest, noting that eight of them were so-called mega-deals of $1 billion or more. About half of IT service providers polled by outsourcing consultancy EquaTerra reported growth in their business pipeline, despite expectations for a much stronger year-end close. Deal flow was uneven in the fourth quarter, EquaTerra reported, and subject to delays.

But what's most notable to David Rutchik, partner with outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon, is not the deals that are getting done. It's the deals getting undone.

Rutchik says he has seen insourcing decisions gaining steam within the last year and expects that trend to continue to increase in 2011. "Companies are still outsourcing significant projects and transactions," he says. "But they are strategically assessing subsets of broader outsourcing relationships and determining whether to pursue a best-of-breed provider approach or take it back in-house completely."

Why to Pull the Plug

Among the reasons IT leaders cite for pulling the plug on outsourcing deals—or subsets of their contracts—are poor service quality, failure to meet business objectives, and the desired for more control over the future direction of the IT function, according to Rutchik. "Another reason is that some companies were working with more generalist outsourcing providers who had been managing areas outside their core competencies," Rutchik says. "In some cases the results were less than stellar."

Not all "backsourcing" will remain in-house ad infinitum. While some IT leaders are intent on a more permanent insourcing arrangement, others are employing insourcing "as a way to get a fresh start before pursuing a new outsourcing engagement," Rutchik says.

Some IT leaders report big savings bringing outsourcing IT back in-house. But repatriating IT services can be as complex and costly process as outsourcing them in the first place; it's not for every company or function.

For more advice on when to insource, see CIO.com's "Questions to Consider Before Insourcing Outsourced IT"

End-user computing support and network management are most likely to be successfully "backsourced" — or brought back into the corporate IT fold, Rutchik says.

While there's no lack of data on outsourcing deals each quarter—total contract value and number of deals broken down by any number of variable from corporate size to geographic location to IT function—insourcing information is virtually untracked by sourcing consultancies who may or may not be involved in corporate backsourcing decisions. Rutchik says his analysis is based on the collective activity he has seen in the industry rather than any formal research or data.

India's $35 PC is the Future of Computing

PC World, By Tony Bradley, PC World

The government of India has unveiled a prototype of a touchscreen, tablet computer which it expects to sell for $35 initially. As more companies migrate server applications and data storage to the cloud, a simple, Web-enabled platform such as this will replace the bloated desktop and laptop hardware architectures in use today.

The Indian prototype is impressive--especially at a $35 price point. The device runs on a variation of Linux.

It has no internal storage, but it is capable of storing data on a memory card. It has a built in word processor, video conferencing capabilities, and--most importantly for a cloud-based workforce--a Web browser. Oh--it can also run on solar power.

At $35, the Indian tablet is virtually disposable--far exceeding the $100 laptop developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and used in the non-profit One Laptop One Child program. In fact, in many ways the $35 tablet also makes the $500 iPad seem significantly over-priced.

India is courting manufacturers to find a partner to mass-produce the cheap tablet PC and hopes that the economy of scale will allow it to push the price down to $10--a tablet PC for the cost of a couple Starbucks drinks. It is intended for use by students or low-income families, and could be rolled out at some educational institutions as early as next year.

Not much has been revealed about the actual hardware specs of the Indian tablet. We don't yet know what processor it uses, or how much RAM is in the tablet. We don't know what resolution the display is capable of, or the exact size of the screen--although it appears to be a tad smaller than an iPad in pictures.

The iPad has been a tremendous success--selling over three million of the tablets in only 80 days. Despite its consumer media consumption origins, the iPad has also been embraced by corporations and is widely used as a portable computing platform for business professionals.

Businesses that have adopted the iPad, though, might be very interested in a touchscreen, Web-enabled tablet that can enable mobile workers to access cloud-based applications and data for less than 10 percent of the cost of the iPad.

In a cloud-based infrastructure, the device used to connect to and access information does not need the bells and whistles common on desktops and laptops. The tablet becomes a commodity, consuming less power, and delivering significant cost savings.

What businesses need is a simple, cheap device that uses a secure cloud connection to keep data where it belongs and keep workers up and working without the down time of expensive, failure-prone hardware.

You can follow Tony on his Facebook page , or contact him by email attony_bradley@pcworld.com . He also tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW .

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Why Can't My CIO Be More Like Me?

Bloomberg, By Susan Cramm - Jun 24, 2010

Every profession has its stereotype. Operations guys are risk adverse. Marketing types are emotional. 

Finance wonks are narrow-minded. CIOs are interpersonally awkward and out of step with the business.

Stereotypes persist because, at some level, they contain some truth. People gravitate to professions that fit their motivators and abilities. Operations guys are disciplined. Marketing types are creative. Finance wonks are detailed oriented. CIOs are systems thinkers who are fascinated by how things work.

Our differences are important and define our unique contributions. But differences are also inconvenient. And many companies are incapable of effectively managing the differences and try instead to manage out the differences.

In the last 15 years, companies have wanted CIOs to act less like CIOs and more like general business leaders. Problem is, when you try to have it all, sometimes you don't get what you really need. In thinking about what you need out of your CIO, consider the following:

The CIO job is really, really hard. Imagine trying to deliver complex products and services to technically unsophisticated and, for the most part, patently uninterested business "partners." Factor in the difficulty of ensuring security and operational stability while delivering new capabilities. Consider the difficulty of doing so while incorporating disruptive technologies and constraining funding. And do all of the above while convincing your internal team to stay focused and motivated. The CIO job is hard and it makes many good CIOs look bad.

CIOs, in their heart and soul, should love technology. You need a CIO who knows how can technology can be applied, what technology is ready for prime time, and how to make sure that it works, rather than hurts, the business. Consider AT&T's iPhone incident. The company's technical infrastructure failed to process orders and keep information secure. There are myriad possible root causes — forecasting, financing, staffing, and technical. If options were considered, risks assessed, and decisions were made that ended up being wrong, that's understandable. But if any of the executives in charge (sales, finance, operations, and IT) didn't know what they didn't know, that's inexcusable.

Great CIOs are technologists who have mastered the art of leadership. They are leaders who possess technical acumen, but also understand how to improve and grow the business, influence others, deliver results, and drive strategic change. Unfortunately, most leaders, and CIOs, are good, but not great. Research shows that only 10% of leaders possess strong capabilities across the five critical attributes: character, interpersonal skills, professional acumen, results orientation and strategy change.

If you're lucky, you'll have a great CIO. More likely, you'll have a good one. Generalists don't make good CIOs. If your company spends a lot on IT or is interested in doing something remotely interesting with technology, don't trade off technical skills for general leadership skills. It's okay that the CEO of BP isn't a drilling expert, but let's hope (for BP's sake and ours) that he has one sitting in his staff meetings. As long as your CIO is technically savvy and able to deliver results in a high integrity manner, cut her some slack and lend her a hand. Help her define how technology can drive your business. Partner with her to sell in a strategic initiative. Coach her on how to present the IT spend in a way that woos the CFO. Take the lead on driving strategic business change.

It's our differences that make us special and underlie our unique contribution. Since your CIO will never be like you, or you like him, it's much more productive to focus on perfecting the relationship and forgo trying to perfect the person.