There's one question that I am asked above all others. "My Board is asking me to provide an assessment of our security risk. We don't know how much we should be investing in information security, but there's a feeling we're not putting enough focus on this today. Where do I start?".

When you design your business systems architecture, the balance of buy vs build is important. Are you in the business of creating systems, or the business of leveraging systems built by others? Will you achieve agility by "owning the code" or by choosing the best platform partners?

I have a pet hate for "best practices". Not the concept, but the term. There are areas in every business where being the best is valuable. But most often, better is good enough

Big wins don't require big investments. Sometimes, the simplest things can improve your customer reviews. And the fact that many businesses overlook this gives you an opportunity to stand out.

Business Technology does two things well:

1. Insight generation—plumbing information to generate better decisions.

2. Action acceleration—automation and tools to make work easier.

There is nothing else.

A client once told me that she'd "love to innovate but I have to stick to the process." I immediately jumped on my soapbox—"Innovation and process go hand in hand."

Have you heard the one about the NASA pen?

Tech-enable contact tracing saved more than 5,000 UK lives over 3 months.

How many winning sports teams have no coach? None, right? Yet how many business teams do you know who DO have a coach?

Why is it that innovation thrives in less consequential environments but we struggle with basic solutions where it really counts?

Innovation has been on steroids this past year as many have sought ways to combat COVID. Vaccination and Application technology has been at the forefront. But non-tech missteps have diminished the impact.

Making the distinction between strategy and planning is the same as distinguishing your vacation destination from the route you'll travel.

It takes two very different mindsets.

Every day, billions of people use a tool that was invented to be slowest in its class. It's been bettered since, yet few people are aware of this innovation.

Want a clue? Look down.

When we make new products, we test our theory of what the customer needs. Pivoting is the act of changing that theory in light of game-changing market feedback. The market’s been pretty loud these last 100 days, and more businesses are attempting the pivot than at any other point in history.

The term “Human factors” was invented by technologists to denote things that weren’t technology. I sometimes fear—with all the talk of digital-this, AI-that, and remote-working-other—that we miss the point of going digital.

Ideas come naturally to all of us but the process of placing our bets, making them happen, and seeing things through takes discipline. When you add the myriad distractions vying for attention in our daily lives, it’s nigh on impossible to make change happen without a process.

Fifteen. Or sixty-four. Heck, the more the merrier—as long as enough good ones make it to reality.

Your ideas end up in one of two places. They either become reality—when you effectively transfer them to the field—or they don’t.

Last up, we looked at Sharing Ideas as the first stage in taking action. There are lots of ways to do this, from 2-minute hallway conversations to elaborate prototyping of ideas

Could be brilliant, could be a dud, but the only way to find out whether your idea will stick is to place it gently in the hands of those that could benefit.