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A Pyramid Scheme from Egypt

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DQI Bureau
New Update

The Great

Pyramid at Giza is the oldest and last remaining of the seven wonders of the

world. A 20-year project that assembled 2.4 million stone blocks of up to 15

tonnes each, cut and polished to optical precision, and joined so you can't

insert the tip of a knife into any joint-even today.

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We walked around this

majestic, six million tonne monster from 4,500 years ago, colleagues and a group

of CIOs. There was awe, some engineering discussion, and some questioning why.

And inevitable cracks about the RoI for megaprojects. But it's a good point.

Who drives such a monster project? How? And why? What's the RoI?

In ancient Egypt, the

answers were clear: backed by the high priests, the King. Driven by a need to

prepare for the afterlife. We saw Rameses II's mummy, we gasped at the golden

treasures of 'King Tut' (who broke his leg and died at 19). All of life was

an investment in the afterlife. The megaprojects would pay back. No one

questioned the RoI when the king drove the project.

In a session later at

C-Change, our annual CIO event, this year in Cairo, I asked those hundred CIOs

if their CEOs were really involved in IT projects (a few hands went up), and in

finance (almost all hands went up).

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And the CIOs said: IT

is as strategic as finance. And a big project requires the CEO's 'active

support'. If you need to build a giant pyramid, the CEO must back it.

So when, how, and how

much, do you get the CEO involved?

Not all the time: the

CIO gets paid to do his own job. Nor does he want a CEO always breathing down

his neck (now I wonder if CFOs do). One answer is to find the most difficult

part and seek involvement there. That's rarely the tech. It's people issues:

getting them to use a new application, or to follow a security policy. Or to

compromise and freeze the specs of a project that is dragging on and on.

A major block there

can be the high priests: the CXOs, line managers, SBU heads...they must be with

you. So start from the top of the pyramid. Nothing to beat the 'pyramid

effect' of a CEO driving the point to line managers, visibly using a new app,

system or policy, pulling things out from the new database and questioning them

about the data.

Many CIOs do not invest enough time in cultivating and

'leveraging' the CEO. And other CXOs. It's time well spent and invested,

for the view from the top of the pyramid is different. It's a good view to get

a glimpse of-and leverage. And it's a useful view to get used to, for the

CIO's career.

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