Complete CIO

“Yes this is the right time; yes you can buy two camels today”.

2010-07-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

The sun was shining and the temperature might have been 100˚F. A Father and his son were going into a desert, tired, thirsty, and cranky. To make their journey easier, the father started a conversation, “So my dear, how far do you think the water is”? His son, who was very tired at this point, didn’t reply. He wanted to enjoy, to play, to run for kites, and play marbles… But here he was, with his father on a business trip. “You are going to have lots of fun at mandi, you will make new friends and you will learn a lot”, said father convincingly to his son before the start of the journey.

They kept going for few miles and the son noticed a merchant who was selling Camels. He stopped there, admired the camels and told his father, “Dad, can we please buy the camel, all my friends have it, please…” Father ignored his request and asked him to keep walking. “We need to make to the mandi by tomorrow morning, boli will start early morning and those who will be early will reap the benefits”. said father. Son dragged along cursing why he agreed to come along. He thought so far “I learned nothing, made no friends and my father doesn’t buy me anything. Everyone else he knows owns a camel. Why can’t our family have a camel”? He was struggling to find all the answers on his own.

The next day, bright and early, they put their tent and displayed all the nuts and grains. Merchant from far places came and started bidding. The son helped his father, and in less than 4 hours they sold all the nuts at much higher prices. The Son could not calculate the profit but knew his father was very happy. He was sure that this trip was great success. Once the sun was setting, the son played with few other kids. Those kids who came with other merchants exchange informal notes and played new games which they never played before in their village. Son thought, “Wow!!! , dad was right. I played; I learned new tricks which no kid in my village knows”. Now he was smiling inside and thanking his father for bringing him along.

They started their journey back home. Suddenly son and father had more energy. They were feeling light, feeling good. Son was in hurry to reach village so he can “show off” what he had learned to other kids in the village. He was almost running. Father was happy with tons of money he made by reaching early and selling quality products to other merchants. This time the same Camel Seller showed again. Father stopped there and told the seller, “we want to buy two camels”, “give me your best camels”, “Yes, I want to buy two”. Son shouted, “Two”, “Dad, are we buying two camels”. Father told him, crying with joy, “yes , my son… we will buy two camels”. This is the time for us. We can and we will buy two camels…. Father and son hugged each other crying. Camel seller smiled, and gave them the best two camels he had and said, “Yes this is the right time, yes you can buy two camels today”.

"Timing is everything".

Mandi: market / exchange where merchants buy and sell

Boli: bid

4 Minutes and 16 seconds

2008-11-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

4 Minutes and 16 seconds to learn New Technology – Power of YouTube

Gone are the days, when you and me used to sit down from 8:00 am to 5:00 PM to learn about new technology, new methodology. This is new age – we need to speed up – learn and run pretty quickly. Don't get me wrong – I do understand the difference between "deep" learning and "jumpstart". The channels like YouTube (if coming from a trusted resource) are very useful and can give you jumpstart. You can learn about any subject in very short period of time. When I started working on PCI compliance for my previous company (several months ago), I started searching for experts. I Google "PCI compliance" and found many useful and many not so useful links, white papers, definitions and articles. After few hours, I had a brain freeze. I was not able to consume more information… I turned back to LinkedIn and started looking – "who is expert of PCI compliance?", "who has done it before?" …And there it was – 4 minute 16 seconds clip on YouTube – explaining me what exactly PCI compliance was. I got a jump start – I loved it … it was awesome!!! I was buried under 2000 thousand articles / white papers searching for the start point… and this 4 minutes 16 seconds clip gave me a jumpstart. Of course I checked who was presenting? What was source of information? I was quite satisfied -- video was presented by PCI expert from a very reputable company (please check out the YouTube clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTHgMtThlWs - Published with permission from Ms. Manju Mude).

I cannot believe I am saying this, but here it is. Future trainings/ leanings will happen on YouTube (or similar technologies). So it's time for you – the CompleteCIO™ to learn and understand this powerful communication channel. You can put your message to all IT professionals & company employees globally. You can showcase public facing (not confidential) projects which you can refer on your Intranet or “your CompleteCIO™ channel” and all employees can view and understand – what current IT projects you are doing? Why you are doing them? What is the ROI for the enterprise? Who is running what? What is the status of these projects? They can view it from YouTube for almost free at their time and of course no more boring 50 page documents / PowerPoint explaining latest and greatest IT projects…. Grab your video camera and make your first clip/video and upload it… explain... demonstrate … you are a CompleteCIO™ and you can showcase your projects , your skills, your tone, your persona using YouTube…Note: this can become a hiring tool as well… remember your next hiring manager - a CEO / CFO is watching… yes, they are watching YouTube… Best of Luck to you – the future CompleteCIO™

Talk to you soon…Sudhir.Wadhwa@gmail.com

5. Social Presence

2008-10-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

5. Social Presence

Let me take this topic tonight and explain you the power of connections through social networks. Future CIO – What can you learn from the sweet seller - the boy - clever skinny mathematician?

Written by Sudhir Wadhwa
Illustrated by Sumati Wadhwa

My father told me this story when I was roughly 10 years old. This small story shows you the power of connections, power of networking. How it works its magic.

Story goes like this – Once there was a simple, but intelligent boy, roughly in his twenties, came to a town from a small village in India. He was kind and nice to everyone. Finally he got a job at a sweet shop selling sweets to customers. He was very courteous to customers and had very pleasing smile. He helped everyone - old people, kids with their home work, basic mathematics to farmers and became very popular in the town. He also started a small free school in the nights to teach farmers about the principal amount and interest. Everyone in the town loved him. One day, he fell in love with a pretty looking girl. Vice president of the town came to know about this kind & nice boy and he decided to check him out. VP of the town found the boy was very kind and nice to everyone and helping the society and teaching kids & farmers for free. VP was very impressed, but suddenly he saw president's daughter with the boy in a garden. VP was surprised. He decided to present this to President (king) in a way that king will accept the boy as his son in law.

After hearing the VP, king got really upset and asked his soldiers to bring that boy to him at once. Soldiers tied the by with a thick rope and presented him in the court. King wasted almost no time and gave his ruling to hang him to death the next day. Everyone in the court was surprised. But it was kings' order. They put the boy in the jail to hang him next day.

In the night, Boy was thinking what he did wrong. He had no idea that he was in love with King's daughter.

Well… Other people were also thinking. The Jamadar (Toilet cleaner) was thinking King will hang him tomorrow in the court only if King is alive he can do that. He was thinking, "When the king will come to use the Toilet first thing in the morning, I will hide myself in the Toilet and cut his King's head with sharp sword". When there is no King, there will be no Ruling.

The PAAN (special sweet leaf filled with special Indian herbs) maker was thinking too… He thought how this boy is so kind so nice… The boy loved his PAAN each day and praised about his PAAN each day. Boy is so kind … How can King hang him to death for no special crime. PAAN maker thought – King never gives his final ruling before eating his PAAN. So tomorrow he will mix snake-poison in King's PAAN and as soon as King will eat the PAAN, King will die. When there is no King, there will be no Ruling.

The Army chief was thinking – He loved the boy so much as Chief's son was learning advanced math from the sweet seller boy. Chief was very pleased with the performance and progress of his son. Army chief started thinking … OK, he called his commanders and told his decision to help the boy. Everyone agreed at once. Army chief stated to his team as soon as King will raise his finger to "Hang" the boy till death – that is the signal, go ahead and shoot the king.

No one slept the whole night. But vice president was too smart for all of them. He had his entire spy network. He learnt intentions of PAAN maker, Jamadar and Army chief.

VP was ready. He told king – Call me in your Mahal (Mansion) as soon as you are awake the next day. King surprisingly agreed. Next day came… King woke up… King called VP in his Mahal. King asked, "OK, tell me what that important matter is?" Why did you ask me to meet with you so early in the morning?

VP smiled and asked him, nothing urgent. First thing first – why don't you ask your soldier to use your Toilet today before you? King got mad, but agreed. As soon as Soldier entered the Toilet, Jamadar cut his head off. King was surprised why would Jamadar do this? He has been a good loyal employee from years. VP smiled and asked soldiers to arrest the Jamadar.

After freshen up, King and VP entered the court. And King asked to bring the boy in the court. VP urged the king to re-think about his decision. He mentioned this boy is perfect for your daughter – he is so kind, so good, so concerning about the farmers, kids, education and most of all – HE IS WELL CONNECTED. King didn't want to hear any of this. He asked soldiers to bring the sweet seller Boy in the court. Boy was presented in tight ropes. King looked at PAAN maker and PAAN maker ran towards king and presented a very special PAAN (with poison of course). King took the PAAN in his hand, and before he could eat it, VP grabbed King's hand and screamed "Stop". King got really upset – "VP, stay in your limits, I am the King of this Town", how dare you grabbed my hand in front of the court. VP smiled and asked that PANN to be given to PAAN maker and asked him to eat it. PAAN maker immediately told the court there is poison in the PAAN and he didn't want this kind boy to die.

King was slowly learning the power of this little skinny boy. He was connected to so many people and people loved him so much that they are willing to kill the King… Wow!!! That is powerful. But King said to himself I am the King, I will not change my ruling and today I will Rule without eating PAAN.

King asked the Judge to arrange for the Rope and hang the boy to death as he will raise his finger and they will "Pull" the rope. Everyone was ready. Boy was smiling now. He knew his power is working. He knew his connections will not let this happen. He knew there is an Angel who will save him. Everyone was ready – As soon as, King tried to raise his finger to give the signal, VP grabbed his hand again – one more time. King yelled – "Are you out of your mind? I told you I have made my mind and I will hang this boy to death". VP was upset now. He asked, Oh, great king, look around you carefully, look behind the pillars of this Court, Look on the roof tops, do you see anything? Yes, they are your soldiers, they are waiting for the Finger to go up in the Air and before you speak a single word, there will be thousands of bullets in your body. Your own Army chief is so fond of this boy. This is not an ordinary boy – He is completely connected in your town. Think again – if you let this boy become your son-in-law, the whole town will be happy. Everyone will work with him to create fortune for the Town. Everyone will learn from his magic and connect together to bring success for this great Town. King was amazed. This is really powerful. A simple boy with no special title in the Town is more powerful than me. He Said to VP, I agree… Untie this boy at once. I want this boy to come and take a position in my court and help me run the Town. And I accept hi as my son-in-law…. Everyone in court was happy.

After hearing this story from my dad, I was amazed to learn the power. We were kids – I didn't know the "Social Networking" Engines at that time. We didn't have, Social Engines like today, at that time. But one thing was very clear – if you are kind and if you helping others without any selfish reasons, they will help you….

So, what can we learn from that little skinny sweet seller? Let's examine what he did? Why Town liked him? And then examine why he liked him so much that they were willing to kill the King at one point… How can you create such a love, passion in someone for you? Let's try to answer these questions together:

He launched free school for kids – he launched math school for poor farmers explained them how to calculate interest and compound interest so they can pay fair amount when they payback the loan? He created an immediate value for the poor farmers. In India, we have a saying – "It's the compound interest which will kill you"….Farmers were able to understand the curse of compound interest.

Boy created free school for Kids – where he was teaching to kids of most powerful people in the town. The boy immediately connected to, The Judge, The Army chief, Mothers of The wealthy, VP, Merchants and many more. All kids go home and talk to their parents about how smart this boy was and how easily he explains the complex algebra and complex equations. I don't care who you are reading this book… But one thing is universal truth - all parents are emotionally connected to their kids. They will do anything for their kids (especially when they are growing up). The boy connected to Kids, Kinds connected him directly / indirectly to their parents. The Link was complete. In few months, almost everyone in the town knew this clever skinny mathematician boy. Do you see the power of connections?

As I future CIO, are you connected? Are you creating value for your internal / external stakeholders? Are you socially present? See you soon …

Complete CIO

2008-10-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

Who is going to be the Next CIO? What attributes will he/she have? Is she going to be an MBA from top business school? Is she going to be Technology Guru who will understand Firewall configurations? Is she business savvy? Will she be "Connected"?

This article will try to answer some of these tough questions. I will take each bullet item every week and explain it. Please come back and check the blog every week. You never know what surprise is waiting for you.

Future Articles include:

1. Power of CIO

2. Getting to CIO

3. Selling to CIO

and many more...

Feel free to connect with me on Linkedin : http://www.linkedin.com/in/sudhirwadhwa

Best Regards

Sudhir Wadhwa, MS, MBA