Spring 2015
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1) What kind of company is IVK? What Situation are they in?
2) If you were Jim Barton, would you take the CIO job at IVK?
Why? Why not? What would you want to know before you
decided? If he accepts, what should he do first?
3) Who is Carl Williams as the CEO? What are his distinct
objectives?
4) After searching on the words “IT management,” Barton
writes on his whiteboard “IT management is about
management.” What do you think Barton is trying to get at
with this statement? Do you agree with the statement?
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1) There is a group of CIO’s with technology backgrounds
similar to Bill Davies, who, after awhile in the job, begin to be
referred to in the company as “benevolent dictators.” Many of
them, like Davies, are fired. a. Why do you think that these
CIO’s become referred to as “benevolent dictators” and why do
you think many of them get fired?
2) Davies predicts that Barton will be gone in a year; why does
he say this? Do Maggie’s notes (exhibit at end of IVK-2) shed
any light on Davies’ assertion? Why was Davies fired?
3) What should be Barton’s plan for reaching out to other CIOs
and industry experts to gain expertise quickly about running
an IT department? Whom should he talk to first?
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1) Why is Barton having so much trouble getting his direct
reports to commit to an offsite meeting without their technical
experts? Do you think that having the “sidekicks” is necessary
for having the kind of meeting that Barton wants?
2) Do you agree that IT is a “unique” business function, that it
is different from other departments in the organization?
3) What depth of understanding must a CIO leader have to be
effective?
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1) Is Geisler giving Barton the run around in responding to
Barton’s request concerning IT expenditures? If you think so,
what would you do?
2) What is the purpose of a “chargeback” system for returning
IT costs to business units? Why implement such a system? As
we learn in IVK-4, at IVK, business units control all of the IT
budget; what do you think of this arrangement? Should Barton
try to “pull back” some of the budget that is allocated to
business units, to create his own discretionary budget?
3) How should Jim Barton respond to the CEO’s question: “Are
we spending the ‘right’ amount on IT?”
Ch 5: Value of IT
 1) What are the key components of IT value?
 2) How does IT create or enable the creation of value within a
company? How should we value IT capabilities required to keep
us in business, but that do not differentiate us from
competitors?
 3) What light does the consultant’s report shed on the matter of
Davies’ firing and the subsequent choice of Barton as CIO? What
does it add to the IT value discussion?
Ch 5: Discussion
 Provide examples of Qualifiers vs. Compete for IVK
 Did Davies understand the difference between “Qualifiers” and
“Competes”?
 Does Barton?
 Does Williams?
 Did Carr; Weill & Aral; or McAfee & Brynjolfsson understand the
difference? How?
Strategic Grid (McFarlan)
Competitive
Differentiation
from IT
High
Factory
Strategic
Low
Support
Turnaround
Operational
Dependence
on IT
Low
High
Ch 6: Project Management
 1) What is the nature of IT application development in respect to
effective project management?
 2) How would you implement the kid’s advice to budget in a way
that allows learning on a project?
Ch 7: The Runaway Project
1) What are the root causes of the problems that lead to the
Infrastructure Replacement (IR)?
2) What should Barton do to get the IR initiative back on track? Should
he fire NetiFects?
3) How do you manage problems you cannot anticipate?
Ch 8: IT Priorities
 1) Why do you think the previous CIO, Davies, created slush fund slack
for budgeting IT projects? Under Davies, whose neck is in the noose if a
project goes bad?
 2) Do you think Barton’s approach of providing the best information at
the time is a better approach than Davies’ approach? Under Barton,
whose neck will be in the noose if a project goes bad?
 3) Should Barton try to take control of the entire IT budget? Should he
ask for a percentage of the overall budget to be placed under his
control? Or should he try to fix the committee structure put in place by
Davies?
Ch 9: IT and the Board of Directors
 1) What are the board of director’s responsibilities with respect
to IT oversight?
 2) What should Barton do about “managing Carraro”? How
about managing Williams?
 3) How is Barton doing after almost three months as IVK’s CIO?
What is you assessment of his performance?
Ch 10: Crisis
 1) How should Barton handle the meeting with the analysts? What
questions should he be prepared to answer and how should he
handle them?
 2) Why can’t perfect IT system security be achieved? If security can
never be perfect, how should you manage against malicious threats?
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Your group represents Jim Barton (and his team). You need to
prepare for the analyst meeting by composing a carefully worded
statement (2-3 sentences – no more) that will be your response to
the following question (should it come up at the analyst meeting):
“Your website was down this morning, and I’m hearing rumors of
some sort of problem at IVK earlier today. Can you tell us what
happened?”
Remember, you just had a security incident, and you don’t know
exactly what happened. As you prepare your statement, remember
that false statements could get you into legal trouble and that
alarming statement could potentially cause IVK’s stock price to crash.
Ch 11: Damage
 1) Which option for securing IVK in the aftermath of the security
incident would you choose?
 2) Did CEO Williams make the best decision for IVK?
 3) Why didn’t Williams fire Barton?
Ch 12: Communication
 1) Conventional wisdom suggests that it’s important to
manage your boss. As a CIO, what is the best approach to
managing your boss? How should Barton handle the bad
advice coming from Williams?
 2) How should Barton communicate with people outside the IT
department to rebuild his organization’s credibility?
 3) In an environment of Internet access and real-time
information, how effective is the “Doctrine of Completed Staff
Work”?
(1) Allies (those who share Barton’s interests and vision)
(2) Network Members (those who share common interests but are less directly involved;
they can potentially motivate others to cooperative if needed)
(3) Blockers (those with conflicting interests)
(4) Slowers (those whose indirect cooperation is needed, but may not overly support the process;
persuasion and negation may be needed to ensure they won’t slow down the process)
Classify the key player’s with regard to Barton’s initiative to strengthen the security of the IVK IT network.
How would you work with them?
Player
Carl Williams (CEO)
Ed McLaughlin (VP Financial Management)
Ehsan Nisar (VP Customer Services)
Maria Navarro (VP Human Resources)
John Cho (IT Security)
Francesco Carraro (IVK Board Member)
Type of Stakeholder
Ch 13: Emerging Technology
 1) What advice would you offer to Barton to help him break
the cycle of constant firefighting? Is Barton becoming like
Davies? Is this inevitable?
 2) As IT increasingly penetrates our daily lives, do you think
the younger generation (such as Barton’s nephew Jack) might
do work differently than earlier generations? If so, what kinds
of difficulties or opportunities might arise from this
difference?
Ch 14: Vendor Partnering
 1) How important is control to a company like IVK when
outsourcing IT. How should control be maintained?
 2) How should IVK hire to support contract management? Will
very good technical employees be needed in a future
characterized by high levels of IT outsourcing?
Ch 15: Managing Talent
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What should Barton and Gordon do about the Ivan
Korsky problem?
◦ What are the consequences of your decision?
◦ What message does it send to fire him, motivate him, or give
him special assignments?
◦ How could you rewrite his contract to clarify expectations (he
currently has a full-time standard contract)?
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Should Barton reorganize the IT function so that the
best talent is in a central “shared services”
organization available to the entire organization
(rather than just a particular business unit)?
◦ What are the positive and negative aspects of such an
arrangement?
Ch 16: Standardization and Innovation
 1) Is trade-off between standardization and innovation? How are
the two related in most companies?
 2) What do you think of the kid’s toolkit approach to
management? How could you apply his ideas?
Ch 17: Managing Risk
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How should IVK decide how much risk to undertake
in adopting new technologies? Should IVK be on the:
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Bleeding edge?
Leading edge?
Fast follower?
Slow follower?
What do you make of Carl Williams poker analogy?
Ch 18: Looking Forward
 1) Why would Goldman and Luce now be competing to hire
Barton based on his year’s experience as CIO and previous
experience as a business manager?
 2) Which job offer should Barton accept? Why?
 3) How should senior managers and the board of directors
work together to effectively manage assets and capabilities of
the firm?