Digital Discourse / Archives for Breakthrough

Breakthrough Talk: Navigating Transformation

December 13, 2012 By

Marc Strohlein, Agile Business Logic

In a relatively short period of time, technology has moved from the back office to the front office, and then out the door to the mobile Internet, all the while growing in impact and disruptive potential. In the process, technology moved from a business strategy-enabling tool, to one of transformation, at least for those information companies that have figured out how to truly leverage it.

It’s no secret that Google, Apple, and Amazon have mastered using technology to transform their businesses-not just once or twice, but continuously. Information publishers, on the other hand have often struggled to achieve such transformational effects. That’s because the challenges of selecting and exploiting transformative technologies are significant. So are the people and cultural issues that come with major technology shifts.

Executives are lulled by vendors’ siren songs of big data, cloud computing, tablets and mobile computing, semantic technology-the list goes on and on. But which ones will deliver breakthrough business impact and have staying power? And how do technology executives manage complex transitions from legacy environments without disrupting business operations?

The answer, and the subject of this upcoming panel at the SIIA IIS conference, “Navigating Transformation,” is that technology and business strategy need to become intertwined and embedded in the DNA of publishing firms. In effect, those businesses need to become technology firms that publish-ot just newspaper, book, journal, or online publishers.

The panel is comprised of Richard Belanger, Chief Information Officer, ProQuest, Peter Marney, Senior Vice President, Thomson Reuters, along with myself, Marc Strohlein, Principal of Agile Business Logic as moderator. Expect a lively discussion about the opportunities afforded by new technologies as well as their challenges and our collective wisdom about how to ensure success.  Our goal is that attendees will leave with clear ideas about how to leverage the transformative potential of information technology.

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Interview with IIS Breakthrough Co Chair Clare Hart

December 10, 2012 By
I sat down with IIS Conference co-chair Clare Hart, Former President & CEO of Infogroup, to discuss IIS, what sessions she’s most looking forward to, and what she has learned as a result of co-chairing the industry’s premier conference for information executives.
Kathy: Why did you decide to co-chair IIS this year?

Clare: IIS is an opportunity for Information Industry executives to meet in a convenient NYC location, for a brief 1.5 days, covering a rich agenda of highly-relevant topics and excellent networking. Being an IIS co-chair and a part of the planning team presented an opportunity to shape the agenda and ensure that IIS is a “Must Attend” event for all Information Industry executives.

Kathy: What are your goals for the conference this year?

Clare: Two principle goals: to enlist speakers who will talk about the business, content, and technology opportunities and issues that are shaping our industry AND to create an environment that is conducive to networking, meeting new colleagues, and strengthening relationships with existing partners and colleagues.

Kathy: What is unique about IIS?

Clare: IIS is always held in January, so it’s one of our industry’s first annual conferences to kick off the New Year, providing conference delegates some new thinking right out of the blocks. The agenda is filled with topics that are top of mind – no fluff. This is a meeting where substantive conversations happen on the stage, at the lunch table, and around the bar.

Kathy: What should people expect this year and why is that different from previous years?

Clare: This year you may notice a little bit more of a focus on technology, a key driver of differentiation, but above all, IIS will continue its tradition of providing extremely relevant topics covered by top speakers who will impThis year you may notice a little bit more of a focus on technology, a key driver of differentiation, but above all, IIS will continue its tradition of providing extremely relevant topics covered by top speakers who will impart wisdom based on knowledge of their subject stemming from years of experience.art wisdom based on knowledge of their subject stemming from years of experience.

Kathy: Any favorite sessions you are looking forward to?

Clare: Terry McGraw’s keynote is on the top of my list because of all that McGraw Hill has accomplished during the company’s transformation. The McGraw Hill story is fascinating and who better to tell it than Terry McGraw? I am also eager to hear Gil Elbaz, CEO of Factual, and Jim Swift, CEO of Cortera, talk about building successful Big Data Companies. But, I must add, I am eager to hear all of the keynotes and panel discussions, as each has its own purpose and lesson to share.

Kathy: Anything you learned or were surprised by in your work planning IIS 2013?

Clare: A lot goes in to planning this day and a half event, the amount of discussion and debate about things as seemingly small as the timetable for Previews is thoughtfully considered. The SIIA and IIS have a very large and strong network of willing participants – potential speakers, attendees, sponsors and committee members – who see the value of this important industry event and work hard to ensure its success.

IIS Breakthrough 2013

 

 

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Titans of a New Information Order

December 7, 2012 By

I sat down with Jim Kollegger, Session moderator and organizer of the CEO panel – Titans of a New Information Order – to find out what’s in store for this year’s discussion. Jim will take the stage at IIS Breakthrough on Wednesday January 30, alongside Kurt Eichenwald, Contributing Editor with Vanity Fair and a New York Times bestselling author, Vanity Fair, Thomas Glocer, Former CEO, Thomson Reuters, David Kirkpatrick, Senior Technology & Internet Editor, Fortune, and Michael Perlis, President & CEO , Forbes Media LLC. To see this session, register at siia.net/IIS

 

Jim Kollegger, CEO, Genesys Partners, Inc.

Kathy: Jim, over the years you have put on a showstopper session at IIS where you gather a team of industry “heavy weights” to discuss their perspectives on the shifts in the industry, all from different perspectives. What is the goal/ purpose of your industry outlook panel?

Jim: There have been eleven Summits, and even before IIS became a formal Summit I was hosting keynote panels going back all the way to the 80s! I feel like the Dorian Grey of the SIIA and its predecessor.

Kathy: What can the audience expect to take away from the Titans of the New Information Order?

Jim: Our biggest objective is to provide the audience with perspective, a longer view, maybe a different view as to where things are heading. This is the Wayne Gretzky metaphor — “why are you successful? Because I skate to where the puck is going to be!” You’d be amazed how that sticks.

Kathy: What are some of your most memorable moments as moderator of this session over the years?

Jim: One unforgettable panel was a powerhouse of Ted Leonsis of AOL, Nancy McKinstry of Wolters Kluwer, Jim Fallows of the Atlantic and Martin Sorrell of WPP. Two of them held forth so the others had a hard time getting a word in; and one of them was actually texting while on the panel. I won’t tell you which one!

Kathy: Did anyone in particular get the audience’s blood to boil?

Jim: We go for light, not heat. There’s plenty of cross-fire on the air, as Jon Stewart pointed out. But reasoned discussion where people are frank and not posturing is a rarity.

Kathy: Who would you invite back to reflect on their original prediction VS what really happened

Jim: Many, many of them. Especially John Patrick, IBM’s former Internet CTO, who predicted the coming of wi-fi and blogging, when it didn’t have a name, and when blogging was a joke.

Also Ted Leonsis who early on spotted “the wisdom of crowds” and John Markoff, of NY Times, who said it was NOT too late to start a new search engine—when Yahoo and Excite seemed to own the market.

Kathy: What are YOUR Industry predictions on what’s in store for 2013-2014?

Jim: Mobile, mobile, mobile. Continued consumerization of the enterprise, smarter Siri’s, and verticalization of market approaches. We’ll also see continued domination of markets by the four horsemen of the Internet–Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. There will also be more conflict as some of those put their own interests above their content partners.

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