Chuck's Blog

The Undercover Economist

Many bloggers have long lists of recommended reading, or music, or something else.

You may have noticed a single lonely book recommendation over on my right rail.

It's not that I don't read a lot of books (I do), it's just that it's the rare one that I'd recommend to people in this industry as "hey, this is worth your time".

And I've just added another one.

You Should Get Some Legal Advice ...

I believe that information is becoming the single most precious asset in the world today.

And I believe that IT is poised to play an entirely new role as the "CFO of Information".

Part of that journey is becoming expert in the overlaps (and synergies) between IT thinking and other disciplines.

We've all had to get good at things like finance, logistics, project management, (ahem) internal marketing, business process reengineering, human resources and other decidedly non-technical disciplines.

I think it's inevitable that we'll have to add "legal" to this expanding portfolio.

More and more IT strategy in the future will be directly connected to legal implications of what we do with information.

And today, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Andy Cohen to the EMC blogosphere.  Andy's blog will focus on this important intersection between legal and IT.

Andy joins myself and Mark Lewis (EMC's CDO -- chief development officer) as part of the growing roster of EMC corporate bloggers.

Welcome, Andy!  Looking forward to seeing great posts on a variety of issues.

Are You An Informationist? Part III Web Resource

In past posts, I floated the idea that many of us were in the process of becoming informationists rather than technologists. 

If you're interested, you can see the background here and here.

One of the arguments behind this thought is simple: over time, there will be more business value in optimizing, protecting and enhancing the value of our information portfolios than our technology portfolios. 

Ultimately, businesses care more about the information than the plumbing that got it there.  And I'm always on the lookout for resources, discussions, etc. that help to support this thesis.

Enterprise Architecture As Strategy

I spend more than a little amount of time on airplanes, as do many of us.  I've learned to travel without liquids or gels, and have come to appreciate the special joys of that center seat at the back of the plane that doesn't recline, right next to the lavatories.

Some people listen to music, others pretend to work.  Me, I like to read.  I can plow through 1 or 2 good-sized books on a business trip.  And I came across a great book that really did something for me, and maybe it'll do the same for you.