ABSTRACT
There will be times during your life as a CIO that operations will rise up and demand so much of your attention that you have to tip the scales away from strategy for a while. But tip it too far and the weeds may grow around your ankles; let them grow too high and you will never cut loose. The overriding theme of this chapter is that operations management is the price of entry to the CIO position. If you cannot get a handle on your operational challenges, you will never have the opportunity to do the fun stu. The key to solving the Operations versus Strategy Paradox is building operational excellence into your organization and getting out of the business of fighting fires. Some takeaways:
• Get rid of the context: If it isn’t a dierentiator, get it out of your house, and build a really good vendor management organization.
