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2006年8月2日 的存档

CIO Stories Series: Promotion

2006年8月2日
没有评论
今天才知道，《IT经理世界》竟把我那浅薄的《CIO故事》译成英文，发表在它的英文网站http://www.cbfeature.com上，并且仍然署我的名字，而没有出现译者。非常之受宠若惊。感动之余，把它搬过来，也算为它的传播添一份力吧。

原文URL（须注册）：

As he walked out of the CEO’s office, Ji Chao felt stifled and oppressed, and couldn’t help kicking a nearby chair in frustration.

Ironically, Ji should have been in higher spirits. The CEO had just offered him a promotion. For most people it would have been good news, but Ji was quite reluctant. In fact, this is not the first time. He had a similar experience some years ago, when, not long before he joined this IT company, the boss tried to promote him to department manager. Ji was not at all motivated by the "great expectations", for he had a clear view of himself. He calmly told the boss, "I’m introverted and awkward with communication. Management does not fit me. I have my heart set on technology."

"The company has decided to apply for a government innovation fund. We hope you would be the technical manager of the project under application," explained the boss. As a matter of fact, the boss was well aware of Ji’s weakness. This promotion offer was partially due to his superior educational background, along with his patents and dissertations.

"What project shall we apply with?" Ji inquired. The boss told him it would be the "BlueBanner", a product of Linux. Ji retorted with youthful impatience, "Are you sure you want to apply to the innovation fund with that funny stuff? That so-called independent IPR is just simple modifications on an existing version of Linux downloaded from the Internet. It violates GPL (General Public License) in the first place, and it’s stealing!"

Ji became agitated, "Why do we have to cheat in the name of innovation? We are only competent enough to act as agents for foreign products. Our business is no more than carrying boxes. You can glorify it as an all-in-one solution or hi-tech achievements, but do you really believe we could get that government innovation fund with it?"

When Ji was about to leave, the boss stopped him and mildly admitted, "We are a newly founded firm, you know. To cultivate excellent talent here like you, we need to find money in any possible way. The free government innovation fund is an important resource." The boss ended by a compromise that if Ji didn’t want to be involved in management, he could continue with his beloved technology under a management title.

Eventually, the company gained major support from the government; RMB1.5 million (US$190,000) was injected in installments. Ji had remained a nominal "technical manager" till all the money was received. After that, he rejected the promotion flatly and returned to his original position as a technical engineer.

Time flying, Ji is a technical master now. As chief engineer of the company, his extraordinary technical ability witnessed the company’s development. However, he felt ever uneasy. As he had immersed himself in technical matters, Ji was convinced that the technical gap in front of them had been widened rather than narrowed over these years. And he knew clearly that the company was still busy carrying boxes all the time. Even when they occasionally did R&D, it was actually imitations of existing technology. Despite all the facts, Ji tried to look on the bright side. That the strategy of "market for technology" was a losing proposition is a general consensus. And independent innovation was highly valued by today’s society and the industry.

Therefore, when the CEO asked Ji to have a chat this time, he was really excited. As he entered the CEO’s office, the boss began gushing with ecstasy. "As you know, innovation has never been as important as it is today, particularly for IT firms like ours. The Board has decided to build our company into an epitome of innovation, and make technical elites like you the benchmark of innovation." Ji was delighted and thought his day had finally arrived.

Unexpectedly, the boss began to work in a request for Ji’s another promotion. "Management expects you to be the CIO," said the boss.

Ji, no longer an idealistic, enthusiastic young man, replied calmly, "You know I’m not suitable for management."

"The municipal government recently published a new policy, stressing support for innovative businesses", the boss added. "We’ve decided to comply with that by firstly setting up a proper management team."

Ji deciphered the profound meaning between the lines and instantly felt thorns in his side. Sorrow welled up in his heart, and once again he sensed an unavoidable sense of fate.

"Let me think about it", Ji muttered, and then escaped from the office. In depressed retrospection, he saw himself promoted twice in the name of innovation – department manager and now CIO. Now he pondered, "At least both promotions seem to prove a growing importance of innovation. Maybe it’s not that bad to take this position of ‘innovation CIO’."

附中文原文：CIO故事之十六：提拔

CIO

CIO Stories Series: Digital World

2006年8月2日
没有评论
今天才知道，《IT经理世界》竟把我那浅薄的《CIO故事》译成英文，发表在它的英文网站http://www.cbfeature.com上，并且仍然署我的名字，而没有出现译者。非常之受宠若惊。感动之余，把它搬过来，也算为它的传播添一份力吧。

原文URL（须注册）：

Deep into the night, the normally bustling office building was now covered by a sea of darkness. The only beacon of light was from a meeting room on the 13th floor. Chief Information Officer Jiang and his subordinates, Tao and Ping, together with four consultants, Dr. Zhang and the other three surnamed Wang, Li and Zhao, were holding a marathon meeting that was stretching into the early hours of a new day. Everybody was exhausted, except Jiang, who remained high-spirited and lucid throughout the long, tortuous meeting. Now he could see the daylight – the IT project draft he had commissioned was approaching to a successful ending tonight.

The team of contracted consultants had spent two months concentrating on the draft in the lead-up to the big meeting. Headed by Dr. Zhang, they thoroughly studied the present informatization situation of the government administration region that Jiang was in; they also managed to figure out each manager’s expectations as well as departmental informatization requirements; with the aid of professional instruments, they estimated the gap between the status quo and their objects to decide on the appropriate means of realizing change. Finally, based on such preparatory work, the consultant team helped Jiang to draft up a five-year IT plan.

To Dr. Zhang’s surprise, the initial project draft failed to meet CIO Jiang’s expectations, even after being revised 15 times. Zhang had never before found himself in such an awkward situation throughout his consulting career. Every time he discussed a revised project draft with Tao and Ping, they thought it was just perfect. But each of them was rejected bluntly by Jiang and thrown back with negative comments. Dr. Zhang was nearing his wit’s end.

Later, with the help of his assistant Wang, Dr. Zhang finally took the pulse of Jiang. He reckoned the pre-plan study as kind of waste. In fact, all that he expected from the consultants were to focus on the five-year development plan, so called "Grand Plan", approved by government officers and keep in line with it. Zhang found it really depressing.

"Believe it or not, if you add ‘the Grand Plan’ with words like ‘digit’, ‘digitalization’ and ‘informatization’, and phrase your words in a more IT-like fashion, Jiang would happily buy it. For example, if ‘the Grand Plan’ mentions entertainment, then we should say ‘digitalized entertainment’; if ‘the Grand Plan’ emphasizes community service, then we should suggest ‘digitalized community service’; if ‘the Grand Plan’ requires development of traditional enterprises, then we should strive for the ‘digitalized development of traditional enterprises’," advised Wang.

With this "open sesame" in mind, Dr. Zhang reworded the draft accordingly, shelving a range of data, graphs and painstakingly detailed analysis in the process. It turned out that Wang was right-Jiang was rather satisfied with the new revisions. Today, at this summit-style meeting, Jiang was finally sitting together with them to discuss the details of the IT project draft.

So far, the body of the draft had been completed, with only one simple yet complicated task left. That is to find a glamorous title for this strategic five-year informatization plan. Jiang didn’t like its present name, thinking it was too plain and not catchy enough.

"How about ’4×4 Strategy’? We can summarize the plan into four major tasks, and further divide each task into four sub-parts, creating a matrix," suggested Li.

Jiang dismissed it at once, saying that "Matrix administration is completely out of date. It sounds stupid for us to go back to it again."

"I think maybe ’4321 Strategy’ is a nice option: 4 tasks, 3 fields, 2 key points and 1 special project," suggested Zhao in a whispery voice. She was always a little bit timid in the face of Jiang’s aggressive delivery.

Jiang wasn’t happy with it either. "This won’t do! ’4-3-2-1′, the descending order seems to suggest the plan is on the way downhill," he said.

Wang didn’t make any concrete proposal, but said, "Let’s switch our approach a little and leave those digits alone."

Wang’s words inspired Jiang with a bright idea. "Projects named with digits are indeed worn-out already, but ‘digital’ sounds good. It’s in keeping with the pace of our time to call anything ‘digital’," he remarked.

Dr. Zhang felt he was on the verge of suffocating, as if Jiang’s words were weighing down on his chest. To him, Jiang had gone against a sound scientific IT planning, apparently making it a tweaked version to please those big pots above him. Now he had even demeaned it into a frivolous game with words! Dr. Zhang tore off his glasses, threw them on the table, rubbed his eyes and muttered resentfully. "Now that everything is digital, why don’t you call it ‘Digital World’!" he claimed.

Surprisingly, Jiang was quite excited about the name: "Wonderful! A doctor is a doctor. I always felt we should think of a name for the project on a high level. Now this is the one, resounding and elevated!"

Jiang didn’t seem to notice Dr. Zhang’s shock, and proceeded to explain his thoughts. As he put it, "over the next five years, our informatization process should cover work in all possible fields – work on the land; in the mean time we should build a full-coverage radio network – work in the air. ‘Digital Land’, together with ‘Digital Air’, forms a ‘Digital World’! "

Jiang then asked for the opinions of others present in the room. He asked, "Tao, Ping, how do you feel about it?" Tao and Ping could only nod their heads while echoing "Yes, ‘Digital World’, sound and fit."

Dr. Zhang let out a long heavy sigh, and asked Wang to insert "Digital World" at the beginning of the project draft. Then, Jiang stood up to shake hands with everyone, declaring a perfect conclusion to the IT project. All is well that ends well, it seems.

附中文原文：CIO故事之十五：数字乾坤

夜已深。整个政府办公楼一片漆黑，但是13楼会议室仍然灯火通明。CIO老姜的两个手下小涛、小萍，还有张博士、小王、大李、小赵等4名咨询顾问已经开了 整整一天的会。大家全都疲惫不堪，只有老姜始终精神抖擞、思路清晰，因为眼看着他主持制订的IT规划今晚就要大功告成了。

在 此之前，咨询公司的顾问们已经工作了两个多月了。他们在张博士的率领下，对老姜所在政府的管理区域的信息化现状进行了详尽的调研，仔细摸清了各口领导的未 来期望和各部门的信息化需求，动用了大量专业工具剖析了现状与目标的差距，以及实现目标的途径。最后，他们以此为基础，帮老姜起草了今后5年的IT规划。

令 张博士意外的是，规划稿一连修改了15个版本，CIO老姜仍然不满意。这是他多年咨询职业经历中从来没有出现过的情况。每次，张博士与小涛、小萍讨论规划 修改稿时，他们都说写得很棒，可是一提交给老姜，总都被他毫不客气地退回来，往往还付上颠覆性的修改意见。对此，张博士真是百思不得其解。

后来，在小王的提醒下，张博士终于发现了症结所在，结果让他非常沮丧。原来，老姜心里竟然觉得咨询顾问们的前期调研工作完全可有可无，他觉得他们只要紧紧围绕政府领导批准的5年发展规划（他们称为‘大规划’），与"大规划"保持步调一致，就可以了。

"不 信你瞧，你给‘大规划’戴上‘数字’‘数字化’‘信息化’之类的帽子，措词再稍微IT一点，老姜准保喜欢。比如，‘大规划’提及娱乐，咱就在IT规划里提 ‘数字娱乐’，‘大规划’强调社区服务，咱就跟着来个‘数字化社区服务’，‘大规划’要求提升传统产业，咱就提‘信息化提升传统产业’。"小王建议道。

获得这个"秘诀"后，张博士把数据、图表和分析结果统统扔在一旁，按照这样的思路对文字进行了整体修改。结果证明，小王真是聪敏过人，老姜看到新的修改稿后，立刻表示基本满意。今天，老姜终于和他们坐到一起，开始逐字逐句斟酌起IT规划稿了。

此刻，主要文字修改已经完成，只剩下一项既简单又复杂的任务–为这个5年信息化战略规划取个响亮的名字。老姜嫌现在的规划名字太平实了，不够打眼。

大李说："可以总结为四大任务，每项任务分为四个部分，创新一个矩阵式提法，叫做‘4×4战略’如何？"

老姜马上否定了这个提法，他说："矩阵式管理已经过时了，我们还提什么矩阵式战略？！"

"我觉得，概括为‘四三二一’战略不错：四大任务、三大领域、两个重点、一个专项工程。"小赵小声建议道。在老姜凌厉的攻势面前，她总是有些怯生生。

老姜不高兴地说："这不成！‘四三二一’，一路下滑，多不吉利啊。"

小王没有提出具体建议，只说："咱们改改思路吧，别尽跟阿拉伯数字较劲了。"

这给了老姜以灵感，他说："数目字的规划名字确实叫滥了，但是‘数字’这两个字倒是不错，叫‘数字××’现在很与时俱进啊。"

听到此，张博士心里堵得慌。在他看来，这个老姜不但把科学的IT规划变成了图解领导意图的工具，这会又把规划演变成文字游戏，这未免太儿戏了！于是，他摘下眼镜往桌上一扔，揉着眼睛有些赌气地嘟囔着说："什么都‘数字’，干脆叫‘数字乾坤’得了！"

没想到老姜听后大为兴奋："这个好！还是博士厉害啊。我一直觉得高度不够，需要拔高，这个名字够响亮、够高度！"

老姜没有理会张博士的惊讶，自顾自地解释起来："未来5年，我们的信息化建设要全面覆盖各个领域的各项工作，这地面上的工作就是‘坤’；同时，我们要建设全范围的无线网络，这天上的工作就是‘乾’。‘数字乾坤’正合适！"

老姜问："小涛、小萍，你们觉得呢？"

小涛、小萍只有不住点头，连连说："‘数字乾坤’很妥当、很合适。"他们一直不太说话，自始至终都很少表态，但在这样的时刻，他们一定会表态，这表态至关重要。

张博士不由得长叹一声，让操作电脑的小王把"数字乾坤"插入到规划稿之首。之后，老姜站起来和他握手，宣布这次的IT规划项目圆满完成。

CIO

CIO Stories Series: Breaking through the Ceiling

2006年8月2日
没有评论
今天才知道，《IT经理世界》竟把我那浅薄的《CIO故事》译成英文，发表在它的英文网站http://www.cbfeature.com上，并且仍然署我的名字，而没有出现译者。非常之受宠若惊。感动之余，把它搬过来，也算为它的传播添一份力吧。

原文URL（须注册）：http://www.cbfeature.com/article/show.php?itemid-33/page-1.html

 
Hu went into a teahouse on the weekend for an appointment with his friend, where he unexpectedly met Chen Li, the CIO of a state-owned enterprise. Chen had always dressed plain and neat. Now, with such fashionable attire, she was hardly recognizable to Hu at first sight.

While Hu’s friend was on the way, Chen sat opposite Hu and they started chatting.

At the beginning of her appointment as the CIO, some of her subordinates were quite scornful and regarded her as nothing but a "little woman". Even her boss was not fully confident in her capabilities. With Hu’s patient and meticulous instructions, Chen rapidly "incorporated" those troublemakers, consolidated the disunited IT team into a crack unit, and transformed the computer on the boss’s desk from a decoration to practical use. Chen won the boss’s trust and support in this way, which was of paramount importance in her early period in the saddle. She developed a sincere gratitude towards Hu, and thanked him every time they met.

"That’s because of your own capabilities. You are becoming a great CIO," Hu said with a smile. A veteran CIO himself, Hu appreciated the difficulty for IT women at work. Of IT personnel, no more than 20% were women, and a female CIO like Chen was even rarer. But Chen could ride the whirlwind at work and seemed never to believe her sex was an obstacle, and never came across the formidable "invisible ceiling".

Much to Hu’s surprise, however, Chen said, "Invisible ceilings are everywhere." The first "ceiling" after her assumption of CIO was the "men’s room". At that time she had secured a firm foothold in the enterprise, and proposed an overall re-arrangement of the company’s information system. She had obtained verbal support from the boss in advance, and most leaders expressed their agreement at the CEO conference as well. But after a short break, the tables quickly turned and her plan was rejected. She couldn’t figure out why, and secretly asked a male manager, who was on good terms with her, what happened. To her surprise, the proposal was voted down in the men’s room during the break.

Hu kept nodding his head. He admitted it was absolutely true that quite a few problems were discussed and preliminarily resolved in restrooms. As a matter of fact, "sauna meetings" and "KTV meetings" were also the places where men formulated resolutions of grave importance.

"So how did you solve that kind of problem?" asked Hu.

Chen blushed slightly, and said, "I did not fear them at all and joined the ‘men’s club’." With this lesson in mind, she intentionally spent much time merging with male colleagues and groomed some influential ones as her confidants. During each recess, she would ask her "spies" for information or directly ask about the secrets of the "men’s room" in a humorous way when the meeting resumed.

"With you, the ‘ceiling’ has holes in it," Hu said jokingly.

Chen smiled complacently. Her passion for IT prevented her from compromising with pressures related to sex. Just like most women, she had experienced helplessness and pondered over the difficulty in balancing job and family. But these problems were never an insurmountable gulf in her eyes. She was confident in her ability, and believed that women were more sensitive and talented by nature with regards to teamwork and the allocation of assignments, which were advantages over men.

Chen said, "There is a prevalent saying that CIO stands for ‘Career Is Over’. To you it’s only a joke, but to female CIOs, it’s almost a fact." A mutual acquaintance of Hu and Chen, Wen Hua who’s a celebrated heroine in CIO circles, collapsed from overwork on the frontline of the project after years of service as the CIO of a foreign firm. Seeing no hope of promotion after years of toil, two other female CIOs in the same trade as Chen left their offices.

On account of all these, Chen was even more reluctant to give the battle. Thanks to her extraordinary vigor and valor, and with the support from the "men’s club" and trust from the boss, this female CIO eventually succeeded in implementing the all-inclusive information system, which enabled the company to be the epitome of information management in the industry. Her achievement also turned her into a heroine who ushered the company into the information age.

"I have just been appointed vice-president of the company this week," said Chen delightedly. "So I’m here celebrating with my female friends."

Being an engaged carder of a state-owned enterprise, Chen broke through the system obstacle and got promoted as an exception to the management core. Seeing this, she was filled with unutterable joy.

"Congratulations!" Hu praised with a heartfelt gratification.

附中文原文：CIO故事之十四：突破天花板

周末，老胡去茶馆会朋友，竟意外遇见了陈丽。在国企任CIO的陈丽向来衣着干练素净，老胡从未见她穿着如此靓丽时尚，一时之间还真没敢相认。

老胡的朋友还在途中，陈丽便先坐到老胡对面，与他闲聊起来。

陈 丽出任CIO初期，手下的一些员工对她这个"空降女兵"颇不以为然，当她是"小女人"，当时就连老板对她的能力也是将信将疑。经过老胡的悉心指点，她迅速 "收编"了那些捣蛋鬼，将一盘散沙似的IT部门整顿得兵精将强，又把老板办公桌上的电脑从摆设变成有用的工具。陈丽"降服"老板的同时也获得了他的信任和 支持，这对她上任之初"难踢的头三脚"，起到了至关重要的作用。陈丽因此对老胡心怀感激，每次见面都免不了把"谢"字挂在嘴边。

老胡微笑 道："还是你自己能干，CIO做得有声有色。"他的语气透出对陈丽的欣赏。作为"老资格"的CIO，老胡深知IT女性在职场中的不易，IT从业人员中，女 性人数不超过20%，像陈丽这样的做到CIO的更是少见。可是陈丽却能在职场上叱咤风云，好像从来不认为性别是障碍，似乎也从未遭遇女性难以逾越的职业 "玻璃天花板"。

陈丽却说："‘玻璃天花板’无处不在。"她担任CIO后遇到的第一块"天花板"竟然是"男洗手间"。当时，她已经在公司 初步站稳脚跟，便提出通盘重整公司信息系统的计划。事先她已经争取到老板的口头支持，在CEO办公会上多数领导也表示赞许。然而"中场休息"之后，风向却 突然逆转，她的计划最终惨遭否决。她百思不得其解，私下向一位关系较好的男经理打听之后才恍然大悟，他们竟然是在会间休息的时候，在卫生间里否决了她的提 议。

老胡频频点头，他知道尽管这很滑稽，却是千真万确的事实：有很多问题正是在卫生间里进行讨论并初步得到解决的。其实，除了洗手间之外，"桑拿会议""K歌会议"也都是男性们形成重大决议的场所。

"那你是怎么解决这类问题的？"老胡问。

陈 丽略微脸红了一下："我才不怕他们呢，我加入‘男性俱乐部’。"有了这次的教训，她特别注意花时间与男性同事们打成一片，把其中有影响力的培养成"自己 人"。每次会间休息时，陈丽都向男性团队中"密探"打听情况，或者在会议重新开始之后，用幽默的方式直接询问"男洗手间"的秘密。

"在你这儿，‘天花板’上有孔。"老胡打趣道。

陈 丽有几分得意地笑着。她热爱IT，喜欢这一行，就不能和与性别有关的无奈、压力妥协。她不是没有遇到到性别无奈、工作与家庭平衡等难题，只是从来没有将它 们视为不可跨越的鸿沟。她相信自己的能力，她认为女性更细腻、在人员协作和任务分配上更有天赋，这都是胜于男性的优势。

陈丽说："都说 CIO是Career Is Over，在你不过是笑谈，但对于女CIO而言，简直这就是事实。"他们两人共同认识的文华–CIO圈里著名的女杰，任职外企CIO多年，在即将获得升 职之际，却累倒在项目实施的第一线。陈丽公司所在的行业，除她之外仅有两位女CIO，多年劳作升迁无望，先后都选择以提前退休的方式离开了CIO岗位。

但越是这样，陈丽就越是不服输。凭着这股劲头，这位女CIO在"男性俱乐部"的支持下，在老板的信任之下，她终于成功地实施了涵盖公司各业务环节的信息系统，使企业成为行业内信息化管理的典范，她本人也被视为把企业带入信息时代的功臣。

"这不，这周我刚被正式任命为公司副总裁。"陈丽高兴地告诉老胡，"今天来这里，就是想跟我那些女朋友们庆贺一番。"

作为国企的聘用制干部，突破体制障碍，得到破格提拔，成为公司最高管理层的核心小组成员，陈丽显得格外高兴。老胡由衷地说："祝贺你啊！"

 

CIO