Enterprise reality check - outages to learn from, chatbots to run from, and work futures to consider

This is your unfiltered view of enterprise highs and lows. Surprise takes from special guests may be included – scroll on. This week: a frank look at the future of work and overcoming career setbacks, with Meg Bear of SAP. For a deeper review of my enterprise picks and pans, check my weekly, Enterprise Hits and Misses columns on diginomica.

The best thing I read this week: Atlassian Outage - Thoughts on What to Do When Your Provider Goes Down. With an eye towards avoiding future mishaps, Constellation's Andy Thurai published a well-above-average piece on enterprise security (with contributions from colleague Holger Mueller):

As discussed in my?Incident Management report, “Break Things Regularly” and see how your organization responds. Most digital enterprises make a lot of assumptions about their services and breaking things regularly is a great exercise for validating those assumptions.

Selected commentary on the biggest news story: Yes, you could argue that cloud adoption is more of an ongoing story than a big story this week, but I thought this piece by Joe McKendrick brought this underlying story into focus, with some fresh data: Cloud computing has all the momentum, but we still live in an on-premises world for now:

With all the analyst, press and conference talk about the ascendency of cloud, one can be forgiven for assuming that the entire world is now running on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud and other providers. However, at this stage, only seven percent of enterprises are truly all-cloud. This number is likely to more than double over the next two years, but still represents the minority of enterprises.

The worst thing I read this week: Revolutionizing CX with chatbots - this is not the worst piece ever written, but the hand-waving of the word "revolutionizing" does the value chatbots can provide a disservice through shameless overselling. Sorry, VentureBeat, but chatbots haven't revolutionized anything yet. Yes, when they're designed right, they can save some money and time. But chatbots also serve up plenty of aggravation. Also: "Chatbots personify the ever-evolving synergy between AI and humans"? Err, what synergy? You mean, like autonomous weapons?

Backchannel scuttlebutt: In their (understandable) eagerness to press the gas for on-the-ground events, software vendors are mistakenly overlooking the power of a hybrid format - and customers are the losers. Why? After enough of these backchannel "we really want people on the ground" conversations, I blew a gasket or two: Want to limit the impact of your next event? Make sure your hybrid structure is bland or non-existent:

What if an employer swept aside all the pandemic lessons on remote work, and insisted all employees show up Monday through Friday - no exceptions. How would that go over?

So why are event planners doing the exact same thing with their on-the-ground events?

My diginomica quote of the week: Stuart Lauchlan gets the honors, via his scorching Employee experience deteriorates as organizations demand a return to the office:

This week I found myself snorting out loud with derision at an opinion article in the Daily Mail by Luke Johnson, founder of Risk Capital Partners, who declared that people have become “addicted” to working from home.

LinkedIn video replay picks: "Watching privacy," with Tejas Gadhia, Raju Vegesna Brent Leary is one of the better shows on LinkedIn. Pretty sure that link is their "season opener."

Thomas Otter rolled out another enterprise metaphor for the win:

------------------

This week's guest commentary:

Who: Meg Bear

How to track: Meg on Twitter, Meg on LinkedIn, Meg's blog????????????????

What's your enterprise story of the week, and why?

Not sure if everyone noticed this one but WOW, is this a big deal. I’m interested by both the size and scale of the cyberthreat landscape, as well as how impacted it is by geopolitical events. As a global SaaS provider, cyberthreats are always top of mind. But when you see something this big, you have to stop and pay close attention.

What's the underrated story too many are overlooking?

I think there is a big shift happening with the globalization of tech. It’s not super clear to me where we’ll land, but a few recent things I’ve read that are making me structurally curious include these two prescient McKinsey reports on global data and financial flows, as well as this recent article on stress to semiconductor supply chains.

Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve all been talking a lot about supply chain, but I think that we are at a bit of a tipping point on two big ideas:

1. We have an opportunity to reassess the current technology infrastructure (from data all the way through computing raw materials)
2. For many pieces, we need to reassess assumptions of the entire economic technological backbone – information, investment and supply chain

At its core, this introduces potential long-term market disruptions, and I think those of us in tech would be wise to keep that in our focus. Changes to market dynamics can be both opportunities and threats, and when those shifts are structural, broad and fast-paced, it’s important to remain curious.

You had some standout comments on my show with Stacey Harris on HR tech. I’ll ask you what I asked Harris: does HR have a seat at the boardroom table? Why or why not? If not – what’s that going to take?

I think the opportunity exists. As a board member myself, I realize how important HR is for everything from business continuity to environmental, social and governances (ESG), to long-term strategy, and much more.?

I’ll say something provocative here, and I do it with all the empathy in the world for the complexity of the HR leadership role: if HR does not have a seat at the executive and board table, it is an HR leadership issue and addressing that should be priority number one. As leaders and facilitators of “people strategy,” if you are not aligned with the board, you are not going to be effective.?

I wasn’t really joking in the past when I’ve said HR has a self-esteem challenge (and with decades of a why we hate HR narrative, I am not surprised). But there are so many amazing HR leaders who are actively making a difference, and I would encourage all CHROs to insist on their rightful seat at the table, not for themselves but for the importance of their company’s mission. At the end of the day, people power business – companies who understand that always do better.

In my opinion, you have one of the most honest and authentic social media voices of any executive in our industry. What is your advice for others who aren’t as comfortable on social channels?

I talk about this a lot because I take is very seriously. My first point I tend to make, is to tell people that they have to quit trying to tell themselves that a social presence is not important. I can give anyone grace if they say I know it’s important but I’m choosing to not prioritize, but people who try to convince themselves it doesn’t matter need to realize that it does.

Once we agree that your leadership voice is important, then there are two critical elements to layer on. Be intentional and be yourself. I think it’s the last bit that people struggle with the most, and not just about social media. I think my career “other/only” status has actually helped me here a lot. I have done the work to really understand how my voice and my gifts are unique and learned why that matters.

I recognize that role modeling is important – not taking myself too seriously sure, but also being and honoring my whole self. I’m not just a software executive or a woman in tech, I’m also a mom, a first-generation college graduate, a class immigrant, a geek who is both smart and unable to find my way back to the conference room from lunch. I’m a unique and complex person; we all are.?

Social media gives us an opportunity to make our whole self more visible and to help others understand they have a lot more to offer the world than they might be doing. At the core, what I want to achieve with my social presence is to remind everyone to quit playing small. We all need to show up on purpose, take some risks and realize our full potential.

What was the most difficult point in your career, and how did you overcome it?

I spent a little more than a year “between jobs” looking for the right fit in 2017. It was a real challenge for me but also a growth opportunity to understand my purpose and to learn to be more intentional. The hardest part was learning to get comfortable with recharging vs. building. I’m so inspired and driven to build and not very patient with the waiting part.

What keeps you in a rhythm even in times like these, where we all want to uninstall our Teams and Zoom software (especially me with Teams)?

I wonder about this a lot – especially as I write this on a weekend against a very full calendar of things I’m falling behind on – and I realize that I am so lucky. Lucky to like what I do. Lucky to have a voice to help others. Lucky to work with people who give me grace for my failings and value my strengths. And lucky to have an unbelievably supportive family. ?

I also take seriously the concept of recharging and deep think time and most importantly to laugh – a lot. When I don’t do that it all falls apart and my gifts become more liability than asset.?

The pandemic has taught me to capture and appreciate the good moments, and I have learned that finding and reflecting joy is important for me to achieve my (far too lofty) goals. I expect to make a dent in the universe, and I believe to do that I must build a solid foundation to avoid burnout. Incremental improvement compounded over time is undefeated. When you realize that sustainability is not just a problem for the planet, it’s also important for your own energy, you sort out how to incrementally improve your own wellbeing. It’s all about the story that you tell yourself.?

My story is one of hope and opportunity and I want to share that with the world, every day.

Thanks Meg!

-----

Jon’s whiff of the week is via Clive Boulton: self-driving cars that elude traffic stops:

"'Ain’t nobody in it – this is crazy,” a bystander can be heard saying in the video. The car then speeds away to the other side of the intersection, leaving the police behind."

Ever found yourself rooting for the driverless car?

-----

For my full whiffs collection, check my Enterprise Hits and Misses missives on diginomica. A new edition goes live each Monday morning.

This LinkedIn newsletter is intended as a best-of enterprise quick hit- with commentary, overlooked stories, and a few hype balloons punctured along the way. Then we end it - with plenty more to check out on diginomica if you want. I envision this as a weekly, but I won’t publish it if life intervenes - or if it doesn’t meet my standard. I won’t publish just to publish.

This is not a copy/paste of content you'll find elsewhere, aside from a few scrounged bits. If you're like to be a guest contrib for an upcoming edition, ping me. Comments are encouraged; however, flame wars, trolling, and excessive tech evangelism are not permitted.

Disclosure: this is not a diginomica newsletter. However, as diginomica is the main publishing endeavor I am involved with, I will disclose any personal OR diginomica clients in each newsletter: SAP is not a diginomica premier partner, but ASUG, North America's SAP user group, is.