Career Talk JDR

JDResources, Inc. announces additional CIO Services

JDResources, Inc. (JDR) is expanding our executive technology talent offerings to the US west coast by offering a new set of Information Technology (IT) leadership services provided by our pool of experienced Chief Information Officers (CIO) and Chief Technology Officers (CTO).  Over the years, JDR has been providing interim CIOs and CTOs for companies that need strategic business leadership combined with strong, hands-on technology experience.

Now, JDR clients will be able to choose specific CIO leadership services.  Such CIO services include Business Transformation, Mergers and Acquisitions, agile Business Intelligence, Security & Compliance, Enterprise Architecture, institution of PMO , IT co-sourcing, IT organizational composition, cloud computing initiatives & delicate SaaS  transitions, and much more.

Expansion of Warehouse Management Systems support and services

JDResources and GetUsROI, the Warehouse Management System (WMS) experts, introduce a better way to get your WMS work done: MyWMSTeam.

Recently, I took a day off to celebrate with my Dad for his 89th birthday.   As we are originally from London, but are both now US Citizens, I thought it might be fun to give him an “English Day” in Memphis.  Somebody asked me – how on earth do you spend an English Day in Memphis?  My response was, “easily”- here’s what we did.

We started out with lunch at Crumpets.  We had a very English fare – Cornish pasties, strawberry tarts and Earl Grey Tea!  We ate properly and slowly with our knife and fork and took our time to savor the atmosphere.

The Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA) is pleased to announce that J D R has been selected for the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Employment agencies category.

The SBCA Best of Business Award Program recognizes the best of small businesses throughout the country. Using consumer feedback and other research, the SBCA identifies companies that we believe have demonstrated what makes small businesses a vital part of the American economy. The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based off information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports . Award winners are a valuable asset to their community and exemplify what makes small businesses great.

When clients hire me to train their staff in “soft skills,” they often ask me to teach “communications skills.”   They want their people to be able to create and give presentations, write coherently, speak courteously to help desk clients or identify business requirements by effectively interviewing end-users.

When I am hired to do Change Management for an IT Project, clients ask me to create a Communications Plan.  That plan includes key stakeholders and the message or key points we want to communicate to each person or group.

I am an organization development (OD) consultant who specializes in helping IT organizations.  Why IT organizations?  Because my undergrad degree is in Computer Science and I spent 15 years at IBM as a systems engineer – gathering requirements, implementing systems, designing networks, managing projects and doing the things IT people do.  I understand IT people because I am one.

I went back to school for a Masters in Organizational Psychology once I figured out that I knew a lot about computers, but practically nothing about people – and that people-skills and human behavior figured prominently in the success of my IT projects.

Over many years of consulting primarily for IT organizations I have noticed a pattern into which most IT groups fall.  They have poor or even contentious relationships – with internal customers, vendors, and sometimes even between groups within IT.

And most IT people will say, “So?  What we are supposed to do is technical stuff, relationships shouldn’t matter.”

Maybe relationships shouldn’t matter, but they do.  Unfortunately, I have seen superb technical organizations which are perceived by their internal customers as incompetent.  They are doing all of the right “technical stuff” — they have 99.99% system availability, clean databases, virus-free LANs, capable help-desks and a responsive network — but they are still perceived as incompetent because they have failed to build and maintain good relationships.

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I’m always looking for fun things to do for my parents, so I bought them tickets & went yesterday to see the Dalai Lama!  His Holiness the14th Dalai Lama, visited Memphis yesterday to accept the 2009 Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum.  I took my parents to his public talk at The Cannon Center on developing peace and harmony.  He was very entertaining and interesting; here are some of the media quotes from his speech: