I am sure you could regale me in cautionary tales of colleagues who have made impulsive or uninformed decisions. And you had to deal with the fallout.

As they say — fools rush in.

Thankfully, that doesn’t describe you or me. We do our homework. We ask the right questions. We trust our intuition. Some of us even eat our vegetables.

I’d like to illustrate the point with a fictional tale – a management parable. Its basic premise: when it comes to making complex decisions, it’s best to go deep.

Five leaders of a small cloud storage company are on a small plane that encounters some turbulence.  The plane loses altitude quickly when one of the twin engines begins to sputter.  The CEO, who is piloting the aircraft, reveals a potential dilemma to his top executives:

Should they need them, there are only four parachutes for the five passengers.  Within seconds, the seasoned leaders devise a contingency plan.

The CEO decides he definitely needs a parachute – after all, he’ll deliver the five-year strategic plan to the company’s Board of Directors next week.

The CFO asserts that she’ll require a parachute to successfully lead the company’s investor call scheduled for Thursday.

The COO takes dibs on a parachute in order to continue his work transforming their operating model. He adds a playful jab “We’ll need someone to create efficiencies for the CFO to brag about!”

The CIO declares he should grab the final parachute, to maintain the company’s “cred” with the technical community.

Just before the plane’s second engine roars back to life, the CMO puts his smartphone in his pocket and proudly declares: “No problem. I’ll jump without a parachute. After all, isn’t our company motto Cloud: There’s nothing you can’t save in it?”

This month’s roundup on the Exchange helps you thoughtfully consider cloud transition from practical consideration, to surgical application. You’ll get the information you need to dig in, go deep, and make informed decisions.

Go Deep – Cloud Transition Resources

Point of View
Essential guidance to align cloud transitions to IT strategy, culture and operations
Top 10 Consideration for Cloud Computing

White Paper
The benefits of consolidating cloud services and SLAs through managed services
A Key to Cloud Efficiency: Aggregation

Case Study
Eating through terabytes? How one company satisfied an insatiable appetite for storage
Henry Ford Health System – Medical Imaging in the Cloud

 

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