Recently, I started doing some work with an already successful company in the throes of reinvigorating itself for the future. I hold them out as a good example of an organization that despite today’s economic climate remains forward-looking.

The principle they are using to guide their transformation efforts is embodied in a book entitled The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less, authored by Richard Koch. The headline for this blog post is the title of Chapter 5 in the book and captures the essence of the idea.

Yes, The 80/20 Principle is based on the patterns discovered by Vilfredo Pareto in the 1890s that many of us know as the Pareto Principle. But the book brings that principle alive and relevant to today. I recently completed reading Koch’s updated treatise and found it to be a good reminder to us all … in all things. While not quoted or referred to in the book, for me it comes down to this: Always keep in mind the “KISS” principle. more

For the past decade, IT-trade magazines have preached to the rest of the C-suite about the importance of giving CIOs “a seat at the decision-making table.”

Fair enough (even if this argument has been made a bit too anxiously for a bit too long: Step up and take your own seat at the table, CIO).

However, as incidences of information security lapses increase, the absence of CIOs from strategic risk-management discussions becomes, well, a risk. more

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.com, is one of the few true iconoclasts in the IT industry. So, when he called for the end of software maintenance fees a few months back, it got noticed — cheered by many, reviled by others.

Benioff’s comments have been reproduced all over the Internet, here and here for example. Sure they’re self-serving, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t onto something.

Software maintenance fees, paid annually, amount to a percentage of the price of the license, typically 15 percent. If the cost of a license is $100,000, then the annual license fee is $15,000. Each licensed software product you use probably comes with a maintenance fee. You don’t need many products before it adds up to real money. more

I’m working on a GRC “snapshot” of a global technology company. As I work through the research for this article, I keep coming back to what the company’s top U.S.-based GRC executive emphasized about GRC talent.

I’m curious if his viewpoint, which I’ll get to below, jibes with others’ experiences and preferences. Drop me a note if you agree or disagree on the degree to which experience matters in GRC programs. more

Charged by President Obama with identifying ways to overhaul the entire U.S. tax code by “closing loopholes, streamlining the law, and generating revenue,” the Volcker Task Force on Tax Reform faces a monumental task. Nonprofit publisher Tax Analysts weighed in last week with a cartload of advice for Mr. Volcker in the form of short papers by academic and legal tax experts.

The writers were asked to imagine that they were meeting with the task force members and had just five minutes — or about one thousand words — to present their recommendations for fixing the system. The result is a collection of admirably succinct papers containing some fascinating, and quite radical, proposals. more