The CxO’s ultimate reading list

PART 1: BASIC INSIGHTS

In the era of Digitalization many businesses become increasingly shaped by Information and Communication Technology including data-driven services and platforms.

In course of this development, business managers must significantly expand their understanding and skills in dealing with the potentials and limitations of information and communication technology as well as data and platform economy in a systematic and targeted way, because the intelligent use of technology and data becomes an integral part of the business or even a critical success factor for the company.

In addition, the increased use of outsourcing services since around 2000 and the triumphant advance of cloud-based as-service delivery models since around 2010 have led to a reduction in the depth of value added for which the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is directly responsible.

These developments have a strong influence on the future positioning and responsibility of the CIO function:

• At first, business managers expand their scope into areas, which were so far covered by the CIO (e.g. IT applications supporting processes);
• At second, the CIO is expected to proactively and adequately support the company’s transformation to digital business models, data and platform economy including the implementation of a digital customer journey, digital education or digital culture (which often goes beyond his hitherto scope);
• At third, the provision of IT services (in the sense of Service Delivery) is increasingly carried out by external partners, so that the CIO’s focus is reduced to Governance and Service Management.
• At fourth, new C-level functions are created whose responsibilities cannot be precisely distinguished from those of a CIO, such as Chief Digitalization Officer, Chief Data Officer or Chief Process Officer.

The following graphics provides an overview comprising 50 different C-level functions which exist in practice – and this list is not even complete, you could add for example a „Chief Ecosystem Officer (CEO)“, a „Chief Logistics Officer (CLO)“, a „Chief Transformation Officer (CTO)“ or a „Chief Entertainment Officer (CEO)“:

So there seems to be an increasingly larger number of chieftains (in addition to the flood of Vice Presidents) in relation to an increasingly smaller number of Indians. You may be familiar with the following bon mot: „How many managing directors should a company have?“ Response: „I don’t know.“ Replica: „It should always be an odd number – and 3 is too many.“ <irony off>

However, this is what happens every day in large corporations: The Chief Information Officer competes with the Chief Digitalization Officer, the Chief Data Officer, the Chief Process Officer and the Chief Information Security Officer on responsibilities, headcount and budget e.g. for data-driven business models. Does this sound productive? I guess, rather no. To many cooks ruin the porridge, which is one of the reasons why you should clean out and simplify your organizational model from time to time.

When CIOs are unable to adapt their capabilities and radius of action to the rapidly evolving challenges of digitalization and cloud-based delivery concepts, the raison d’être for the CIO function gradually becomes very limited. The sneering translation of the abbreviation CIO as „Career is over“ could thus become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The company management has an important role to play in this: every Executive Board has the CIO it deserves. If IT cost is the only Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in which the Executive Board members are interested in, they should not be surprised if their CIOs focus primarily on cost management and push value added contributions for the business into the background.

The following overlapping and mutually reinforcing developments, whose starting points were the shareholder value dogma (with the former General Electric CEO Jack Welch as the media-effective protagonist) and the deregulation of the financial markets from the 1980s onwards, have had a strong influence on information and telecommunications technology in companies:

1. Financial Capitalism
2. Unlimited growth
3. Globalization
4. Automation/Robotisation
5. Digitalisation/Softwarization
6. Dematerialization/Virtualization
7. Attention economy and Surveillance capitalism

This leads to changes and challenges for the CIO, which are summarized in the following chart:

It is almost superfluous to mention that the aforementioned changes have a considerable influence on the qualifications of a modern CIO.

By the way, the chart above is based on the following understanding of the terms „Digitization“, „Digitalization“ and „Digital Transformation“:

To enable and foster innovation/disruption, IT managers and engineers that operate in traditional (linear) business models should develop their way of thinking and leverage fundamental paradigm shifts (see following chart).

Before I come to the announced „ultimate reading list for CxOs“, I would like to outline some essential elements of effective and efficient IT management.

Let’s start with a not entirely serious quote: „After the reorganization is before the reorganization“ (Sepp Changeberger, German organizational consultant).

Organizational development is a wonderful field to spend years of your life on. Before you start designing an organization, you should think about what you want to achieve with it and formulate this in the form of design criteria.

The performance and conformance of a CIO function develop best when both is managed systematically. In this context Peter Drucker’s old wisdom applies: „Only measure what you want to control. And only control what you can measure.“.

An exception to this rule is the topic of „innovation“, where Gunter Dueck’s striking insight applies: „The process is the innovation’s death“.

For CIO functions, there are the following common organizational logics:

Nowadays, service management is usually based on ITIL and project management on PMI, PRINCE2 or agile process models.

A company is a system and a system consists of elements, each of which can influence the behavior or properties of the entire system. For example, the human organism is a biological system and consists of the elements heart, eyes, lungs, stomach, liver, pancreas and so on. All these elements influence the behavior and properties of the whole organism.

The elements of a system interact with each other and influence each other or even depend on each other. No element of a system or grouping of elements of a system has an independent effect on the whole system. For example, if the performance of the heart, brain or lungs decreases, it reduces the performance of the human organism as a whole, because the elements are all interconnected. A system as a whole cannot be broken down into independent parts: A heart is not viable without the other parts of the body, and the same is true for a brain or lungs.

This systemic view has some very important implications that are often overlooked or ignored. First, the essential or defining properties of a system are properties of the whole that none of its elements hold in isolation. When the system is taken apart, it loses its essential properties. The system is also not the sum of the behavior of its elements, but a product of the interactions between the elements or the interplay between the elements. Excellent eyesight coupled with a steady hand and powers of concentration combine to make a good sport shooter.

If one wants to improve a system, one must not concentrate on the isolated improvement of individual elements, but on the optimization of the interaction of the elements involved. If, as Dr. Frankenstein, you were to assemble the best and most efficient body parts from different organisms, the result would not be a perfect human being, but a monster, because the individual parts are not coordinated and do not fit together.

If you think of your company as such an organism with systemic interactions between functions, organizational units, processes, data, IT procedures and IT infrastructure, you will understand why it is pointless to believe that you can increase the performance of the entire company through isolated measures aimed at optimizing individual elements. Business development can only lead to success through a systemic approach.

For the systemic fine-tuning of the organization, including the question whether functions or processes deliver what their sister functions or downstream processes need (and vice versa), the so-called „Input-Value Add-Output“ charts are very helpful and useful, as they trace the process idea back to its core.

The task structure analysis (TSA) is an instrument that has unfortunately fallen out of fashion somewhat in order to analyze which essential tasks the employees in an organization are working on or what they are actually spending their time on.

The TSA is based on a standardized grid that lists all the essential tasks that the organization should, in theory, perform in order to fulfill its mission and put its strategy into practice. This standard grid can be derived, for example, from organizational plans and job profiles or roles. Alternatively, standard frameworks such as COSO or COBIT can be used, in which all essential tasks are generically defined.

Over the course of a month, employees now enter into the standard grid how much effort they spend on implementing the various tasks. If this is done reasonably, various conclusions can be drawn from the feedback, such as:

• Ratio of value-added to administrative tasks.
• Ratio of strategic to operational tasks.
• Tasks that receive no attention at all or too little attention.
• Tasks for which an exceptionally large amount of effort is expended.
• Distribution of small efforts over many split heads (indication of bundling potential).
• Automation potentials.
• Reactive power without adequate value creation.

Roles are an exciting and important element of organizational design because you can use them in a variety of ways:

• A role is defined in as a cluster of logically related tasks.
• Several roles can be assigned to an employee via a job profile (ideally 3 to 5), e.g. manager, project manager, mentor/coach, and works council.
• Referencing access and usage authorizations to roles ensures that changes in the business process or in the responsibilities of employees are implemented quickly, flexibly, and consistently.

Roles can be used as „hooks“ for different, value-adding use cases

• Internal and external job descriptions (job profiles).
• Target agreements for employees and managers.
• Assessment of the performance of employees and managers.
• Training and further education measures for employees and managers.
• Measures within the framework of change management programs.
• Allocation of access authorizations for IT applications and business processes.

Roles can be used as „hangers“ for different use cases, such as:

• Internal and external job descriptions (job profiles)
• Target agreements and performance assessments for employees and managers
• Training and further education measures for employees and managers
• Assignment of access authorizations for IT processes

So, how can you effectively and efficiently manage a CIO function?

„A fool with a tool remains a fool“ and „If you only have a hammer as a tool, then every problem becomes a nail“ – these are undoubtedly important and correct findings, which apply to the conventional IT management as well as for Digitalization challenges.

Nevertheless, to effectively and efficiently manage large CIO functions in particular, you need a set of good methods, tools and frameworks, the most important of which are listed in the following graphic:

The challenges begin with understanding what the customer or the business actually wants and what contributions information technology can make not only to meet these requirements but also to create added value and measurable competitive advantages as enabler through innovative technological developments. It is not for nothing that memes, such as the following two, are so popular in professional circles. Stakeholder analysis, business alignment and efficient requirements engineering are the means to manage this challenge. And of course: communication, communication, communication.

A really excellent explanation on the question why your company needs an Enterprise (IT) Architecture comprising Standard IT Architecture Building Blocks (ABB) is provided in this short YouTube video: https://youtu.be/qDI2oF1bASk.

The IT Landscape Plan is an important element of effective IT architecture management, since it illustrates gaps (= potential missing IT support), redundancies (= potential double spendings) and dependencies (= potential complexity) between IT systems along the dimensions „business processes“ and „organizational units“:

Hardly anyone would think of building a house or developing a construction area without an architecture or a development plan that describe the target state. Because if you find out later that the load-bearing walls are too weak, or the insulation is leaking, or ducts for pipes are missing, then it can get really expensive. When it comes to the process and IT landscape, which has a decisive influence on the performance of a company and the „customer experience“ of employees, customers and suppliers, it is said that there are actually managing directors and board members who believe they can do without such elementary tools.

The following graphic is almost 20 years old and shows the target architecture of a corporation based on the technologies of the time (e.g., SAP Netweaver and Microsoft.NET as integration platforms). The cloud had not yet been invented in 2004/05; Facebook, for example, was not founded until February 2004. Experts will recognize in the graphic the color-coded connection between IT infrastructure, IT applications, organization, roles, business processes and data, which are systematically integrated with each other. The protection of personal data and the company’s intellectual property (especially the „crown jewels“) is, of course, also part of a good enterprise IT architecture.

Centralized master data management, standardized platforms for integration, communication & collaboration, and content management ensure that the right hand in the company knows what the left hand is doing (and vice versa). Gaps, redundancies and dependencies can be identified and avoided in good time with the help of an IT architecture plan.

Enterprise IT architecture is not a science. Many roads lead to Rome. This makes it all the more important to have it managed by experts who understand their craft – not only on the IT side, but also on the business side. Information technology can be an important enabler, enabling new business models, improving customer service, or enabling companies to differentiate themselves from the competition and react quickly and flexibly to current market developments.

A state-of-the-art IT architecture should rely on standards and best practices, such as the ISO/IEC 27000 family for Information Security Management, ISA 95 for Enterprise Control System Integration, COBIT for Enterprise IT Governance Management or the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) for IT Service Management&Delivery:

COBIT is an abbreviation for „Control Objectives for Information and related Technology“. It is the world’s leading framework for governance and management of Enterprise IT (see: http://www.isaca.org/Cobit/pages/default.aspx). COBIT is a very useful basis for an efficient reorganization of CIO functions in a practical and compliant way. It can easily be combined with ITIL and other IT frameworks that rather focus on IT service management and/or IT service delivery.

For each of the 37 IT governance processes, COBIT provides comprehensive process descriptions including process purpose statement, process goals and key performance indicators. A feasible IT Process Management Maturity (PMM) model is included in the COBIT framework as well:

Since resources (personnel, budget, time, management capacity) are usually limited, it makes sense to prioritize both IT projects and IT services using a portfolio systematics. This portfolio systematics must be adapted to the specific needs of your company. Two-dimensional matrices with 4 or 9 quadrants and the following dimensions can be used for prioritization: Alignment to strategy and architecture, legal and regulatory compliance, cost benefits or overall risk and complexity of the portfolio (see the following chart for other common examples).

The output of any organization is affected by various influencing factors such as management decisions, employee engagement & motivation, politics & turf wars between „little kingdoms“, inefficient business processes & IT systems, operational & personal failures or risks related to external factors. The following chart illustrates that the remaining output can be just a fraction of the possible output (complementary reading see: https://t1p.de/mxxy).

In terms of organizational culture, there is a remarkable quote from educational leadership experts Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker that goes, „The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.“

Some CxOs believe that when they discuss and decide something in the Board, the implementation happens more or less automatically. There are companies in which Board decisions with the information on background and basis for decisions are not even communicated throughout the organization (or at least to major stakeholders as multipliers), so that it remains unclear for middle and lower management as well as employees why decisions have been taken and why they were made this way and not another.

Change only happens if 9 prerequisites are fulfilled. Employees must:
▶︎ know
▶︎ understand
▶︎ accept
▶︎ believe
▶︎ be able
▶︎ want
▶︎ be allowed
▶︎ be encouraged
▶︎ be supported

The more of these prerequisites are not given, the higher is the likelihood that the desired change will not happen. Without engaging, convincing, training, encouraging & supporting people, change is not possible (complementary reading see: https://t1p.de/6nz5).

The last chart above illustrates the importance of Competency Management. Several years ago, the European Union released a Digital Competency Framework (DigComp) comprising 21 digital skills clustered in 5 domains. The 134-pager most recently updated as Version 2.2 in March 2022 can be downloaded here: https://t1p.de/grqq .

1. Information and data literacy:
▶︎ Browsing, searching and filtering data, information and digital content
▶︎ Evaluating data, information and digital content
▶︎ Managing data, information and digital content

2. Communication and collaboration:
▶︎ Interacting through digital technologies
▶︎ Sharing through digital technologies
▶︎ Engaging citizenship through digital technologies
▶︎ Collaborating through digital technologies
▶︎ Netiquette
▶︎ Managing digital identity

3. Digital content creation:
▶︎ Developing digital content
▶︎ Integrating and re-elaborating digital content
▶︎ Copyright and licenses
▶︎ Programming

4. Safety:
▶︎ Protecting devices
▶︎ Protecting personal data and privacy
▶︎ Protecting health and well-being
▶︎ Protecting the environment

5. Problem solving:
▶︎ Solving technical problems
▶︎ Identifying needs and technological responses
▶︎ Creatively using digital technology
▶︎ Identifying digital competence gaps

DigComp is part of the EU’s Key Competence Framework for Lifelong Learning, which is also described in the aforementioned source.

Based on this metrics, the EU released a statistics on „People with at least basic overall digital skills in 2021“ (see attached chart). The EU’s Digital Compass sets out an aim for 80% of EU citizens aged 16-74 years old to have at least basic digital skills by 2030. In 2021, none of the EU countries reached this goal, however, the Netherlands and Finland were with 79 % at least close to it. The EU average is 54%, Germany as the EU’s biggest economy is with 49 % five percentage points below average (surprise, surprise, …). Non-EU-states like Norway, Switzerland or Iceland are at the same level as the Netherlands and Finland (see right hand side of the chart).

Source: https://t1p.de/iqr1a

The following chart has been circulating in the second half of 2021 in German language in social media bubbles (also on Twitter and LinkedIn) for a couple of months. The earliest source I found is this tweet published on September 2, 2021: https://t1p.de/jqrc.

The chart is really thought provoking, don’t you think so? According to the underlying logic, relationship, interdependency and mindset management among human beings are at least equally important challenges for project managers and scrum masters, as the classical management of workloads/backlogs, deadlines/milestones, resources, and risks.

We (too) often tend to assume that people in projects (doesn’t matter if waterfall or agile) by default know, understand, accept, believe, are able and willing, allowed, encouraged and supported (by their line managers) to accomplish what we expect from them. However, if there is one thing I have learned over the past 32 years in business, it is this: Take nothing for granted and expect the unexpected.

In this context, it is important to realize how much the number of communication relationships grows as a function of the number of people in a project, as illustrated by the following chart.

Managing external relations (stakeholder management) is like conducting an orchestra: the tone makes the music and harmonious interaction requires a lot of practice and coordination.

Change of subject: The worst IT Solution from the best IT solution provider might be better, than the best IT Solution from the worst IT solution provider. So better keep a close eye on selecting an adequate IT solution provider as well, e.g. with regard to competency, customer orientation, reliability/resilience, innovation capacity or dependency (catchwords: monopolist, vendor lock-in).

For the selection of adequate IT suppliers it is useful to follow a systematic approach:

The same applies for the selection of IT solutions:

A scoring model, which weights each criterion according to its individual meaning for your company, may be reasonable for externalization, if it is not mechanically applied (so that the IT solution with the highest score must be selected).

What is actually the difference between IT outsourcing and cloud computing? This question is answered in a presentation by Tobias Scheible, published on Slideshare on 21.05.2013: https://t1p.de/zdpgb (see also the following graphic from IDC).

IT outsourcing:
▶︎ In outsourcing, a company (outsourcing provider) transfers part of its resources to the responsibility of a third party (outsourcing recipient)
▶︎ Services previously performed within the company are transferred to an external service provider. These can be IT services (e.g. operation of IT systems) or business processes (e.g. accounting).
▶︎ Outsourcing is a special form of external procurement in which one client often uses a dedicated infrastructure (single-tenant).
▶︎ For a long time, the primary goal was to reduce costs, e.g., by using low-cost nearshoring and offshoring personnel.
▶︎ Outsourcing is increasingly intended to enable companies to concentrate on their core processes and outsource non-competitive services to professional specialists.
▶︎ The transfer is usually permanent or at least long-term.
▶︎ An individual contract is negotiated between the contractual partners which regulates which customer-specific services with which service levels are to be provided by the contractor as part of the outsourcing.
▶︎ The outsourcing contractor is an external, legally and economically independent company which also maintains business relationships with other market partners.

Cloud computing:
▶︎ Use of standardized IT services (e-mail, office, communication&collaboration CRM, …).
▶︎ Short contract terms.
▶︎ Immediate availability.
▶︎ Arbitrary scalability.
▶︎ Little scope for customized services.
▶︎ Standardized service levels applied uniformly to different customers.
▶︎ Flexible provision and payment of resources (e.g., computing power) as needed.
▶︎ Flat-rate billing of standardized service packages.
▶︎ Multiple mandates use the same infrastructure (multi-tenant).
▶︎ Automatic updates and automatic service strokes.

In both variants, fixed costs are converted into variable costs and in both variants, the client must retain the necessary competence to control the service provider, because in the event of violations of the law (tax law, data protection, antitrust law, foreign trade law, …), the client remains responsible to the authorities for the services it has purchased.

Effectiveness („do the right things“) is more important than efficiency („do the things right“). Why? Well, if you drive in the wrong direction, even a first-class 600 horse power car, steered by the best driver in the world, won’t bring you to your target destination.

A „Quick Check“ to determine the maturity level of your CIO organization can be accomplished with a manageable effort between 3 and 30 man-days depending on the magnitude and complexity of the CIO organization. If you are interested in further details please check my homepage http://www.kubra.de/index-e.html.

PART 2: CXO’S READING LIST

Subsequent you find a reading list with various blogs on major topics with relevance for CxOs and those who want to develop into this profession:

1. „Deliverables of Information Technology for business“ published on September 14, 2019: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/09/14/deliverables-of-information-technology-for-business/ (so far only available in English language)
2. „Business-oriented IT – trying to square the circle?“ published on August 24, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/08/24/geschaeftsorientierte-it-die-quadratur-des-kreises/ (this blog is so far only available in German language)
3. „Algorithms, digital Platforms and other unknown beings“ published on January 11, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/01/11/algorithmen-digitale-plattformen-und-andere-unbekannte-wesen/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/cul9w)
4. „Why advertising and social media make us unhappy“ published on January 6, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/01/06/warum-uns-werbung-und-soziale-medien-ungluecklich-machen/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/txdq)
5. „Thoughts on the basics of change“ are provided in my blog of the same name published on August 28, 2018 (so far only available in English language): https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/08/28/basic-prerequisites-for-effective-change/
6. „How to successfully change a corporate culture“ is explained in my blog of the same name published on June 10, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/06/10/how-to-successfully-change-a-corporate-culture/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/05/27/wie-kann-man-eine-unternehmenskultur-nachhaltig-veraendern/)
7. „What top managers can learn from top athletes“ is described in my blog published on September 23, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/09/23/what-top-managers-can-learn-from-top-athletes/ (this blog is so far only available in English language)
8. „The unwritten rules of the game“ are described in my blog of the same name published on April 11, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/04/11/the-unwritten-rules-of-the-game/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/05/16/die-heimlichen-spielregeln/)
9. „George Orwell’s 1984 was a warning and not an instruction manual“ published on January 13, 2020, in German language: https://kubraconsult.blog/2020/01/13/george-orwells-1984-war-eine-warnung-und-keine-bedienungsanleitung/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/ulx5)

10. „Control over Data is Control over people“ published on Januar 14, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/01/14/kontrolle-uber-daten-ist-kontrolle-uber-menschen/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/y3pg)

11. „Your digital footprint and your safety on the Internet“ published on January 6, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/01/06/ihr-digitaler-fusabdruck-und-ihre-sicherheit-im-internet/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/jeh8)

12. „Why our laws can’t protect me from my digital stalker“ published on January 9, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/01/09/why-our-laws-cant-protect-me-from-my-digital-stalker/

13. „Effective information retrieval and valuable information sources“ published on July 31, 2019: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/07/31/effective-information-retrieval-and-valuable-information-sources/ (so far only available in English language)
14. „Popularity ranking of my LinkedIn-blogs“ published on July 29, 2019: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/popularity-ranking-my-linkedin-blogs-kurt-brand/ (so far only available in English language)
15. „The future of mobility goes far beyond electric power train versus combustion engine“ published on June 6, 2019: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/06/09/the-future-of-mobility-goes-far-beyond-electric-power-train-versus-combustion-engine/ (so far only available in English language)
16. „Electric Cars – Pros and Cons“ published on November 5, 2019, in German language: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/11/05/elektroautos-pro-und-contra/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/4wo9)
17. „General speed limit on German motorways – Data and Facts“ published on October 18, 2019, in German language: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/10/18/generelles-tempolimit-auf-deutschen-autobahnen-daten-und-fakten/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/z59c)
18. „Flying instead of driving: Why electric cars are not the best solution“ published on November 18, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/11/18/flying-instead-of-driving-electric-cars-are-not-the-best-solution/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/11/18/fliegen-statt-fahren-elektroautos-sind-nicht-die-beste-loesung/)
19. „Facts and Figures on climate change and global warming“ published on May 12, 2019: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/05/12/secrets-and-lies-of-the-climate-change/ (so far only available in English language)
20. „Germany’s performance as export nation – facts and key success factors“ published on July 4, 2019: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/07/04/germanys-performance-as-export-nation-facts-and-key-success-factors/ (so far only available in English language)
21. A comprehensive introduction into „Digital business models and Platform Economy“ is provided in my blog published on November 4, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/11/04/digital-business-models-and-platform-economy/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/09/06/digitale-geschaeftsmodelle-und-plattformoekonomie/)
22. „What tomorrow’s digital champions can learn from Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook & Co.“ is explained in my blog of the same name published on April 28, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/04/28/what-tomorrows-digital-champions-can-learn-from-apple-google-amazon-facebook-co/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/20/was-koennen-die-digitalen-champions-von-morgen-von-apple-google-amazon-facebook-co-lernen/)
23. „The socio-economic consequences of Digitalization“ are described in my blog of the same name published on March 17, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/03/17/the-socio-economic-consequences-of-digitalization/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/03/14/die-soziooekonomischen-folgen-der-digitalisierung/)
24. „What we can learn from a bread cupboard about the importance of eBusiness for small and micro enterprises“ is explained in my blog of the same name published on August 8, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/08/08/what-we-can-learn-from-a-bread-cupboard-about-the-importance-of-ebusiness-for-small-and-micro-enterprises/ (original German version published on April 16, 2016: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/was-wir-von-einem-brotschrank-ueber-die-bedeutung-des-ebusiness-fuer-kleine-und-kleinste-unternehmen-lernen-koennen/)
25. The major elements of a „Digitalization strategy for countries (using Germany as an example)“ are provided in my blog of the same name published on February 21, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/02/21/digitalization-strategy-for-countries-using-germany-as-an-example/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/02/17/digitalisierungsstrategie-fuer-deutschland/)
26. „The leap into self-employment as a freelance IT consultant“ published on August 9, 2018, in German language: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/08/09/der-sprung-in-die-selbstaendigkeit-als-freiberuflicher-it-berater/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/viss)
27. „Starting as CIO – experiences and tips for the optimal design of the first weeks in your new environment“ published on January 26, 2016, in German language: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/der-einstieg-als-cio-erfahrungen-und-tipps-zur-optimalen-gestaltung-der-ersten-wochen-ihrem-neuen-umfeld/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/axxu)
28. „Good questions and bad questions for job interviews“ to hire the best talents for your team are provided in my blog of the same name published on February 28, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/02/28/job-interviews-good-questions-bad-questions/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/02/28/bewerberinterviews-gute-fragen-schlechte-fragen/)
29. „What CIOs really expect from Account Managers“ is described in my blog of the same name published on April 16, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/04/16/what-cios-really-want-from-account-managers/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/04/27/was-cios-wirklich-von-account-managern-erwarten/)
30. „Why Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects really fail“ is described in my blog of the same name published on February 9, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/02/09/why-erp-projects-really-fail/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/02/08/woran-erp-projekte-wirklich-scheitern/)
31. „Firefighting: Some thoughts on how to effectively resolve mission critical problems“ are provided in my blog of the same name published on April 22, 2016: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/firefighting-some-thoughts-on-how-to-effectively-resolve-mission-critical-problems/ (German version published on July 29, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/07/29/krisenmanagement-grundlegende-gedanken-zur-effektiven-loesung-unternehmenskritischer-probleme/)
32. „Major criteria for the selection of IT solutions“ are provided in my blog of the same name published on April 27, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/major-criteria-for-selection-of-it-solutions/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/04/27/wesentliche-kriterien-fuer-die-auswahl-von-it-loesungen/)
33. „A practical approach for IT cost reduction“ is provided in my blog of the same name published on January 4, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/it-cost-reduction-a-practical-approach/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/05/09/it-kostensenkungen-ein-praktischer-ansatz/)
34. „15 basic leadership principles with proven effectiveness“ are provided in my blog of the same name published on January 10, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/15-basic-leadership-principles-with-proven-effectiveness/ (note: this blog is only available in English language so far)
35. „How to successfully lead global teams“ is described in my blog of the same name published on February 9, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/02/09/how-to-successfully-lead-global-teams/ (note: this blog is only available in English language so far)
36. „What humanoid robots nowadays are already capable of doing“ you can learn in my blog of the same name published on November 17, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/11/17/what-humanoid-robots-are-already-capable-to-do-today/ (note: this blog is only available in English language so far)
37. „Crypto Assets – the most important Q&A“ are provided in my blog of the same name published on December 23, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/12/23/cryptocurrencies-the-most-important-qa/ (German version: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/krypto-assets-die-wichtigsten-fragen-und-antworten-kurt-brand/)
38. „The most important facts and milestones on Bitcoin and Blockchains“ are described in my blog of the same name published on August 27, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/08/27/the-most-important-facts-and-milestones-of-bitcoin-and-blockchains/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/08/21/die-wichtigsten-fakten-und-meilensteine-zur-bitcoin-kryptowaehrung/)
39. „Why Bitcoin&Co. are by far not the biggest issue in our global financial system“ is explained in my blog of the same name published on November 28, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/11/28/why-bitcoinco-are-by-far-not-the-biggest-issue-in-our-global-financial-system/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/11/29/warum-bitcoinco-bei-weitem-nicht-das-groesste-problem-in-unserem-globalen-finanzsystem-sind/)
40. „The reframing of information security and data privacy as business enabler“ is explained in my blog published on September 26, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/09/26/reframing-information-security-and-data-privacy-as-business-enabler/ (this blog is so far only available in English language)
41. „How the U.S. government discredits the U.S. American IT industry“ you can learn in my blog of the same name published on August 20, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/08/20/how-the-us-government-discredits-the-us-american-it-industry/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/03/08/wie-die-us-regierung-das-internet-diskreditiert/)
42. Why Smartphones are an ideal tool to spy on you, your family&friends and your colleagues is explained in my blog „The spy in your pocket“ published on April 25, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/04/25/thy-spy-in-your-pocket/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/04/25/der-spion-in-ihrer-tasche/)
43. „What the new rules of the General Date Protection Regulation mean for EU citizens“ can be read in my blog of the same name published on May 27, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/05/27/general-protection-regulation-gdpr-comprehensible-what-the-new-eu-rules-mean-for-citizens/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/05/04/datenschutz-grundverordnung-dsgvo-verstaendlich-was-die-neuen-eu-regeln-fuer-die-buerger-bedeuten/)

44. „The things in life“ published on February 9, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/02/09/die-dinge-des-lebens/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/c1rb)

45. „Are you still Googling or are you already alive?“ published on February 16, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/02/16/googeln-sie-noch-oder-leben-sie-schon/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/viw6)

46. „Of humans, viruses and parasites“ published on March 1, 2021: https://kubraconsult.blog/2021/03/01/von-menschen-viren-und-parasiten/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/pn1r)

47. „Why you should give good tips to bad waiters“ in the interest of your personality development, is explained in my blog published on April 23, 2016: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/personality-development-why-you-should-give-good-tips-to-bad-waiters/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/07/21/persoenlichkeitsentwicklung-warum-sie-schlechten-bedienungen-gute-trinkgelder-geben-sollten/)
48. „Four essential factors for an adequate work life balance“ can be found in my blog published on October 31, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/10/31/four-essential-factors-for-an-adequate-work-life-balance/ (German version: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/01/18/vier-wichtige-faktoren-fuer-eine-angemessene-work-life-balance/)
49. „Eighteen „brutal truths“ about life no one wants to admit“, are explained in a blog published on July 25, 2017: https://bornrealist.com/brutal-truth/ (I have translated this blog into German language on December 27, 2017: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/12/27/18-brutale-wahrheiten-die-sich-niemand-eingestehen-will/)
50. „Thirteen things you should give up if you want to be successful“, are provided in a blog published by Zdravko Cvijetic (founder of „Zero to Skill“) in December 2016, which is only available in English language so far: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/02/19/13-things-you-should-give-up-if-you-want-to-be-successful/
51. „The secret of happy children“ is explained in my blog published on August 21, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/02/18/das-geheimnis-gluecklicher-kinder/ (original German version published on August 1, 2017, see: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/08/21/the-secret-of-happy-children/)
52. „The influence of social media on the division of society“ is explained in my blog published on September 13, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/09/13/der-einfluss-der-informationsgesellschaft-auf-die-spaltung-der-gesellschaft/ (this blog is so far only available in German language)
53. „What we can learn from Rezo“ is explained in my blog published on May 29, 2019, in German language: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/05/29/was-wir-von-rezo%e2%80%8b-lernen-koennen/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/ictg)
54. „Why the global financial crisis is the true mother of all political issues in Germany“, is explained in my blog published on September 15, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/09/15/the-true-mother-of-all-problems/ (this blog is the English translation of a blog published in German language at Krautreporter.de)
55. „Unequal land and its consequences“ published on May 11, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/05/11/unequal-land-and-its-consequences/ (German version published on May 8, 2018, see: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/05/08/ungleichland-und-seine-folgen/)
56. „Facts and figures about the European Union“ (Update 12/2017)“ published on March 18, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/03/19/facts-and-figures-about-the-european-union-update-12-2017/ (Deutsche Fassung vom 07.12.2017 siehe: https://kubraconsult.blog/2017/12/07/daten-und-fakten-zur-europaeischen-union-update-12-2017/)
57. „The life lies of the Euro“ published on July 26, 2018: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/07/24/the-life-lies-of-the-euro/ (German version published on July 8, 2018, see: https://kubraconsult.blog/2018/07/09/die-lebensluegen-des-euro/)
58. „How was Adolf Hitler possible?“ published on November 10, 2019, in German language: https://kubraconsult.blog/2019/11/10/wie-war-adolf-hitler-moeglich/ (automatic translation into English with Google Translator: https://t1p.de/e62u)

Please, let me know, which additional topics you might be interested in. I will consider your input in the planning of my future blogs.