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The Adventures of an IT Leader, Updated Edition with a New Preface by the Authors Kindle Edition

by Robert D. Austin (Author), Shannon O'Donnell (Author), Richard L. Nolan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 682 ratings
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What does it take to lead and manage your company’s tech?

Becoming an effective IT leader and manager presents a host of challenges—from anticipating emerging technologies, to managing relationships with senior executives, vendors, and employees, to communicating with the board. A good IT leader must also be a strong business leader.

This book—now thoroughly updated with a new preface by the authors and current tech details and terminology—invites you to accompany new CIO Jim Barton as he steps up to leadership at his company. You’ll get a deeper understanding of the role of IT in your own organization as you see Jim struggle through a tough first year, handling (and fumbling) all kinds of management challenges. Although fictional, the scenarios are based on the authors’ long experience working with real-life companies across industries and sectors.

The Adventures of an IT Leader is both an insightful story and an instructive guidebook. You can read it from beginning to end or treat it as a series of cases, skipping around to different chapters that address your most pressing needs. (For example, if you need to learn about crisis management and security, read chapters 10–12.) You can also test yourself and think about how to use the book’s lessons in your own company by reading the authors’ “Reflection” questions at the end of each chapter.

This book is your indispensable manual for IT management and leadership, no matter what business you’re in.
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  1. Print length
    343 pages
  2. Language
    English
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    Harvard Business Review Press
  5. Publication date
    July 12, 2016
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“…recommended reading…” The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Robert D. Austin is dean of the faculty of Business Administration at the University of New Brunswick and Professor (on leave) of Management of Innovation and Creativity at Copenhagen Business School.

Shannon ODonnell is a PhD fellow in the Department of Management, Politics, and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School.

Richard L. Nolan is the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School and professor emeritus of Management and Organization at the Foster School of Business, University of Washington.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01BO6QMDW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; Updated ed. edition (July 12, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 12, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 15461 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 343 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 682 ratings

About the author

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Robert D. Austin

Robert D. Austin

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Robert D. Austin is a Professor of Information Systems at the Ivey Business School at Western University, and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Medical School. Prior to his appointment at Ivey, he was Professor of Innovation and Digital Transformation at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and, before that, Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management at the Harvard Business School (HBS). He has taught extensively in Executive Education, and for nearly a decade chaired the HBS executive program for Chief Information Officers (CIOs). His research focuses on management of innovation processes, especially in creative companies. Professor Austin has published many articles in academic and professional venues, such as Harvard Business Review, Information Systems Research, Management Science, MIT Sloan Management Review, Organization Science, and the Wall Street Journal. His is also the author of nine books, all available on Amazon. He's also had extensive experience as a manager, as Dean of the Faculty of Business at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, as CEO of the largest executive education provider in northern Europe (now called CBS Executive), as chief operations executive for a new business incubated by a major tech company, and at at Ford Motor Company.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
682 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Christina
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2023
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It’s a good read for those interested in learning about IT but is confused about certain IT concepts.
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Mac
5.0 out of 5 stars Every new IT leader should read this.
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2022
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I had to get this book for one of my college courses, to say I was skeptical at first was an understatement. After reading the first chapter made me wish I had read this before becoming an IT manager. Very good book hits on some key points, even if it is Fiction the story is relatable to everday practice.
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D. Greg Scott
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book. A few edits could make it great.
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2015
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I want to give this book 5 stars. The story held my interest and I know first-hand how difficult it is to write a business book that keeps readers' interest.

I like the premise of Jim Barton, with no IT experience, thrown into managing an unfamiliar IT Department. One reviewer said only IT pros should manage IT Departments and compared it to somebody with no finance background acting as a CFO. I've made the exact same argument - a CIO with no knowledge about IT could be a recipe for disaster.

But this book makes a persuasive case that an appreciation of IT might be even more important than knowledge about IT. Perhaps the important factor isn't a lifetime of IT experience. Maybe wisdom and a willingness to listen, learn, build a good team, and evaluate fact from fiction are what makes a good CIO. Or a good CFO. Or a good CEO. After all, CIOs don't usually configure routers or write code or place servers into production or take help desk calls. Perhaps appreciating those skill sets is more important than possessing them. Jim Barton is a smart manager with a good team. He starts out shaky, but learns quickly about not knowing what he doesn't know and he grows into the position. The story works.

But I can't give this book 5 stars. It has problems. Some of the scenarios Barton faces are too contrived and some are unrealistic. And the proposed solution to a possible security event - shut down the whole company for a week and rebuild everything from backups? No way. Doesn't make sense. And doesn't solve the problem.

Don't get me wrong - the concerns using that event as a vehicle are real. And it's a good premise. But if there's a database problem, go through the database and fix it. IT pros in the real world do this every day. The problem could be a hardware glitch or a bunch of other factors. Security breaches are real, as we've all seen from recent headlines, but assuming a security breach because of every unexplained problem is not justified. This company is a Microsoft shop - the problem could have just as easily been a bad patch from a Windows Update. How many times have we seen those mess up systems?

My jaw dropped when the new CIO recommended to the new CEO to shut down the whole company for a week while they rebuild everything from backups. Nobody in their right mind would recommend or do that. It just didn't make sense.

My other problem with the book was the HR issue. Several months into Barton's tenure, a subordinate manager asks Barton's advice on retaining a valuable employee. That part makes sense and the chapter presents the right issues and tradeoffs. But what doesn't make sense is, Barton had never heard of this employee and didn't know anything about the retention issue until the subordinate manager talked to him. What?!? You're running the department of a few dozen people and you don't know who the people are? Doesn't work. Barton is too smart of a manager for that.

So that's why 4 stars instead of 5 stars. It's a good book. If a subsequent edition comes out and fixes those problems, it could be a great book.

- Greg Scott
2 people found this helpful
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Sara Cramer
5.0 out of 5 stars High Quality Book, Enjoyable Plot
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2019
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Required reading for a class - I found it very enjoyable personally but it might not be everyone's cup of tea. It is a hybrid between a textbook and a novel, with textbook concepts presented as problems to a fictional protagonist. It exceeded my expectations as a textbook disguised as a novel and the writing is pretty good considering. I did feel like I retained more than I would a regular textbook. A bit cheesy but I definitely will keep my copy as I retained a lot. It helped that my professor had us go over chapters.

As for the physical book itself, it is completely brand new and it arrived right on time for me. No torn pages or marks. Again, I enjoyed it!
2 people found this helpful
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Pointblank
5.0 out of 5 stars I finished reading it in 2 days and loved every second of it
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2017
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After reading the Phoenix Project and loving it, I was looking for another similar book. I stumbled upon this and gave it a shot. I finished reading it in 2 days and loved every second of it. The emphasis here isn't the technical tidbits, but rather the business side, which I think a lot of us in IT ignore or refuse to try to understand. This also makes it much more approachable for people just entering the IT field. It also tries to quantify IT as a value generator instead of a black hole of cost in a way that I have no thought of before.

I would recommend this book to anyone in IT, even the boots on the ground with no aspirations of moving into management.
One person found this helpful
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Dattatraya Korde
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read, specially for those on the business side ....
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2012
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If you are even remotely connected to IT you got to grab a copy of this book. Published by Harvard press, this is a case study in the form of a fictional story which we all can relate to.

Barton, a VP of loans operations at a financial firm gets promoted to become the CIO when he has no idea how to run an IT group. He has always spent his life on the business side and has always found issues with the IT operations, the tables are turned now and he has to figure out how to run and fix the IT organization.

Those related to IT will easily relate to the issues that are identified in the book and those on the business side will develop a more understanding view when they read this book.

This one is going right on my favorite books shelf !!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2021
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I just finished this book last night. Read it for an IST course. I enjoy reading so much. It makes me understand that management is about managing and communicating with your people. You can make it work even if you don’t have much experience in what your people are specialized in, which in this case IT field. (Know what you don’t know )
One person found this helpful
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Lisa T
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting way to learn about IT leadership!
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2022
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I bought this book as a requirement for my IT Leadership course. But it turns out that it is actually a great way to learn about the importance of IT in business. It is well written, and the storyline is actually pulled me in. I find myself reading ahead of the assigned chapters to find out what will happen next. The situations make me think and analyze the actions of the CIO, the CEO, and the members of the IT department.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Amanda Bernardo
5.0 out of 5 stars Really great read
Reviewed in Canada on February 23, 2023
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Whether you work in IT or not, this offers some really great insight into the world information management systems and leadership.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy read
Reviewed in the Netherlands on October 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
Used for my studies. Not what I expected at first an quite enjoyed it. Light reading, but touches many useful subjects/challenges/tools that a CIO faces and you can research/use in your day to day operations. Can recommend to (starting or refreshing) managers who want a different perspective.
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9447914010301202202112022021030104197449
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opener
Reviewed in Japan on October 1, 2016
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Those from both the technical side and the business side should read this book to know how a deep chasm exists between the two worlds and learn how to coexist in order to add value to the to the organization they belong to.

The author should be showered with glowing accolades for producing this book.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for a multitude of reasons
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2016
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One of the best books I've ever read. Love the novel format to explore core IT management concepts. The intimate link between business and IT is constantly revisited in a way that helps one understand the value IT has to offer. The use of the reflection sections at the end chapter made me really think deeply about some of the challenges and concepts presented in each section.

The issues presented by the various chapters are also really enlightening for someone who isn't to familiar with where IT fits in a business and how all the different bits work.
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Peter Maier
5.0 out of 5 stars Klasse Buch
Reviewed in Germany on August 12, 2012
Verified Purchase
Adventures of an IT-Leader ist wirklich ein sehr gelungenes Buch.
Sehr spannend und informativ zugleich. Die Aufgaben und Schwierigkeiten eines
CIO werden in dem Buch in einer spannenden Geschichte erläutert.
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