CIOs shouldn’t fear social networking

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Simply carrying out a blanket ban of social networking applications “isn’t a very sensible idea” either, claimed Simon Post, chief technology officer (CTO) at the Carphone Warehouse.

He added that if managers are worried that their staff are spending too much time on Facebook et al, it’s probably indicative of a wider problem rather than social networking tools necessarily being to blame.

Many companies have young minds working for them, who will often work around restrictions placed upon them, according to Peter Cochrane, former BT’s former chief technologist.

For example, if the so-called corporate computer - CC rather than PC – is locked down, many employees may just bring in their own laptops and work from there instead, bypassing security in place. As a result, Cochrane believes some companies are “flying blind.”

There’s also a culture of spending too much time on decisions that don’t matter, and not enough on the ones that really do, added Cochrane.

“If you want to buy a pencil, you might have a 60 page handbook, but if the chief executive wants to sell the company, he will do it over a coffee and without telling anyone,” he said.

Cochrane added: “I would like to see CIOs checking out the decisions of the board before they make them. If you’re sat on the board of a company you really do need good information for all decisions. I think the CIO of the future has a big role to play there.”

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