Computerworld — Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader: Norm Fjeldheim

Qualcomm's CIO answers questions about preparing for life after the recession and dealing with a dysfunctional IT department.

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New projects are hard to come by at my company these days, but I feel that when the economy improves, the dam will burst and we'll be flooded with initiatives. What would a wise integrator do during these relatively quiet times to prepare for the better days ahead? My thoughts would be to work on improving your "tool box" -- investing in tools to help your company put together and implement its SOA environment, integrate internal and external clouds, roll out SaaS, deploy virtualized environments, etc. Tools you develop now will enable you to put together stronger proposals in the future, at a lower cost. The same thing holds true for developing your skills in key technologies, again to improve your competitiveness down the road.

One other area to consider: open source. Having strong knowledge of open-source alternatives to purchased products can give you an edge over competitors that are only offering packaged software. Giving your customers options, especially lower-cost options, should help you get work. Open-source solutions are going to be increasingly viable in the future.

I've come to realize that the IT department I joined last fall is the most dysfunctional place I've ever worked. Communication skills are practically nonexistent. I'm an IT director, so I obviously can't do much to heal the organization from my middling position, although I am trying to do my best with my little part of the IT world and be a good example for other leaders in the department. Clearly, I failed in my due diligence before I made this move, but what's my best option now? I used to spend a lot of energy (and a lot of sleepless nights) trying to change things and people that were really outside of my control. Now I focus on trying to improve myself and my team. I've found that over time, if my team and I are functioning well, then it tends to be contagious, and other people and groups start picking up our traits.

Of course, some situations are so bad that no matter what you do, it is just bad news and not healthy. There's no sense in being miserable. If this is one of those situations where there is no real hope, then I would continue to do the best job I could, while actively looking around for something better. It used to be that people who moved around a lot were viewed negatively. Now, in many cases, candidates who have experience in different jobs and companies are looked at favorably, as long as the job hopping is not extreme. I don't think a shift from a bad situation is going to hurt your career.

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