Cover Image: Thoughts from the Big Chair

Thoughts from the Big Chair

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This book is more relevant than ever on exploring how to level up on digital platforms for a high level perspective. The ever changing landscape of the digital world can be complex but I enjoyed how this book navigated and explained the insights in a digestible manner. It's valuable to hear from a C-suite leader and felt the wording was leaning towards mentorship and relatable. A great starter book if you are interested into stepping up and expanding your knowledge. I recommend this read!

Was this review helpful?

This is well-written and definitely full of difficult tech information put in easily understood terminology. However, that’s not what I liked most about it. It was readable. Interesting enough for the reading to flow rather than read in what I call that rather dry academia tone.

While it is focused on helping business managers keep up with and understand the digital age, I really think this is a good practical business book for anyone who owns or manages a business. There are just some good concrete pieces here for everyone.

Was this review helpful?

Many companies have undergone digital transformations like the cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. to overhaul their businesses and drive growth. However there are still many key decision-makers, including senior leaders and board members, simply don’t understand these technologies, how they work and the possibilities from them. So they fail to capitalize on them, putting their business at risks. The book goes further, offering useful information for anyone who seeks to launch a digital transformation. This is information that the author has gathered and applied during his twenty-plus years as a tech leader. Anyone interested in spearheading their own digital transformation effort will benefit from reading this book. What I like this book for is the suggestion about having these people learn in lay terms to be better decision makers using technology.

Was this review helpful?

I want to thank the author, Russell Haworth; publisher Forbes Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this book. what follows is my own original review.

This is a timely read with so much happening in the world of technology with artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of things, etc. It is a business book with a clear premise--to help board leaders, CEOs and other officers up to speed on digital transformation, a process every company needs to address in a strategic manner. The book also has utility for anyone who wants to know more about these fundamental shifts happening now.

It is an easy book to read in a weekend or whenever you can devote a few minutes to the task. The book consists of 11 chapters spread across five sections: Evaluate, Migrate, Accelerate, Adapt, and Predict. Chapters are for the most part equivalent in size and contains adequate source/reference material. Each chapter concludes with a list of 5 questions about the topic as a way of summation.

Readers will have certain areas they may be more interested in than others; for me I was excited to learn more about artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and the challenges of cybersecurity. The material is just enough to help you understand the topics without getting bogged down and over your head. The chapters and subjects are a good starting point.

Some of the writing gets a bit technical, and there are some chapters where readers may want more (for me it was the chapter on digital leadership) but again, this is meant to be a primer to introduce and spur action. To that end the author does a good job.

If interested in this area definitely worth the 2-3 hours to read this handy compendium of information.

Was this review helpful?

Some useful digital transformation insights with a very good overview from executive perspective - this would be my view on the book. Being a C-level involves a lot and some important trends, tech developments and industry innovations can be out of scope. This book has it all on digital transformation and modern project management methodoligies, ideas on processes and technological changes that business may need to go through. Worth reading.

Was this review helpful?