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Contents

ClOs HangOn InManagementOf CompanyMISFunction 1

NewDiscriminationLegislationIs Now TheLaw -What RisksDo YouFace? 1

Forecast OfThe WestCoastMISJobMarket 4

0100% Recycled paper

CAOs Hang On InManagement OfCompany MISFunctionWhy is it so hard to succeed?

In management, the tightrope thatmany CIOs hang onto is meet the shortterm, and real needs of the company ,versus implementing the architecture iof the future. If the CIO succeeds, hekeeps his job but violates the integrityof all the planning and commitmentsthat have been made. The line hehad to hold is extremely fine andhis fall from grace would beterminal. What does a CIO do toresolve this dilemma — a suc-cessful company, a working ISarchitecture, and an ongoingcareer?

The first focus must be the company andits day to day operations. The architec-ture does not matter if the companyfails. The challenge the CIO andthe organization face is how tosurvive this crisis with least organi-zational and architectural damage. TheCIO must be pragmatic and able to turn ona dime. The CIO has to do three things tosurvive:

Q Implement multiple solutions forthe same business function

Q Act quickly to get solutionsto business units

Q Do not follow conven-tional wisdom

The actions that the CIO can takeare clear:

Have an MIS team in place that hasthe capacity to deal with businessdriven events while supporting day-to-day operations.

Most failures occur because people aretaken out of line operations that are stretched

(continued on page 2)

PSR ReviewsVol. II No. 5ISBN 1-881218-04-X

© 1992 Copyright Positive Support Review. Inc. ALL RIGHTS RF.SRRVKD

New DiscriminationLegislation Is Now TheLaw - What Risks DoYou Face?Ramifications of the Americanswith Disabilities Act of 1992 arejust starting to be understood

The President has delayed the implementationof enforcement of Title I of the Americanswith Disabilities Act of 1992 (ADA) becauseof the burden that this wil l place on all corpo-rations. But the clock is running out. ADAsoon will be the law of the land. Manyorganizations do not know that they are nowsubject to these new regulations.

This law requires that any enterprise that hasmore than 25 employees make reason-

able accommodations to see thatqualified Americans with disabilities

are not discriminated against. Anemployer is not required to hire anindividual that does not have theability to meet essential job functionrequirements. It is up to the em-ployer to prove what the essential

job functions are.

ADA defines a qualified individual as"one who satisfies the requisite skill,experience, education and other job-related requirements of the employ-ment position such individual holdsor desires, who, with or withoutreasonable accommodation, canperform the essential functions ofsuch position."

Qualification standards or selectioncriteria that screen out or tend to

screen out an individual with adisability on the basis of disability must be

job-related and consistent with businessnecessity. "Even if a standard is job-relatedand consistent with business necessity, if itscreens out an individual with a disability onthe basis of disability, the employer mustconsider if the individual could meet thestandard with a reasonable accommodation."

(continued on page 2)

September/October 1992Page 1

ClOs Hang On In Management OfCompany MIS Function

(continued from page I)

too thinly already. When all the good managers areworking on one problem the rest of the house mayappear to be made out of cards. If there is one thingthat the CIO has to do before this happens, it is tohave identified resources available who can getthings done quickly while not degrading ongoingservice levels.

Have a rapid response team that gives the user asolution now and tells the architects of futuresystems what should be included in the future.

Quick hits that the users can use are much betterthan efficient order processing systems that aretwelve months down the road. There is nothingwrong with creating a throw-away solution.

For example, a complex distribution organizationwas trying to service new customers while theperfect system architecture was being defined.Orders needed to be processed today. They put aworking prototype in place for the operating groupsand then had another team implement the samesolution, in a more efficient manner, in the generalsystem architecture.

Maximize Success Factors

J Implemented multiplesolutions for the samebusiness function

LJ Act quickly to get solutions tobusiness units

G Do not follow conventionalwisdom

Act quickly and decisively to get to a result — evenif the result is no better than 80% right.

Understand what it will take to make the companysuccessful in twelve to eighteen months. When thebusiness drives change, conduct a quick assessmentand planning process. It should take a day or twoand no longer than two to three weeks for anycompany. If it takes longer the CIO will fall off thetightrope. For example, in a merger, quickly accessthe capabilities of the infrastructure of both oldcompanies and the new merged company. Define anaction plan to merge the companies that will mini-mize reliance on the old ways of doing things.

(continued on page 3)PSR ReviewsVol. II No. 5

New Discrimination Legislation IsNow The Law - What Risks Do YouFace?

(continued from page 1)

One striking example that was listed in the federalpublication that described this new regulation wasfrightening at best.

An employer has a job opening for an adminis-trative assistant. The essential functions of thejob are administrative and organizational. Someoccasional typing has been part of the job, butother clerical staff are available who canperform this marginal job function. There aretwo job applicants. One has a disability thatmakes typing very difficult, the other has nodisability and can type. The employer may notrefuse to hire the first applicant because of herinability to type, but must base a job decision onthe relative ability of each applicant to performthe essential administrative and organizationaljob functions, with or without accommodation.

The employer may not screen out the applicantwith a disability because of the need to make anaccommodation to perform the essential jobfunctions. However, if the first applicant couldnot type for a reason not related to her disability(for example, if she had never learned to type)the employer would be free to select the appli-cant who could best perform all the job func-tions.

It may be job-related and necessary for abusiness to require that a secretary produceletters and other documents on a word processor.But it would be discriminatory to reject a personwhose disability prevented manual keyboardoperation, but who could meet the qualificationstandard using a computer assisted device, ifproviding this device would not impose anundue hardship.

The ADA does not require an employer to develop ormaintain position descriptions. A written positiondescription that is prepared before advertising or inter-viewing applicants for a job will be considered asevidence along with other relevant factors.

A written position description may state that an employeeperforms certain essential functions. The positiondescription will be evidence that the function is essential,but if individuals currently performing the job do not infact perform this function, or perform it very infre-quently, a review of the actual work performed will bemore relevant evidence than the position description.

(continued on page 3)September/October 1992

Page 2

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ClOs Hang On In Management OfCompany MIS Function

(continuedfrom page 2)We have learned one thing in the last twenty-five years.Perfect and elegant solutions do not work in crisis situations.Solutions the users can implement quickly work — even ifthey do not fit in the long term application architecture.

Conventional wisdom does not always work — achievingeconomies of scale is a road doomed to failure.

Develop an action plan that will depend on a small cadre ofresponsible people. A good example of this was the WickesCompanies when it was coming out of bankruptcy. Peoplewere a scarce resource and the natural thing to do wouldhave been to combine the MIS functions of multiple groupsand achieve economies of scale.

They did not do that. Rather they assigned one team to theaccounting and bankruptcy reporting functions. Anotherteam was assigned to the IBM platform and they wereassigned the business applications including Distribution andAccounts Payable. A third team was responsible for con-struction of the "legs and bridges" between the systems.

This eliminated the starting and stopping of the entireorganization as priorities changed. This is not the case inmost organizations today. As priorities change many are in astate of turmoil because they have not adapted to the chang-ing business world.

In summary, clearly the rate of change will continue to increase.The conflicts we all face are real and must be solved now. Weneed to break out of the mold of the perfect solution using thebureaucratic processes that have evolved in MIS organizations.SDM and system architecture are the reason MIS has succeededin the past and will be the causes of many failures in the future.

New Discrimination Legisla-tion Is Now The Law - WhatRisks Do You Face?

(continued from page 2)

Q If an employer uses written positiondescriptions, the ADA does not requirethat they be limited to a description ofessential functions or that "essentialfunctions" be identified. However, if anemployer wishes to use a positiondescription as evidence of essentialfunctions, it should in some way identifythose functions that the employerbelieves to be important in accomplish-ing the purpose of the job.

Q If the employer intends to use a positiondescription as evidence of essentialfunctions, the position description mustbe prepared before advertising orinterviewing for a job; a positiondescription prepared after an allegeddiscriminatory action will not beconsidered as evidence.

Q If an employer uses written positiondescriptions, they should be reviewed tobe sure that they accurately reflect theactual functions of the current job.Position descriptions written years agofrequently are inaccurate.

This is an area that everyone will be focusing ononce the recession is over. Will you be ready for

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PSR ReviewsVol. II No. 5ISBN 1-881218-04-X

September/October 1992Page 3

Forecast Of The West CoastMIS Job MarketSome Bright Spots But All In All TheRecession Drags On !!!! — George,Do Something!!!!

by M. Victor Janulaitis

The recession of 1990/91 hasturned into the malaise of 1992.Every time that it looks like therecession is over one more brickhits the West Coast economy. Firstis was the "disturbances in South-ern California", then it was the 7.4earthquake, then Hughes andAmoco each announce another9,000 people are going to be laidoff, then the state of California hasno budget, and then George says9.5% unemployment is a lack ofconsumer confidence, not a reces-sion.

There are a number of areas wherethe recession has not caused the skyto fall in. The problem is that thereare so many places were everyoneis just not sure of what is going tohappen. Therefore they are doinglittle and just going to wait and see.Once the turn around starts -1 ambetting on late fourth quarter orfirst quarter of next year - there willbe no stopping it for at least awhile.

We now are in a time warp. Mostorganizations are experiencing theloss of some good people to otherfirms. This is leaving somegapping holes that need to be filled.

In trying to fill those openings, it isnext to impossible to get people tomove. We heard of one middle levelconsultant at a "Big 6" firm that wasenticed to go to work for their clientat a 100% pay increase. Not a verygood sign. Companies are nowstarting to think about coming out ofthe recession with no increase inhead count.

Published by:

M. Victor JanulaitisPositive Support Review, Inc.10880 Wilshire BoulevardSuite 2102Los Angeles, CA 90024

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FAX (310)475-6926PSfi ReviewsVol. II No. 5

A limited number of MB As frommajor schools who graduated in thespring are still without the job oftheir dreams. True to form, they aretaking whatever they can get andwill jump once the job marketchanges.

One of the real bright spots is theEntertainment Industry. Withseveral block busters and the bestbox office year ever, they are on themove. The only down side is thatthe parent companies of the majorstudios are not doing too well. Theyare trying to use the improvedearnings of the summer to fund therest of their businesses. Disney hasfound the Far Eastern capital markettight and they have been havingsome difficulty trying to get the

capital pool for the next set ofproduction syndication fees. Thisalso is putting some dampers on the"business".

With the earthquake and the Kingaffair the insurance companies havebeen hit twice. Now as employmentcontinues to stay low the health care

The recession of

1990/91 has turned

into the malaise

of 1992.

industry will start to feel the pinch.Low interest rates will help but thetypically fourth quarter holidaydemand is going to be dampenedagain. The recovery will continue tobe slow and I bet that the electionwill garner a few more surprises.

The job market remains spotty atbest. There is a movement out oflarger organizations to smaller ones.There also has been a movement ofa number of good people out of ourmarket and to the East Coast andMid-West. That is a short termproblem. I would not want to be oneof those people when they try to getback into our market. -£>

Industry

Aerospace

Distribution

Entertainment

Financial Services

Health Care

Insurance

Manufacturing

National Consulting

ProspectsShort Term

Worse

Good

Excellent

Poor

Excellent

Good

Good

Good

ProspectsLong Term

Worse

Excellent

Excellent

Worse

Good

Good

Good

Excellent

Good

^

September/October 1992Page 4