Inflection Point: How the Convergence of Cloud, Mobility, Apps, and Data Will Shape the Future of Business by Scott Stawski

by Scott Stawski

Today, a hurricane is forming, and businesses are headed straight into it. This hurricane is arising from the convergence of several enormous trends in information technology, including cloud, mobility, Software as a Service, and Big Data. In Inflection Point, Scott Stawski shows how to harness these fierce winds of change, put them at your back, and sail towards greater competitiveness and customer value. Stawski explains the strategic implications of today’s new technology paradigms, helping you reshape strategy to embrace and profit from them. You’ll discover how technology and other factors are driving a radical new round of disintermediation, reintermediation, and disruption–and what that means to you and your company. Stawski shows how to go beyond inadequate incremental improvements, dramatically reducing IT spend and virtually eliminating IT capital expenditures. One meaningful step at a time, you’ll learn how to transform Operational IT into both a utility and a true business enabler, bringing new speed, flexibility, and focus to what really your true core competencies. BUILD A CONTINUAL TRANSFORMATION ENVIRONMENT THAT’S READY FOR ANYTHING Focus on high-value core competencies, not fixed assets or unchanging processes CONSUME IT THE WAY YOU CONSUME ELECTRICITY Stop running data centers, buying software, and managing applications–forever! LEVERAGE THE CLOUD’S SIMPLICITY WITHOUT LOSING CONTROL OR SECURITY Use standards and governance to maximize cloud benefits with minimal risk HARNESS THE PRECIOUS ASSET YOU MUST ALWAYS KEEP DATA Build data-centric operations to deliver the right knowledge, right now, wherever it’s needed

Genres: Business, Technology, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published August 27, 2015

About the author

A recognized expert in information technology, Scott is an executive with Hewlett Packard, the world's largest technology services company.

Scott brings a wealth of experience in both business outcomes and technology services delivery to his sales management ability. He directly leads sales organizations that have consistently delivered more than $500m revenue annually. Previous to sales management, he led numerous multi-million dollar business intelligence and technology solutions engagements for Global 500 companies within the Health and Life Science; Manufacturing and Hi-tech; Retail; Communication, Media and Entertainment and Consumer Packaged Goods sectors. He is a trusted advisor for CEOs, CFOs and CIOs in the Americas.

Scott is a recognized expert in Analytics and Data Management, Technology Strategy, Outsourcing and next generation Application Transformation to the Cloud. He and his HP team help companies transform their business through the vast amount of information available in their extended enterprise.

Prior to joining HP, Scott was a Senior Principal at Knightsbridge, a leading Business Intelligence consultancy, where he developed Business Intelligence strategies and platforms for Fortune 500 companies. Knightsbridge was acquired by HP in 2006. Prior to entering the field of technology consulting, Scott held executive and management positions at Inforte and Knight Ridder.

Reviews

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you wonder how the convergence of cloud, mobility, apps, and data will shape the future of your own business? Scott Stawski is the executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and he wrote this complete guide for any CEO, CIO, and business or IT professional. If you want to learn how to turn your business into a success as a competitive edge that helps propel it faster and go further in the future this is a must read book. This book should become very popular as the publisher is by Pearson Education, LTD. When I went to college most of my books were bought by this publisher.
“When you think about going sailing off the coast of a faraway land, you probably don’t imagine yourself fighting for your life in a sudden, horrible storm. But that’s what happened to us, and I’m very fortunate to be ab alive to tell the tale.” The book shows photos of the Stawski family, during the sailing trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines when all of the sudden a normal squall turns into Tropical Storm and eventually Hurricane “Alex.” The lesson is that even though they went through such an exhausting and soaked experience sailing they felt great about survival and faced a daunting situation a prevailed it.
At the foundation of the inflection point is information technology, specifically the convergence of cloud, mobility, software as a service (SaaS) and data. Ray Kurzweil said, “Our intuition about the future is linear. But the reality of information technology is exponential, and that makes a profound difference. If I take thirty steps linearly, I get to thirty. If I take thirty steps exponentially, I get to a billion.”
This book is an eye opener to all businesses that face the future of change in technology. An example to show you is that when Amazon began competing with Barnes & Noble, in two short years, the upstart opine retailer managed to eclipse Barnes & Noble not only in sales but in market valuation. In fact, Amazon’s market value was bigger than that of Barnes & Noble and their next biggest competitor, Borders, Inc. is now out of business.
What I liked most about the book is that the reality of how business needs to change with the transformation of technology will advance their future or create its failure. Each chapter has a complete bibliography at the end of the book. “There were five exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every two days, according to Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google." I hope you enjoy this learning experience as I have by reading this book and if you like my review please hit like and comment. Jackie Paulson © 2015

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a clear synopsis of why companies must aggressively move their IT operations to a consumption based, utility environment. While addressing the cost advantages as well, the book emphasizes the strategic advantages a company gains from the convergence of cloud, mobility, apps and data. What I most liked about this book was the author's real life stories; both personal and professional. This made the book not only informative, but it also made it truly entertaining. I would recommend this book to anyone in the information technology business as well as those in business management.Inflection Point: How the Convergence of Cloud, Mobility, Apps, and Data Will Shape the Future of BusinessScott Stawski

[Tarina Deaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inflection Point: How the Convergence of Cloud, Mobility, Apps, and Data Will Shape the Future of Business examines how businesses can leverage the trends occurring, and changing, every day in the information technology (IT) field. It examines the success and failures of businesses impacted by inflection points. Written in terms the average layman can understand, Inflection Point is a fascinating look at the birth and transformation of IT trends in the business world.

I couldn’t help but compare Inflection Point to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, which examines trends and why they become popular in society and popular culture. In much the same way, Scott uses former Intel CEO Andy Grove’s definition of an inflection point: “an event or a series of interrelated events that result in a significant change in the progress of a company, an industry, a sector, an economy, or even a nation,” which is very similar to Gladwell’s definition of a tipping point: “that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” While Gladwell examines this phenomena from a sociological perspective, Stawski examines it from an IT and business perspective.

Scott breaks down how companies can anticipate inflection points within their respective industries and how they can stay ahead of the trend wave. Additionally, he provides real-world examples of businesses that have succeeded or failed, based on their ability to recognize and adapt to inflection points. He highlights steps taken by companies whose CEOs or COOs have embraced changes in technology and taken their companies to the next level while their competition floundered and failed.

He provides a detailed explanation and description of cloud computing and encourages companies not to worry about ‘how’ it works, but, instead, focus on the fact it works and what the expected outcome should be. This is good advice for the average person as well as the CEOs and COOs of the business world. You don’t have to understand combustible engines to get in your car and drive.

Scott also does a very good job of addressing the issue of security with regard to cloud computing. In the age of compromised data, when everyone is affected by the IT breaches of Target and the government’s Office of Personnel Management, security should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. He highlights that the majority of data breaches have occurred against businesses employing the traditional IT model. By breaking down the different cloud computing models, he explains how security can be leveraged at each level of usage.

Although written from a business perspective, Inflection Point is an extremely useful analysis of changing IT trends for the average person. Scott uses simple, easy-to-understand language to explain the current trends within the IT enterprise – cloud computing, Software as a Service, and Big Data. He incorporates real-life experiences from his personal life as a hobby sailor, as well as his professional life as a consultant, to draw analogies between how we use IT in our personal life and how businesses can use IT to further their interests.

***ARC provided by San Francisco Book Review in exchange for an honest review***

My interview with Scott will be posted to San Francisco Book Review's website in the next few weeks.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Good business leaders create a vision, articulate it, passionately own it, drive it to completion.’

Texas author Scott A. Stawski earned his Master of Liberal Arts, Extension Studies from Harvard University in Cambridge and is a Cloud Computing Strategist and a recognized expert in analytics and data management, technology strategy, outsourcing, and next-generation application transformation to the cloud. His books include “The Power of Mandate: How Visionary Leaders Keep Their Organization Focused on What Matters Most” and “Inflection Point: How the Convergence of Cloud, Mobility, Apps, and Data Will Shape the Future of Business”. Scott is a recognized expert in analytics and data management, technology strategy, outsourcing, and next-generation application transformation to the cloud and a trusted advisor for CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs in the Americas.

Many of us who are feeling overwhelmed over the transition to AI and IT and the depersonalization of life in general with the advent of smartphones, social media, texts, tweets, Alexa, robotics etc et etc need to read this accessible book by a very fine writer. The Inflection point book explains the strategic implications of today’s new technology paradigms, helping us reshape strategy to embrace/profit from them.

Scott sums up the key drivers of the book – ‘: ‘For the past forty years, IT has been transforming the business world by devising new processes for production, operations, and personal productivity, and by revolutionizing the ways in which people communicate and collaborate. IT was at the forefront of our culture’s last major inflection point—mainstream use of the Internet—and now it is pushing forward an array of new, game-changing ideas: cloud technologies, mobility, SaaS, and Big Data. As these technologies converge and become “consumerized,” operational IT will slip into the background of all business activities and become both a utility and a true business enabler—empowering companies to focus on their core competency and power an operating model that embraces speed and flexibility through continual transformation. The “new style of IT” promises greater simplicity, agility, speed, and affordability. IT as a real business utility is here now, and its presence means that no company should ever have to “buy” a software license or “own” a piece of IT hardware again. A handful of young companies have already grasped this new reality: Netflix, Uber, and Snapchat have all become household names by embracing a new technology operating model. But other companies are continuing to spend way too much on outdated operational IT.‘

Easy reading, no, but worth reading – absolutely – for all of us who need to understand the transition. For businesses this is a bible of information.

[Jeff Hascall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up off a list of recommended reads regarding the data landscape and understanding more about the context data science. I have 2 opinions on this book.

The first is a visceral frustration with this book. As an IT manager, I have attended my fair share of vendor lunches or coffee dates. I usually find them educational, as long as you can patiently sift through the hyperbole and bias. This book is like one long vendor lunch and while educational at times, it was almost insufferable. Stawski is an HP Sales Executive and continually glosses over finer points to try to make overarching declarations. He explains that cloud changes everything and all of your IT services should leverage third-party options. Why buy a laptop when you can pay someone via subscription to constantly supply you with a laptop and then replace it every 2 years? And if you don't understand that, your enterprise is just waiting to die. There's little subtlety in understanding when purchasing on-premise solutions has merit or how/when to incorporate these new operating models with our existing models. Of course, he shares a case study with each chapter on an enterprise that successfully leverages each principle.. and guess which company is always involved in implementation? Yup, HP.

My second opinion was that he's not wrong on many of these fronts. One of the points he makes early on is how important it is for a company to focus on its core competency. I work at a company that has a strong non-asset based model on the business side yet insists on buying and building everything within the IT side. This book had me reflecting on where my company may be missing the mark with our model. And, sure, his statements about the costs of cloud gloss over some pretty important details (as salesmen are wont to do) but they do bear constant discussion within the executive boardroom.

Overall, I am sure that some of my reaction is because I am not quite the right audience for this. It is meant to challenge an organization at the highest level--at a level where the subtlety is less important than broad strokes. That said, when anyone reading a book has to do so with a conscious filter to ignore the blatent overtones of the author, it's hard to recommend it. For anyone else seeking a book like this, I would pass on this one.

[Julius Blitzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you want to be one step ahead than your competitors?! Then the book "Inflection Point" for you! Author Scott Stawskil shares his tips with his reader. Scott Stawskil is an Author and an Executive for DXC Technology. As the Chief Revenue Officer for Applications Services, Scott is responsible for managing the global sales and revenue generation activities for DXC's applications development, management and digital transformation offerings. Scott brings a wealth of experience in business outcome-based technology service delivery. He has led numerous multimillion-dollar business intelligence and technology solutions and strategy engagements for Global 500 companies.
After reading the author's biography, you can really believe all of his words and try to realize what you read. I liked the author's style of writing this book, since it was interesting to read and easy to understand. In today's world, we are faced with IT in any case, and especially if you have a business that needs to be developed. Therefore, you should read the book and acquire useful skills. Highly recommended!

[Valery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inflection Point: How the Convergence of Cloud, Mobility, Apps, and Data Will Shape the Future of Business by Scott Stawski outlines the need for cloud based solutions for data. This is a useful book for anyone involved in the tech industry, or even for someone just running their own business. If you use technology in your business, this book is an essential read. The author writes in a convincing and concise manner, citing personal examples, while retaining the overarching message in the book. As a leading expert in analytics and data management, technology strategies, outsourcing, and next-generation application transformation to the cloud, Scott is certainly an expert in his field. Whatever questions you may have in regard to IT, and the changes therein, Stawski answers those questions and more in this highly informative book. Highly recommend for an informative and helpful book.

[Jimmy Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The future of IT in the business world.

Inflection Point is a book about the world of information technology and how the use of new products like the cloud, big data, and software As a service are shapping the future of the industry one byte at a time. The stratigies presented in this book will help guide you on this journey through the world of technology and how to build a fluid and continually changing platform to keep business up to speed with realtime concepts. I found this book to be very informative and useful in understanding the future of technology and how to be ready to make the changes needed to evolve with the times. I recommend this one to all business owners who want a better understanding of this constantly changing field.

[Arkadiusz Pencarski · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book looks like HP cloud commercial and I know from experience that it doesn't look that pink at all.

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book a while ago, but having read a fair amount, I passed it on to a friend to whom this book would appeal.