PEOPLE – THE MOST IMPORTANT RESOURCE

Tuesday 12th November, 2002

IBM Bedfont Lakes

AGENDA

09.50 Introduction: Briefing Chairman

Geoff Petherick

10.00 Getting it right: Effective Campaign Planning & Design

Peter Ricci, Just 400

	Why Plan? - Fail to plan, and plan to fail
	Market Research – Information Sources
	Media Planning & Design
	Who is doing what & when? – Setting standards
	Advocate a “Feel good factor” – Cradle to Grave Candidate Management
	Closure – Covered all the bases?
	Direct versus Agency

Peter Ricci has been involved in the IT Industry since 1987.  Entering initially as a Recruitment Consultant with the then market leader Computer People Group where he remained until 1991.  Peter then moved into the Computer Aided Software Testing arena, selling OS/390 based applications & database testing software. He returned to the IT Recruitment industry in 1996, occupying both delivery and management positions until setting up Just 400 Limited in 1999, a specialist recruitment agency focusing exclusively on the needs of the eServer iSeries and pSeries communities. Married with five children, he took up Rugby Union to spare the world of any more offspring, and has recently retired from playing in order to take up the challenge of refereeing. 

10.40 Motivating Staff in a Downsizing Business
John Potts, formerly IT Director at United Biscuits

	In a downsizing situation, management and staff objectives diverge.
	Establishing shared business objectives is essential for staff motivation.
	Maintaining open communications between management and staff is a key requirement for ongoing success.
	Investing in staff's personal development is fundamental to maintaining performance and trust.
	Win-win outcomes can be achieved.

John Potts retired recently from United Biscuits after a career spent mostly in IT, other than a personal development period in HR. He had at various times responsibility for Systems Development and Service Delivery, and managed a number of major initiatives on benchmarking and outsourcing. He is now concentrating on consultancy and interim management in these areas, in between trying to improve his newly developed interest in golf!

11.20 Coffee Break

11.45 Offshore – An Instant Solution to the People Problem ?

Geoff Petherick, CNG Development

	Is there a problem? – or am I just trying to reduce costs?
	What work should I consider – and more importantly where?
	Managing internal staff expectations – assessing risks
	The offshore process – planning for success
	Visiting offshore – contrasting cultures
	Management overheads – the hidden cost metric

Geoff is chairman of the EURIM (parliamentary lobby body) working party on Fair Dealing which is co-sponsored by Computer Weekly (Part of their “anti-stiffing campaign”). In earlier roles he has become an experienced lorry driver, porter and stand builder (the 30+ years in IT were not wasted!) and is good at tap dancing for the difficult questions! Originally from an operations background in British Telecom, for the past twenty years Geoff has run a number of software houses at both European and International levels. A keen golfer since commencing his career in IT, he is still trying to remove the cover from the ball rather than caressing it into submission.

12.25 Employer of Choice

Steve Hawkins, Computer Weekly

	Employer branding – a new approach to recruitment
	Future directions in IT recruitment – a media research view
	Current trends in IT spend and its link with GDP
	What are the most popular issues in IT – are you unique?
	Employee aspiration trends – are you shaping up?

One of the many ways that Computer Weekly maintains a leading position within the computer media marketplace is the sponsorship of market research and Steve will be discussing two of the surveys recently carried out on their behalf on employment and IT expenditure. He has been with Reed Business since he left University some years ago and tells me in his gap year met some interesting personalities so you will need to catch him at the Coffee break. A keen Rugby and Cricket fan he has played Rugby at Twickers in front of a crowd of 50,000 so he is expecting a large audience at the briefing.

13.05 Lunch 

14.00 Where there's muck there's brass:

Personal and corporate strategies for surviving the High Tech Recession

Philip Virgo, EURIM

	ICT is 50 years old and is undergoing a crisis of maturity, akin to that which hit the automobile industry when it was 50 years old (late 1920s).
	Most products and services are still designed to impress experts, not for mass-market use by ordinary human beings.
	The Internet still lacks the robustness, reliability and security necessary for use in business critical applications.
	The markets will not recover until suppliers, including Internet Service providers, provide the reliability, ease of use, customer service and support that customers need and will pay for.
	The recovery will be slow and painful, focussed around incremental changes which generate positive cash flow until customer and investor confidence have been rebuilt.
	Personal and corporate survival and prosperity over the next five years therefore depend on meeting the business needs of those who have the money to pay.

Philip has spent the past twenty years forecasting and monitoring developments in the ICT industries and advising how to handle the economic and social consequences. He is Secretary General of EURIM (the Parliament-Industry Group concerned with the politics of the Information Society, UK/EU/International) and Strategic Advisor to the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (the professional body for IS/IT Managers) - also Finance Executive PITCOM (Parliamentary IT Committee, the registered backbench committee of the House of Commons concerned with IS/IT) and Director Winsafe Ltd (a specialist risk assessment and investment appraisal/audit consultancy). Philip first became involved in IT skills issues in 1972 when did a study (published) on “Why Computer Systems Fail”. Helped drive the policy studies in 1978 - 9 which led to the Micros in Schools Programme and IT Year. Has done numerous skills studies since, including the West London TEC 1992 survey “The Users Have taken over the System”. Has edited annual IT Trends reports since 1991 (for the Women into IT Foundation) and  since 1993 for IMIS.

14.40  Employee development within IBM

John Childs, IBM

	What expectations do employees have for Career Development?
	What does the company offer and expect of it's employees?
	What part does Learning play?
	Is it realistic to plan a career in a world that changes so quickly?

This session will look at the Employee Development programmes in IBM and the roles played by the employee, the manager and the company.

John joined IBM in the 1970s, intending to stay for a few years. He stayed and stayed and now has to describe himself as a long term IBMer. He has held a number of Technical Professional and Management positions and is currently the Employee Development Manager in IBM Human Resources.
 

15.20 Close & Tea