Kathleen Melymuka

Networking may not always come naturally in the introverted world of IT, but if you can manage a project, you can network effectively. "Tech folks have to deal with this the same way they would plan to do a system," said Fran Dramis, CIO at BellSouth Corp. in Atlanta.

Many IT people swear they do their most creative work under pressure. And many IT managers use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur creativity.

When the recession came, Ed Bell just said no. The CIO at Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Mass., knew that competitive pressures in the investment brokerage business wouldn't allow his IT staff to slack off during the downturn, so he took a pragmatic approach to the present that's also preparing his staff for the future.

In this exclusive interview with Computerworld (US), management consulting expert Carol A. Walker discusses how good supervisors can help rookie managers avoid the obstacles that so often trip them up.

The recession, time constraints and the fallout from Sept. 11 have left many IT shops searching for thrifty, quick, non-travel-intensive alternatives to traditional management and leadership education.

Galactic IT Vice-President Anthony Okrongly recently harnessed Web technology to automate and scale up the traditional employee suggestion box.

Why do so many CRM projects fail, and how can you increase your odds of success? Darrell K. Rigby, a director at Bain & Co., talks about the perils of CRM in this exclusive interview with Computerworld (US).

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