With Christmas around the corner, picking gifts for the tech enthusiasts, IT pros, and those who work from home can be challenging. How do you know what’s a great gift from the shoddy tech gadgets that come out in droves? Is this something they will like and actually use? Or will they end up going through the hassle of returning it?

Don’t worry; we’re here to help! We’ve rounded up the top tech gifts of the season—at all different budgets—so that you can knock tech gift-giving out of the park.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

IT Tech Gifts for 2022

We won’t tell you which Black Friday deals are worth it, and we won’t wade into murky supply chain issues. This year, we’re going back to basics—the tech you need to work your best.

Get organized with Great Useful Stuff Multi-Device Charging Station

Price: $39.99

If your loved one’s space is all cluttered with their different devices, give them the gift of organization this season.

This multi-device charging station has won multiple awards and is one of the best sellers on Amazon. The sleek, wooden design can seamlessly hold and charge multiple phones, iPads, and laptops all in one spot. No more tangled power cords or wasted space with this station!

Stay hydrated with the Monos Kiyo Bottle

Price: $70

Keep your loved one hydrated and healthy with the newest in portable water technology. Kiyo harnessed UVC technology to purify drinking water with the simple swipe of a finger. Killing up to 99.99% of bacteria, your tech enthusiast can get access to clean water from anywhere, even if it’s just at their desk. Plus, a silicon pad at the bottom of the bottle means no tipping and spilling on electronics.

Take notes with the Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

Price: $32

Even the biggest tech-enthusiast has to take pen-and-paper notes from time to time. This notebook will help you seamlessly pair your notes to your technology. The Rocketbook lets you write out notes and send them to many cloud services and apps, including Evernote, iCloud, email accounts, and more.

The best part? The Pilot FriXion pen wipes off, so you can reuse the pages again and again!

Save it all with the SanDisk 500GB External SSD

Price: Starts around $100

Most IT pros find themselves running out of room on their computers often. Between never-ending updates, photos, and videos, an external hard drive is essential. SanDisk offers one of the best. With plenty of room, lightweight, fast, and equipped with extra security features, this is one of the best external hard drives on the market.

Stay cozy with the ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control

Price: $258.64

For those working from home, comfort is one of the best perks. Stay comfortable without disrupting your workflow with ecobee SmartThermostat.

The voice control features mean that you won’t have to get up to adjust the thermostat. The award-winning thermostat also has a built-in occupancy feature that allows it to automatically adjust the temperature to unoccupied rooms to save energy and money—an essential move for sustainable IT.

Listen in comfort with the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones

Price: $248

AirPods may look sleek and provide convenience, but they are not built for all-day use. Sony’s over-the-ear headphones are designed to reduce pressure on the head and around the ears so your loved one will get a comfortable fit all day long. It even has calibration mode to detect whether the wearer is wearing glasses to provide the best shape. With the top noise-canceling technology and equipped with Bluetooth, they can work undistracted and make phone calls with ease.

Charge on-the-go: Morphie Powerstation Wireless XL with PD

Price: $69.95

Most of us use our tech on the go—at the coffee shop, in the car, on vacation, even from our living room away from a power cord. We may not always have access to a charger, so your techie-obsessed loved one is always at risk of running out of batteries at the worst time. Mophie’s Powerstation is a must for those who need to rely on technology everywhere.

Morphie is a company with a track record of supplying sleek design and reliable technology. They know how to create products that work for those who love technology. The Powerstation is on the larger side, making it ideal for your loved one to use anywhere. It has enough power to charge their phone twice. It also has both UB Type-A and USB-C outputs so that they can charge nearly anything and even multiple devices at once.

Ready to travel: Away Carry-On Luggage

Price: $265

Now that we are all back to traveling again, your IT professional will need new luggage as tech-savvy as them. Away offers sleek and fashionable luggage with a hard shell and leather details. It also has an interior compression system so that they will be able to pack as much into their carry-on as possible.

With an ejectable USB charger, your loved one won’t be frantically searching for a charger station at the airport as their phone battery starts to die. Away will make traveling both fashionable and convenient for them.

Clean tech with the UV Phone Sanitizer Box

Price: $39.99

The perfect travel companion during pandemic days. Phones are virtual petri dishes for bacteria, so consider this gift to keep your loved one healthy.

VCUTECH uses UVC technology to kill up to 99.9% of bacteria for both Apple and Android users in just 3 minutes. It also charges your phone—a two-for-one we can get behind.

Rest your eyes: Felix Gray Roebling Blue Light Glasses

Price:

• $95 for non-prescription and reading lenses
• $145 for prescription lenses

Blue blocking glasses are a must-have for the IT professional and WFH-ers in your life that spends most of the day in front of a screen. These glasses can help reduce eye strain, headaches, and long-term issues from extended periods exposed to blue light. Plus, the stylish frames make them look professional while doing so.

Keep working with the Topo Anti-Fatigue Mat

Price: $99

Many IT professionals have taken to standing desks to improve their overall health. It can start to hurt the back, though, when they stand all day on an unforgiving floor. This mat contours to the foot to help your loved ones stay comfortable on their feet all day long.

Type all day with the Razer Huntsman v2 Analog

Price: $249.99

Named the best keyboard by Tech Radar, Razer Huntsman v2 Analog has the latest optical technology and Razer’s analog mechanical key switches. Plus, the wrist rest and ideal angling will help your tech enthusiast work—or play—for hours with minimal discomfort.

BMC fan favorite: Das Mechanical Keyboard

Price: Options starting at $129

Mechanical keyboards are more popular than ever, and Das Keyboard is one of the leaders in the clickity clack revolution. Das Keyboards come with a variety of options and customizations, from customizable key functions to color enhancements and keyswitch options for the perfect tactile experience.

For the ultimate geek in your life, we might even suggest the completely blank Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate—because who even needs to look at keyboard labels? As more people work from home, it may the best time yet to try out a mechanical keyboard with a full audio experience. Type faster, louder, and with more precision with a Das Keyboard.

Cult classic: Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad

Price: $129

For avid Apple fans, this is the go-to wireless keyboard. It’s very lightweight, which will make it ideal for bringing on the go. Its Apple-aesthetic minimalist design makes it attractive, and the low profile makes typing comfortable all day. The numeric keypad also makes it perfect for those who need it for spreadsheets and finance applications. This is the ultimate keyboard for all of your Apple enthusiasts’ needs.

Keep the caffeine flowing: Ember Smart Mug 2

Price: Starts at $99

Work and coffee go hand-in-hand. Get your loved one the Ember Smart Mug and they will never again have to worry about their coffee getting cold while they work on an important project.

Not only does the battery-powered mug keep coffee warm, it also allows users to set their ideal drinking temperature. The battery lasts for up to 1.5 hours on its own, or indefinitely when used on the charging coaster. The tech person in your life will thank you for this long-lasting boost of energy!

Unwind with the SEGA Genesis Mini Console

Price: $79.99

Everyone needs to unwind, and your favorite IT professional is no different. Treat them to some nostalgia-inducing self-care with the SEGA Genesis Mini Console.

This plug-and-play system comes pre-loaded with 40+ classic SEGA Genesis games for hours of throwback fun. When the stresses of the day become too much, transport your favorite tech enthusiast back to a more carefree time.

 Want more retro gaming fun? Try the NES Classic Mini and the SNES Classic Mini.

Best in tech recommendations

Looking for other gifts? Browse our recommendations for books, newsletters, podcasts, and more in our Tech Books & Talks Guide.

Tech professionals are constantly learning and following what’s ahead. This is especially true for mainframers, as old tech skills are constantly being combined with recent developments.

But keeping up with one more demand is something that pro mainframers probably don’t have much time for—mainframe pros are in high demand and short supply.

This is why podcasts are a great option. There are tons of substantive and entertaining podcasts by industry leaders. Podcasts outshine reading or browsing online forums simply for their on-demand, take-it-with-you accessibility. No longer do you need to dedicate a few hours a week to reading. The podcast format makes it easy breezy to listen while working out, cooking, commuting, over lunch. Anytime, anywhere, podcasts make it easy to stay up to date with industry news.

With the staggering number of podcasts available, there are bound to be a few dedicated to every niche imaginable. In fact, there are currently over 800,000 podcasts available with over 54 million episodes to access. Not surprisingly, tech is one of the more popular podcast categories.

This sheer volume of information—though useful—can sometimes feel overwhelming and difficult to navigate. To help with that, we’ve compiled a list of the best podcasts for mainframers.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Best mainframe podcasts

In no particular order, these six podcasts are uniquely focused on the mainframe, providing a vast amount of information and knowledge about working in the mainframe ecosystem and with mainframe modernization. For each recommendation, we include:

• Podcast debut
• Episode release
• General episode length
• Hosts
• The platforms that carry the podcast

Subscribe and listen to as many as you can.

The Modern Mainframe

Debut: February 2019
Released: Twice per month
Length: Range from 12-45 minutes, but most are quick listens under 25 minutes
Hosts: Varies
Where to Access:Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, SoundCloud

BMC’s mainframe podcast should be added to all mainframers’ listening queues. (Don’t worry, we’re only a little biased.) The Modern Mainframe shares thought leadership, how-to advice, customer stories, personal experiences, and more on topics ranging from security and operations to shifting workforce demographics and DevOps implementation.

Along with new episodes, you’ll find all past episodes of the BMC AMI Z Talk podcast plus past Modern Mainframe episodes, including “Building a Better Software Delivery Platform,” the 2020 winner of DevOps.com’s DevOps Dozen award for best DevOps-related podcast series.

Following the addition of BMC AMI DevX application development solutions to BMC’s mainframe portfolio, The Modern Mainframe featured a must-listen three-part discussion of mainframe innovation and DevOps with John McKenny, BMC SVP of Intelligent Z Optimization and Transformation, and April Hickel, BMC VP of Intelligent Z Strategy. Listen to Part 1 here:

I Am A Mainframer

Debut: January 2017
Released: Monthly
Length: around 30 minutes, but range from 18-40 minutes
Host: Steven Dickens of IBM
Where to access: Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast, iHeartRADIO, SoundCloud

The I am a Mainframer Podcast is produced by the Open Mainframe Project. It’s currently hosted by Steven Dickens of IBM, who was part of launching the Open Mainframe Project in 2019. The purpose of the podcast is to look at the careers of people in the mainframe ecosystem, and each episode interviews a different mainframe professional.

The podcast covers key topics like the modern mainframe, offers insights into the mainframe industry, and generally offers advice for those working in the mainframe ecosystem.

Mainframe, Performance, Topics

Debut: March 2020
Released: Frequently
Length: Most clock in around 30 minutes
Hosts: Martin Packer and Marna Walle of IBM
Where to Access: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, iHeartRADIO

Mainframe, Performance, Topics is hosted by two IBM professionals:

• Martin Packer, a principal Z system investigator
• Marna Walle, from z/OS development

In their podcast, the two casually talk about whatever z/OS topics that they’re interested in that week. While there’s lots of flexibility from episode to episode, there is one important structural piece. Each episode involves a mainframe item, a performance item, and a few “topics.” It’s a topical podcast that shares helpful insights from leaders in the industry.

Terminal Talk

Debut: June 2017
Released: Every two weeks
Length: Most are around 30 minutes; others range from 20-50 minutes
Hosts: Jeff Bisti and Frank de Gilio of IBM
Where to Access: Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast, iHeartRADIO, SoundCloud

We’d be remiss not to include Terminal Talk, one of the longer-running mainframe podcasts with over 100 episodes available. Hosted by Jeff Bisti and Frank de Gilio, Terminal Talk aims to “take a look at the people, technology, and culture behind one of the world’s most powerful and important computing platforms, the mainframe.”

The episodes, which come out every two weeks, include interviews, discussions, and interesting facts and analysis. While some podcasts include mainframe discussion encompassed in other topics, this one is solely focused on mainframes. In fact, in the initial episode, Bisti said that he anticipated listener complaints of “all they talk about is mainframes.”

Obviously, for those working with mainframes, this is a must-listen.

Z DevOps Talk

Debut: December 2019
Released: Monthly
Length: Most are around 45 minutes
Hosts: Chris Hoina and Chris Sayles
Where to Access: Spotify, Anchor, Radio Public, Overcast, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Apple Podcasts

This IBM developer podcast is hosted by Chris Hoina and Chris Sayles. Obviously IBM focused, the podcast looks at ways that the company is working with open source technology to make mainframes more accessible.

Through interviews with industry experts, the podcast explores some key topics, ranging from Z software architecture to the next frontier for mainframe modernization.

The RE: Frame Podcast

Debut: November 2019
Released: Infrequently
Length: around 30 minutes
Hosts: Lenn Thompson & David Cook of Broadcom
Where to Access: Stitcher, Overcast, SoundCloud, Anchor, Apple Podcasts

The RE: Frame Podcast’s tagline exclaims:

“What’s NOW and NEXT for the mainframe”

Hosted by Lenn Thompson and David Cook, both of Broadcom, this podcast is helpful for mainframe professionals because it’s focused on where mainframe is and, more importantly, where it’s going. The hosts are committed to making the podcast stand out by being a forward-looking mainframe resource, and so far it’s lived up to that goal.

First launched in October of 2019, the first three episodes of a proposed 10-episode season have been released. So far, the topics include:

• The People Factor, which looks at the type of professionals that are choosing mainframe careers
• Machine Learning, which looks at ML on the mainframe
• Mainframe DevOps, which looks at the tools, techniques, and experiences of mainframe developers

This new podcast, with few available episodes, is still worth the one click to subscribe.

Related reading

At BMC Blogs, we’re always listening to, reading, and creating the best tech content to share knowledge and lead innovation. Get more of our recommendations on what to read, where to listen, and who to follow in our Guide Tech Books & Talks and explore these resources:

• BMC Mainframe Blog
• BMC Business of IT Blog
• 16 Must-Listen Podcasts for IT/Tech Professionals
• IT Newsletter Roundup: 15 Top Tech Newsletters To Read
• Emotional Intelligence Books for CIOs & IT Leaders
• Gift Guide for IT Pros, WFHers & Tech Enthusiasts

Are you a Java developer looking to brush up on your skills? Java is the most widely used programming language—so it’s a great language to add to your skillset.

Of course, many resources available for free, like tutorials, online courses, tips, forums, blogs, and coding examples. These resources are beneficial, but don’t forget about good old-fashioned books. Books are an excellent resource because:

• They’re written by seasoned programmers who are credible authorities in the subject.
• Java books are more detailed and offer more in-depth subject knowledge than what’s free and online.

This article will dive into ten must-read books on Java that you can add to your bookshelf. These Java books cover various programming areas, including core Java fundamentals, frameworks, design patterns, and so much more. These books are excellent tools for all Java developers, from beginners to advanced users.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Head First Java

Authors: Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates
Audience: Beginners

This book is, hands down, the best book for Java beginners. This book is digestible and easy to understand through engaging games and quizzes. It doesn’t require you to have prior knowledge of Java.

The head-first approach of explanation is clear and concise for any reader. Head First Java addresses the essential Java programming subjects about class, object, thread, collection, and language features. The subject matter makes this book a Java Programmers bible and should be the first book worth investing in when building your Java book collection.

Java: A Beginner’s Guide

Author: Herbert Schildt
Audience: Students and novice programmers

This beginner’s guide covers everything a Java programmer needs to know. The target audience for this book is aspiring students and novice programmers. This book describes topics in a detailed manner—without straying into too much detail.

We especially appreciate how this book engages students and beginners to think and understand Java concepts and ideas critically.

Effective Java

Author: Joshua Bloch
Audience: Devs needing a perspective shift

A must-have book for any Java programmer. This book is a resource for numerous practical guides for both entry-level as well as intermediate developers. For programming problems that a Java programmer may encounter regularly, this book provided concrete explanations to solve these issues. We especially like how Effective Java give you the tools to shift your perspective when handling problems—making programmers feel empowered.

Head First Design Patterns

Author: Eric Freeman
Audience: Design pattern and OOP beginners

Understanding design patterns as a Java programmer is a valuable skill. This book covers:

• The power of design patterns
• How they solve many common problems
• How to apply a design pattern
• The benefits they provide in Java
• Many helpful tips

Part of the Head First series, this book also contains many useful tools like exercises and memory maps, leading to a faster understanding of design patterns. This book is an excellent first step if you are looking to learn core Java design patterns and object-oriented design principles.

Spring in Action

Author: Craig Walls and Ryan Breidenbach
Audience: Intermediate to advanced Java programmers

Spring in Action is by far the most wide-spread and widely utilized book on the Java framework in today’s programming landscape. Plus, adding Spring to your skill set can be a vital tool for growing your Java knowledge.

This book can be challenging to comprehend if you are a beginner, especially if you are not familiar with specific Java topics. Spring in Action is best for advanced Java programmers and an excellent resource as you grow and develop your skills.

Clean Code

Author: Robert C. Martin (aka Uncle Bob)
Audience: Developers with working to advanced Java knowledge

This classic Java programming book illustrates better ways to write code, as hinted by the title. The book tackles understanding clean code in three sections:

• Section 1 addresses the patterns, practices, and principles of writing clean code.
• Section 2 details several case studies of ascending complexity, showcasing code cleanup exercises.
• Section 3 contains a list of heuristics gathered while creating the previous chapters’ case studies.

Clean Code can help a Java developer build their knowledge base of clean code for the Java programming language.

Test-Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers

Author: Lasse Koskela
Audience: Intermediate to advanced Java devs

If you are looking to learn how to write unique automation testing programs, Test-Driven is an excellent resource. Java developers that prioritize code quality and writing unity, integration, and automation testing will benefit from this book.

Test-Driven delivers hands-on examples for you to test drive Java code. This book also defines acceptance test-driven development, the Fit framework, and testing Java EE components: JSPs, Servlets, and Spring Controllers.

Core Java Volume I: Fundamentals

Author: Cay S. Horstmann
Audience: Programmers seeking robust but maintainable code

This Java reference book offers a reader a detailed explanation of various features of Core Java, which includes:

• Exception handling
• Interfaces
• Lambda expressions

Core Java highlights simple language, consciousness, and detailed example that is valuable to any Java programmer. This book will assist a programmer in developing an ability to write highly robust and maintainable code.

Java Concurrency in Practice

Author: Brian Goetz
Audience: Advanced devs

Java Concurrency in Practice is one of the best Java programming books for advanced developers.

This book is essential to developing a strong understanding of concurrency and multithreading. Some book sections can be challenging to comprehend, but the concepts—concurrency and multithreading—are themselves tricky.

Thinking in Java

Author: Bruce Eckel
Audience: Intermediate to advanced Java devs

Serious about learning Object Orientated Programming? This is the book for you. In this book, Bruce Eckel teaches the Java concept with his unique Head-First teaching style. Thinking in Java is no beginner’s book, but it’s a fantastic resource for intermediate to advance developers with a desire to learn.

Still, this book is considered one of the most complete books in Java, so you can use it as an excellent reference at any stage of your programming career.

Learn Java with books

Many vital resources can kickstart your Java journey. These books may be a great way to start learning more about Java and can create a roadmap for a developer at any level of learning Java.

Related reading

• BMC DevOps Blog
• Guide to Tech Books & Talks, a series of recommendation articles
• State of Java in 2020
• Java on the Mainframe: z/OS vs Linux
• Java vs Go: What’s The Difference?
• The Importance of SOLID Design Principles

Reading tech newsletters is an important way for IT leaders and professionals to stay up to date. As new trends and technologies emerge, these newsletters are key to staying ahead of the curve on the latest advances.

Newsletters offer an efficient way to stay informed, with links to good resources, summaries of the latest news, and quick overviews of in-depth articles. Subscribing to newsletters curated or written by leaders in the industry means you’re getting quality information in an efficient way. What’s better? Many of the best newsletters are free.

Yet, time is precious. With so much information available—a 21^st century problem—it can be hard to know where to subscribe and what to read. So, we put together this roundup of the 15 best technology newsletters, from our humble perspective. These newsletters cover a range of audiences, from developers, programmers, and IT pros to tech leaders, enthusiasts, and amateur hobbyists.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Happy reading!

Benedict’s Newsletter

Audience: IT and business leaders
Frequency: Weekly
Cost: Free and premium options

Benedict’s Newsletter is the most-cited tech newsletter, making it a must-read for IT leaders. Benedict’s Newsletter is curated by Ben Evans of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. (We like one of their podcasts, too.) This weekly newsletter offers free and premium options:

• Free subscribers get an email every Tuesday that includes links to relevant news and blog articles.
• Premium subscribers ($10/month or $100/year) receive an email every Sunday with links to the same articles that come in the free newsletter plus an exclusive weekly column and a more in-depth analysis of the week’s news.

Around 150,000 people currently subscribe to Benedict’s Newsletter. Evans has been creating this resource since 2013, describes it as covering, “my notes for the week on the news that actually matters and what it might mean, plus any new blog posts here.”

Benedict’s Newsletter focuses on tech and upcoming changes in the industries, covering a broad range of topics including mobile, productivity, innovations, cars, machine learning, augmented reality, and virtual reality.

Bizarro Devs

Audience: Developers and anyone else
Frequency: Monthly
Cost: Free

Bizarro Devs is a free newsletter that is curated by a team of people at ThemeIsle. It’s an informative and entertaining read, serving up links to obscure yet interesting and relevant articles. The key benefit of this newsletter is that it unlocks articles, tools, and websites you might not otherwise see.

Despite the name, Bizarro Devs is not a newsletter only for developers. It covers a wide range of topics all relating to technology. You’ll look forward to reading this and to learning something that more mainstream publications likely missed. Side benefit? Since it’s a monthly release, it won’t clog your inbox.

Box of Amazing

Audience: Tech enthusiasts
Frequency: Weekly on Sundays
Cost: Free

Curated by Rahim Hirji, it offers “a weekly digest covering emerging technology trends and extraordinary articles, handpicked to broaden your mind and challenge your thinking.” Box of Amazing is a Sunday newsletter that covers a broad range of technology trends like:

• AI
• Robotics
• Cryptocurrency
• Drones
• e-commerce
• Anything else on the technology horizon

Besides offering quality content, Box of Amazing is great because it’s easy to consume. Articles are shared in separate boxes, with each including a short summary of the article. It makes good on its promise to be a 3-minute read of 3-hours of information.

DevOps’ish

Audience: DevOps folks
Frequency: Weekly on Sundays
Cost: Free

DevOps’ish is assembled weekly by Chris Short, a DevOps expert and Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Ambassador. This newsletter is link-sharing with a technical perspective. Many articles Short shares focus on Kubernetes, open source cloud, DevOps culture, and even a roundup of IT-related mishaps.

DevOps Weekly

Audience: DevOps and programmer pros
Frequency: Weekly
Cost: Free

Enthusiastic developer, designer, and product owner at Sync, Gareth Rushgrove curates DevOps Weekly which focuses, as you can tell, on the wide world of DevOps. With former stints at Docker and the UK Government Digital Service, Rushgrove gives you an expert perspective on DevOps news. He also sums up what he’s learning from on-the-ground development and his hobby of experimenting with up-and-coming programming languages.

The Download

Audience: Early adopters and those on the bleeding edge of tech
Frequency: Daily
Cost: Free

The Download is a free daily newsletter with the tagline, “What’s Up in Emerging Technology?” It’s curated by MIT’s Technology Review with the goal of providing readers with up-to-date information on emerging tech. It includes links from academia and news outlets and, while it covers a broad range of tech topics, it gives readers the option to subscribe to subtopics like AI, blockchain, and space tech.

If you’re looking to stay at the forefront of tech advances and to always be informed on the most cutting edge advances, this is a daily must-read for you.

Exponential View

Audience: Futurists
Frequency: Weekly
Cost: Free and premium options

Curated by Azeem Azhar from Harvard Business Review’s editorial board, Exponential View aims to help readers “get smarter about the future.” As you can imagine, it’s focused on innovation, discussing regular topics such as AI, robotics, tech in politics, devices, and machine learning.

Exponential View is a weekly newsletter that offers a free and a premium version:

• The free version shares links to articles, primarily on exponential technology.
• The premium version also gives regular access to posts about theories and analysis of what will come next.

An added plus of this newsletter is that it often includes some light stuff too, including a section offering “short morsels to appear smart at dinner parties.”

Fully Charged

Audience: Tech pros and enthusiasts
Frequency: Weekly
Cost: Free

Fully Charged by Bloomberg Technology shares links and news in a story-like manner. Rather than a list of articles, Fully Charged shares a summary of news, articles, and resources in one short and easy to read email.

If you prefer the list of links, it closes with a few quick summaries of “other things you need to know in global technology news.”

Import AI

Audience: Real artificial intelligence enthusiasts
Frequency: Weekly on Mondays
Cost: Free

AI is a perennial tech topic. Import AI is focused on keeping readers updated on all of the latest AI topics, with the biggest and most recent news, chatter, and research on AI.

Import AI is curated by Jack Clark, who you might remember from ZDNet, The Register, or Bloomberg. He’s currently at House of Elon’s Open AI, where he sends this dense newsletter out every Monday, chock full of key links, summaries, and insights on the latest in AI.

On Tech with Shira Ovide

Audience: Tech enthusiasts of any ilk
Frequency: Daily
Cost: Free

Shira Ovide has long covered technology, from The Wall Street Journal and now with The New York Times with the On Tech newsletter. Each edition reads like a handwritten letter from a friend who just happens to know a lot about technology and business: it’s timely, relevant, and assumes you already know the basics.

Ovide takes a human approach to technology, looking at where technology is helping us, how it might hurt us, and whether we may need government to regulate certain tech corners. Her approach is balanced and witty, with statements like this:

“2020 was the year when technology both proved more essential in our lives than ever and largely irrelevant in the most important parts of it.”

Other Valleys

Audience: Readers interested in technology beyond Europe and North America
Frequency: Infrequent
Cost: Free

Other Valleys is a good way to learn about the tech world beyond Silicon Valley. Curated by Anjali Ramachandran, the newsletter shares links to articles, with a detailed synopsis of each. In a conversational tone, Other Valleys looks at creative projects and entrepreneurial endeavors from around the globe.

Ramachandran describes her newsletter as offering, “media and technology news and ideas that are by and large NOT from the US/UK/EU.” She goes on to say, “I like knowing what is going on in other valleys around the world – now you can too.” Ramachandran often includes a focus on women in tech, too.

SRE Weekly

Audience: Site reliability engineers
Frequency: Weekly
Cost: Free

Every week, Lex Neva rounds up a few top articles on Site Reliability Engineering-related topics of scalability, availability, incident response, automation. As he puts it, “all things related to running large, massively multiuser online services.”

The roundup also includes any big outages that occurred—often with companies as well known as Twitter, Disney, and Slack. We particularly like this one for Neva’s clear, expert opinions, which he felt was lacking in the SRE world.

Software Defined Talk

Audience: Devs, programmers & cloud enthusiasts
Frequency: Twice weekly
Cost: Free

Yes, Software Defined Talk is a well-known podcast. But its fantastic hosts Brandon Whichard, Michael Coté, and Matt Ray also put together a fantastic newsletter that we’d be remiss not to mention. If you prefer reading the news instead of listening to it—or, if you’re like us and can’t get enough of the dynamic hosts—the Software Defined Talk newsletter is the place to go.

With a general focus on serverless, cloud, K8s, and DevOps, they break down the newsletter into useful, always relevant categories:

• The Rundown (Important news from the hosts’ perspective)
• Relevant to Your Interests (Related news at a glance)
• Sponsors
• Nonsense (Funny or random internet moments)
• Listener Feedback (might even include a job opening or two)
• Conferences
• News and hype for the SDT brand
• Recommendations

TLDR

Audience: Particularly those with short attention spans
Frequency: Daily
Cost: Free

TLDR is a free, daily newsletter that helps you quickly stay up to date on the news. Its tagline is “Byte sized news for busy techies,” and that’s just what it provides—after all, TLDR is internet shorthand for ‘too long; didn’t read’. These emails include a list of relevant news articles, tools, and links to cutting-edge tech updates. Plus, with short synopses of articles, you’re able to quickly get the key details of important news without sacrificing much substance.

TLDR is focused on tech, science, and coding, never sharing more than 10 articles per edition. What’s better, articles are displayed by topic, so you can read what you like and skip everything else. Topics are divided into:

• Big Tech and Startups
• Science and Cutting-Edge Technology
• Programming
• Design and Data Science
• Miscellaneous

Tedium

Audience: Anyone seeking in-depth, personal tech info
Frequency: Twice weekly
Cost: Free

Tedium offers a different type of read. Instead of sharing a roundup of stories, Tedium looks in-depth at one story per issue. Written by Ernie Smith, who you might know from his previous work at ShortFormBlog, Tedium claims to explore “the dull side of the internet.”

This newsletter is more personal than many others and is written in a conversational tone, as Smith talks about things like his most recent tech experiences, what he’s investing in, and what he’s recently acquired. If you’re interested in something that’s heavy on hardware and takes a deeper, yet entertaining, look at tech topics, subscribe to Tedium.

Top tech newsletters

This list should give you a good start on your weekly reading with some of the best tech newsletters available. Covering a broad range of topics, they’ll help you stay current on the latest news and trends in the industry. Plus, many will give you a quick and entertaining way to break up the workday. So, subscribe now and happy reading!

Additional resources

For related reading, explore these resources:

• BMC Business of IT Blog
• Guide to Tech Books & Talks
• Guide to IT Leadership & Strategy
• 7 Tips for Creating a Successful IT Newsletter

As an IT professional, it is vital to stay on top of trends that keep your skills fresh and relevant. Conferences and books are traditional ways of doing this, but podcasts are a new and increasingly popular way to sharpen your knowledge.

Podcasts mean you can stay up-to-the-minute with the IT industry—without traveling or taking up valuable time. Podcasts are perfect for passive learning, like when you’re commuting, exercising, or cleaning the house. To help you navigate the many, many podcast choices out there, we put together this list of IT-minded podcasts, aimed at IT professionals of all stripes and experience. This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Explore the menu to the right for more recommendations on digital transformation, AI and ML, governance, and more.

Feel free to reach out if you have a tech podcast we should know about. To be considered, please email details including the podcast name, website, and suggested episodes specific to IT pros to blogs@bmc.com.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Top IT/Tech Podcasts of 2020

Here are the best IT podcasts that offer learning and insight into the most current, timely topics in tech:

Technovation

Technovation is perhaps the best podcast series on the web focused on CIOs and C-Suite thought leadership. Host Peter High, author of Implementing World Class IT Strategy, interviews experts on trends and best practices for IT leaders. Browse by topics like AI, leadership positions, women in tech, and entrepreneurship.

Who should listen: Top executives of business and tech; innovators and tech evangelists

Favorite episodes:

• Digital Innovation at Dow with CVP/CIO/CDO Melanie Kalmar
• Atlassian President Jay Simons & CIO Archana Rao on the transparent, honest workplace they’ve built at Atlassian
• Symantec’s CEO Talks Cybersecurity discusses the necessity of detection and automation in the critical area of prevention
• Dilbert Creator Scott Adams on leaving the corporate world to become a cartoonist.

This Week in Enterprise Tech

Part of the This Week in Tech (TWiT) network, This Week in Enterprise Tech focuses on professional IT while still keeping topics engaging, fun, and easy to consume. Hosts Louis Maresca, Brian Chee, Curt Franklin, Brian McHenry, and Heather “Mo” Williams covers trends in enterprise systems. Episodes record live every Friday, with nearly 400 episodes available for on-demand listening.

Who should listen: Professionals in enterprise technology

Favorite episodes:

• GRAND THEFT TESLA (Episode 381), which covers bad security habits of security pros, two-factor authentication made mandatory in Ring, and how to jailbreak Teslas.
• ALWAYS TRUST TWIET (Episode 372), including what CISOs can expect in a new position.
• AUTOMATION: IT’S NOT JUST FOR DEVOPS (Episode 353), all about how enterprise tech has (finally!) embraced the power of process automation.

The Hanselminutes Podcast

Scott Hanselman is a web developer and programmer at Microsoft, but his personal podcast, The Hanselminutes Podcast, explores many tech topics with emphasis on tech culture and current events in technology. Published weekly with hundreds on demand, the podcast’s air of humanity provides a unique perspective on technology.

Who should listen: IT innovators, thought leaders, and professionals

Favorite episodes:

Risky Business

A must-listen weekly podcast all about security, Risky Business offers insights into news and trends like doxing scammers, ransomware, government reports, and security risks in cyberspace. With close to 600 episodes, this podcast is acclaimed for providing relevant and timely information to pros. Save time, stay current, and learn some new InfoSec tricks.

Who should listen: Security professionals

Favorite episodes:

• Apple and Google go all in on contact tracing
• Are cloud computing resources the new toilet paper?
• Balkanisation, ransomware, comedy bugs close out the decade

Heavy Networking

Self-described as “an unabashedly nerdy swan dive into networking technology”, the Heavy Networking podcast is part of the Packet Pushers network. Hosts Greg Ferro, Ethan Banks, and Drew Conry-Murray explore real-life situations with network professionals and others who gush over the latest network news. With 500+ podcasts and counting, you can learn all about networking, industry standards for network technology, and popular concepts like automation.

Who should listen: Network professionals

Favorite episodes:

• Heavy Networking 508: Should Network Engineers Learn Advanced Programming Languages?
• Heavy Networking 494: Hybrid Cloud Networking – All The Details
• Heavy Networking 455: The Wonderful World Of Wireless – Beacons, Probes, SSIDs And More

FLOSS Weekly

Hosted by Doc Searls and part of the popular TWiT network, FLOSS Weekly is all about the open source world. After all, FLOSS is short for free, libre, and open source software. Searls sits down with a variety of guests and co-hosts to discuss everything from up-and-coming innovators to the best software on the market.

Who should listen: Developers and open source enthusiasts

Favorite episodes:

• FLOSS WEEKLY 576 Create/Destroy/Manipulate Your APIs
• FLOSS WEEKLY 573 Hydra: Elegantly Configure Complex Applications
• FLOSS WEEKLY 566 Flutter Update

The Cloudcast

As the name suggests, The Cloudcast is all about the hot topic of cloud computing, with an emphasis on cloud programming. This independent podcast has been around since 2011, so hosts Aaron Delp and Brian Gracely certainly know their stuff. Weekly episodes feature updates and interviews with tech leaders. Frequent topics include cloud computing, open source, serverless, DevOps, Kubernetes, big data, AI and ML, and of course the Big 3 of cloud: AWS, Azure, and GCP.

Who should listen: Programmers and cloud professionals

Favorite episodes:

• Making Microservices Work at Scale
• API Driven Edge Networking and 5G
• SRE Lessons from the Trenches
• Next-Generation Developer Collaboration

Accidental Tech Podcast

The “three nerds discussing tech, Apple, programming, and loosely related matters” are Marco Arment, Casey Liss, and John Siracusa. In this weekly podcast you’ll get a tech enthusiast’s POV on all things tech and pop culture—perfect for IT pros who like tech for fun, too.

Who should listen: Tech professionals, hobbyists, and enthusiasts

Favorite episodes:

• 376: Monogamous Gaming Lifestyle
• 371: Four-Letter Technologies
• 348: Panic Shutdown

Analog(ue)

We include Analog(ue) on this list because it looks at how we culturally engage with mobile devices and what sorts of feelings we get from technology—both positive and negative. Hosted by Myke Hurley, co-founder of Relay FM, and Casey Liss of ATP, the Analog(ue) podcast comes out every few weeks, occasionally featuring recognized leaders in IT, raising questions like: does engaging with technology emotionally attach us to it?

Who should listen: Tech enthusiasts and leaders seeking to up their emotional intelligence

Favorite episodes:

• #173: The Roaring Twenties – Holiday reviews and looking ahead at this new year
• #168: I’m Here to Do a Job – Fundraising, burnout, and vacations

Software Defined Talk

The Software Defined Talk podcast is a fun and easy listen, with hosts Michael Coté, Matt Ray, and Brandon Whichard covering all sorts of enterprise IT subjects. Frequent topics on the weekly show include Kubernetes, serverless, cloud, and DevOps.

Who should listen: Programming, DevOps, and cloud professionals

Favorite episodes:

Supporting I.T. Support

Calling all IT support professionals! This monthly podcast looks at the intersection of business and tech from the perspective of IT support—the everyday heroes of every company. Hosted by Jesse Nowlin, Each episode features an interviewer with a veteran IT professional on subjects from career growth to success and failures.

Who should listen: IT support pros and tech leaders

Favorite episodes:

Network Disrupted

A newcomer to this list, Network Disrupted it an important listen for leaders of all stripes, from managers of small teams to C-levels of global companies. Andrew Wertkin, Chief Strategy Officer at BlueCat, talks monthly with tech leaders on 21^st century business topics like innovation, digital transformation, and AI and automation.

Who should listen: Tech leaders, C-level executives, and disrupters

Favorite episodes—listen or read the transcripts here:

• How do I up-skill my team for digital transformation?
• Is there one right way to roll out new technology?
• How can I enable my organization?

a16z

VC firm Andreessen Horowitz started the a16z podcast to explore how technology affects culture, work, news, and the future. Each episode, a rotating team of hosts interviews business leaders and industry experts from across the world. A related series looks at technology news in episodes that are 20 minutes or less.

Who should listen: Tech and business leaders

Favorite episodes:

IT Visionaries

We wholeheartedly agree with this podcast’s tagline: “Your #1 source for actionable insights, lessons learned, and exclusive interviews with trailblazing IT leaders.” In each episode of IT Visionaries, part of the Mission Network, you’ll hear Fortune 100 tech leaders share their experiences, their goals, and what hasn’t quite worked. Up your IT knowledge and management skills with these 30-45 minute episodes. Short on time? Skim each episode’s page for key takeaways.

Who should listen: IT managers and leaders

Favorite episodes:

• 180: Modernizing and Humanizing the Digital Workforce with Ram Palaniappan
• 179: Adapting to the New Normal with Cognizant’s Allen Shaheen
• 171: Differentiating AI from IT with Dan Faggella, CEO Emerj

Reply All

You don’t have to be a tech professional to love this tech-adjacent podcast that’s been running since 2014. Among the best podcast hosts, PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman combine personalities and interests to answer bizarre tech issues in their Super Tech Support segment, do full-on investigative journalism, and even test their up-to-the-minute pop culture knowledge with a Twitter game called Yes Yes No.

Who should listen: Anyone interested in the convergence of tech and pop culture

Favorite episodes:

Run and Reinvent by BMC

Of course, we’d be remiss not to mention our own podcast, Run and Reinvent by BMC. In each episode, we interview industry leaders from BMC and beyond to get insight on the digital transformation challenges and successes of IT and business decision makers.

Who should listen: IT professionals and tech leaders

Favorite episodes:

Run & Reinvent Podcast · Elevating Innovation at BMC

Run & Reinvent Podcast · Episode 25: Understanding AI and the Impact Intelligent Technologies Have on Businesses Today

<Run & Reinvent Podcast · Episode 20: CIO Insights – Reinventing IT to Become a World-Class Organization

Why listen to podcasts?

Podcast enthusiasm has grown significantly in the last decade, with recent research indicating 50% of U.S. households listen to podcasts. Listening to podcasts offers a new way to learn and engage your brain. Use a smartphone and headphones to use them on-the-go, while running errands, working out, or going for a drive.

For IT professionals, these podcasts also offer benefits to IT professionals like:

• Developing new skills
• Staying current with tech news and trends
• Sharpening soft skills like multitasking, focus, and attention
• Exploring new areas of interest
• Getting updates on tech conferences

How to listen to podcasts

If you’re listening while you work, Most podcasts are available directly on their websites, so you can listen in-browser. Prefer to stay organized and portable with your podcasts? Here are the most popular listening platforms, with smartphone apps so you can download and listen at your convenience:

• Overcast
• Pocket Casts
• Stitcher
• Relay FM
• iTunes
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify

CIOs face a number of challenges when it comes to the concept of digital transformation or DX. And there is often immense pressure to launch big digital changes to gain a competitive advantage, for example, creating a roadmap to keep critical processes and technology current. All this must be done while laying the groundwork for an innovative, forward-thinking corporate culture.

With many considerations to be made when working through digital transformation, it’s no surprise that many experts have published material on the subject. With that in mind, here are my top picks for reading about Digital Transformation.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

EDGE: Value-Driven Digital Transformation

Jim Highsmith, Linda Luu, David Robinson

Target Audience
EDGE is written not for just any CEO, CIO, chief digital officer, CMO, chief strategy officer, program manager, or individual contributor – it is written for a unique segment of leaders known as Courageous Executives. These leaders are “boundless in their thinking, bold in their actions, and passionate about technology. EDGE is written for those who are committed to moving forward and enacting transformation.

Summary
EDGE provides a framework to help enterprise transform with practical advice. It contains clear methodologies and strategies for digital transformation initiatives with an emphasis on outcomes. EDGE is the most recent addition to this list of digital transformation books, and perhaps the most useful as well for organizations in need of an operating model to help them thrive on the edge of change.

About the Authors
Jim Highsmith is an Executive Consultant at ThoughtWorks with more than 50 years’ experience in the IT industry in various capacity. Jim has been a strong voice in the agile community for the past 20 years.

Linda Luu is a consultant and Head of Digital Transformation at ThoughtWorks. For two decades, Linda has helped organizations around the world with digital transformation particularly in the areas of design thinking, big data and analytics, portfolio management, and agile delivery.

David Robinson is a Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks. David is a “recovering executive”, having spent more than 30 years as a CIO and in other leadership positions in and outside of technology. David helps organizations drive digital transformation.

The Digital Transformation Playbook

David L. Rogers

Target Audience
Any business leader, but specifically those at the helm of businesses that were established before the age of the Internet.

Summary
Rogers provides clear direction for pre-digital era companies to realign their businesses, not by updating technology but rather by changing their business strategy and corporate thinking in order to compete more effectively in a technology-driven world.

This playbook offers step-by-step guidance for legacy businesses to succeed in a digital economy by understanding that:

1. Customers are part of a network.
2. Competition comes from platforms more than products.
3. Data is a strategic asset.
4. Innovation is driven by small experiments and scaling.
5. Value is dynamic and adaptable.

These insights make The Digital Transformation Playbook an invaluable resource for businesses struggling to successfully ignite their digital transformation.

About the Author
Rogers is an author, speaker and consultant best known for working with global companies such as Google, GE and IBM. When he’s not traveling to speak to audiences or consult for large enterprises, Rogers teaches digital strategy and marketing at Columbia Business School.

Digital to the Core: Remastering Leadership for Your Industry, Your Enterprise, and Yourself

Mark Raskino and Graham Waller

Target Audience
CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and business leaders interested in learning how to remap their industry to embrace new technology.

Summary
In the Gartner book, Digital To The Core: Remastering Leadership For Your Industry, Your Enterprise, and Yourself, the authors suggest that three disruptive forces are critical to penetrating an organization’s technology and culture:

1. Resolution Revolution – According to Gartner, this factor allows us to accurately “measure and precisely control things and events.”
2. Compound Uncertainty – This represents complex digital changes that shift the paradigm for how leaders run their business within a given industry and the implications of such changes. These occur in three areas: technology, culture and regulation.
3. Boundary Blurring – This occurs when the physical and digital worlds collide and bring about change within the organization.

According to the authors, leaders must be open to being pioneers in their organizations. They recommend focusing on remapping your industry, remodeling your enterprise and remaking yourself.

Each of these, described in depth in the book, work toward the goal of a leadership paradigm shift, that allows leaders to redefine their organizations to embrace changes in technology.

About the Authors
Raskino and Waller are both executives at Gartner. Raskino is the Vice President of the organization, while Waller is Research Vice President.

Digital Vortex: How Today’s Market Leaders Can Beat Disruptive Competitors at Their Own Game

Jeff Loucks, James Macaulay, Andy Noronha and Michael Wade

Target Audience
C-level executives who want to compete in a time of disruptive technology.

Summary
The author describes the Digital Vortex as “a force that pulls everything to the center”. In this metaphor the vortex is chaotic, drawing things to its middle at increasing velocity as disruption occurs, causing organizations to smash into one another sometimes merging or dissolving completely. At the center is a complete digital revolution.

The book begs several questions: How will your business fair in this vortex? Will it collapse? Will it become something different? Will it be stronger and more successful? The authors attempt to unlock the answers that will provide leadership with insight on how to achieve the best results.

The text explains that legacy businesses are focused on three areas:

1. Capital
2. Brand
3. Customers

While startups are focused on three distinct aspects of business, also:

1. Agility
2. Experimentation and Risk
3. Innovation

At the core, the book asserts that established businesses with legacy technology have a lot to learn from startups as they navigate the digital vortex.

About the Authors
Loucks is the Executive Director of Deloitte. He is the former Director at Cisco’s Digitization office and has specialized in disruptive technology for about two decades.

Wade is a professor at IMD, teaching Innovation and Strategy. He also holds the Cisco Chair for Digital Business Transformation and is the Director of a Cisco and IMD joint-initiative called the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation.

Noronha is a current Director at Cisco’s Digitization office and has been with the company for a decade. In his current role, he develops and deploys strategy to keep Cisco at the forefront of industry disruption.

Macaulay is a Senior Director at Cisco’s Digitization office. He has published an extensive amount of research on digitization and has a career that spans over two decades.

Be the Business: CIOs in the New Era of IT

Martha Heller

Target Audience
This practical text is thought-provoking for CIOs who want to lead innovatively in today’s digital economy.

Summary
Heller illuminates the path for CIOs who want to overcome digital disruption. For the first time, companies are using technology in every aspect of business and IT isn’t a limited department. The book outlines the many dilemmas that today’s CIOs face as businesses experience these changes.

With a deep knowledge of how the role of CIO has changed over the last five years, Heller outlines traits that are important for CIOs to embody in their leadership strategy. She provides insight on how to position the internal IT department in a number of ways:

• As management consultants,
• As customer experience experts,
• As innovators,
• As security professionals; and
• As promoters of end-user adoption

About the Author
Heller is the Founder and CEO of Heller Search Associates, a recruitment firm specializing in executive IT placement. Before starting her own business, she was Managing Director of the IT Leadership Practice at ZRG Partners.

No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends

Richard Dobbs, Dr. James Manyika and Dr. Jonathan Woetzel

Target Audience
All business leaders and executives looking to respond to a disruptive digital business world.

Summary
A publication from the McKinsey Global Institute, No Ordinary Disruption examines trends in disruption to provide a timely analysis of the digital transformation that businesses are currently undergoing. The author considers four critical forces surrounding disruptive technology trends:

1. The rise of emerging markets
2. The impact of technology on the natural forces of market competition
3. The aging population of the world
4. Accelerating flows of trade, capital, people and data

This book beckons business leaders to challenge their intuitions to embrace disruption and digital transformation. The authors believe our current collective intuition was formed during the Great Moderation, a period of economic stability which started in the mid-1980’s. However, this era is over and understanding the disruptive forces at play today is more important than ever.

The depth of research and analytics plus a uniquely energetic writing style makes this the perfect text for any business leader.

About the Authors
Dobbs is a Senior Partner at McKinsey, London. He is responsible for research and the service of clients ranging from IT to the financial industry.

Manyika is Chairman and Director, McKinsey Global Institute and Senior Partner, San Francisco. He specializes in clients from high tech industries and draws knowledge from years of experience in innovation and strategy.

MGI Director and Senior Partner in Shanghai, Woetzel offers his experience working for McKinsey in China. His responsibilities include research on global business trends and providing strategy for cities to create sustainable economic growth.

The New IT: How Technology Leaders are Enabling Business Strategy in the Digital Age

Jill Dyché

Target Audience
CIOs, CTOs and in-house IT leaders who are now charged with leading their company towards its digital destiny.

Summary
The revolution that’s occurring in enterprise IT kicks the tech executive’s role up to a new, more prestigious level. But CIOs who aren’t aware of how to maneuver these changes run the risk of becoming irrelevant players within the organization.

The New IT: How Technology Leaders are Enabling Business Strategy in the Digital Age is a strategy guide for technology professionals who have been on the offensive line of ushering their organizations into the digital age that is now upon us. Unquestionably, these IT visionaries deserve a seat at the leadership table, and the author arms them with the tools to do just that.

By way of research and strategic insight, Dyché provides executives with resources that will train CIOs to succeed in a dynamic workplace.

About the Author
Dyché is an author, advocate and advisor to top companies around the globe. She has been an IT consultant for over two decades. When Dyché isn’t publishing new material, she lectures at IT conferences and pursues her passion for animal advocacy.

Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale

Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky, and Barry O’Reilly

Target Audience
Software developers and IT departments who are embracing Agile.

Summary
O’Reilly Media published Lean Enterprise to offer a guide to enterprise software development that questions how well IT departments and developers adjust to a fluctuating market, customer need and new technology. Based on Lean/Agile principles, the author provides instruction on how to scale for an enterprise model and how to turn around projects quickly without compromising quality.

One of the best features of the book is that it offers real-life examples in the form of case studies that readers can apply to their knowledge and experiences. As the need for qualified DevOps professionals has only inflated since this book was published in 2014, Lean Enterprise is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to elevate their career in IT.

About the Authors
Humble is a speaker, author and consultant who has worked with many Fortune 500 companies on their enterprise software development strategy. He has co-authored two award-winning books, Lean Enterprise and Continuous Delivery. The latter is a guide to successful software releases.

Molesky is an IT Risk & Compliance consultant with ThoughtWorks. She consults on software development areas that include continuous delivery and process improvement and offers a unique lens of how it applies to risk, compliance and controls.

O’Reilly is an expert on continuous improvement using Lean and Agile philosophy. He offers insight from his experience as a consultant to enterprise companies as well as startups.

Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation

George Westerman, Didier Bonnet, and Andrew McAfee

Target Audience
Anyone who wants their business to become a Digital Master in the tapestry of the digital era.

Summary
In Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation the authors tout their complete guide on how to turn your company into a digital master in just 12 steps. Each is described in detail in the text.

These include:

1. Building awareness. Ensuring that each leader in the organization is on board with creating a strategy around digital disruption.
2. Finding your starting point. It is important to take inventory of your company’s digital competencies and determine which are most mature and which need more work.
3. Creating a shared vision. This is key because alignment within leadership is required for success.
4. Translating your vision into action. This involves setting strategic goals and creating a plan for action.
5. Building your governance. Strong digital governance is essential for completion.
6. Funding the transformation. This means making sure the budget is there to support your goals.
7. Signaling your ambitions. Market the goals of the transformation to internal or external stakeholders.
8. Earning the right to engage. Allow employees to earn mindshare during this process. Determine which employees would be active participants that may have ideas about digital transformation to help co-create solutions.
9. Setting new behaviors and the evolution of culture. Changes in technology are almost always a catalyst for some cultural changes.
10. Building foundation skills. Form a well-thought-out and structured digital platform.
11. Aligning incentives and rewards. This step is critical to overcoming the hurdle of employee resistance.
12. Measuring, monitoring and iterating. Make sure processes are in place to do all three.

About the Authors
Westerman is a Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy. His research and instruction focuses on digital leadership and innovation.

Bonnet is a Senior Vice-President and Global Practice Leader at Capgemini Consulting. He is also Executive Sponsor for Capgemini’s Digital Transformation offering.

At MIT, McAfee is a principal research scientist who co-founded the institution’s Initiative on the Digital Economy.

The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations

Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois and John Willis

Target Audience
Business owners and C-level executives who have an internal IT department and are considering expanding to DevOps, or those who already employ DevOps professionals but want to know more about effective management for this group.

Summary
The value proposition of The DevOps Handbook is that the management of technology is a key component for competitiveness in a digital marketplace. It offers research and insight on the role that effective DevOps strategy and development can make on a company.

This guide presents leaders with ways to increase organizational learning by creating cultural norms and deploying the right digital practices.

About the Authors
Kim is the Founder of IT Revolution and also an acclaimed author and researcher. In his career, he has won awards as CTO, which was a role he served in for 13 years. Gene has published four books on technology, including The DevOps Handbook.

Humble is a speaker, author and consultant who has worked with many Fortune 500 companies on their enterprise software development strategy as mentioned above.

Dubois is an expert at bridging the gap between project teams and operations. He is the current CTO of Small Town Heroes and offers specific insight on Agile principles, project management and system administration.

Willis is the current Vice President of DevOps and Digital Practices at SJ Technologies and has worked with IT Revolution for over 35 years.

Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation

Amy C. Edmondson and Susan Salter Reynolds

Target Audience
This book is for anyone who wants to learn about the landscape of digital transformation across industries and who is interested in the concept of big teaming. It is particularly relevant for business owners, executives and business leaders.

Summary
Authors Amy C. Edmonson and Susan Salter Reynolds explore the complex world of big teaming in this landmark publication. By design, the book addresses the concept of large-scale innovation that is systemic in nature, and the intense collaboration that must occur between professionals and industry with many differences but share a common goal, getting through digital transformation.

Their research includes anecdotes from professionals across many backgrounds including software entrepreneurs, real estate developers and building contractors. When readers dive into Building the Future, they get an idea for the differences in principles, values and operations across the industries explored, and begin to understand the challenges associated with big teaming.

About the Authors
Edmonson is a Novartis Professor of Leadership Management at Harvard Business School. She studied at Harvard and began her career as Chief Engineer at Buckminster Fuller Institute in the 1980s.

A 25-year veteran writer for the Los Angeles Times and published author, Salter Reynolds offers her insight on a variety of subjects with authority and finesse.

Digital or Death: Digital Transformation – The Only Choice for Business to Survive, Smash, and Conquer

Dominic Mazzone

Target Audience
CIOs and CTOs who want to learn about how to navigate digital transformation, and who are more inclined to learn from books that may be written in a non-traditional way.

Summary
What’s possibly most unique about Digital or Death is it’s fresh approach to digital transformation using lively language and real world examples. The energy of the author is felt throughout the text, making it a more exciting read than most books you pick up on technology.

While the author does offer humorous anecdotes, by design this book is meant to expand the creative, divergent thinking of the CTOs and CIOs who benefit from learning about the author’s approach to DX strategy. The book offers insight using the following cornerstones:

1. Defining digital transformation
2. Providing practical strategy to avoid digital die-off
3. Listing and educating on the four pillars of digital transformation
4. Offering suggestions on Wonder Theory
5. Championing disruption via Revolution Delivery
6. Explaining the importance of Dynamic Interaction
7. Incorporating the Strawberry Model and Christmas Effect into your business

If some of these models and concepts sound foreign to you, it’s time to pick up the book and learn from one of the greatest minds in digital transformation.

About the Author
Mazzone is a digital guru, public speaker and consultant who works with enterprise businesses on digital transformation. A serial entrepreneur, he takes pride in his ability to help startups reach their full potential as highly-sought-after industry disruptors.

The Digital Matrix: New Rules for Business Transformation Through Technology

Venkat Venkatraman

Target Audience
Legacy business owners and C-level executives.

Summary
Many businesses that have been around for a long time, don’t question the operational rules that made them successful. As a result, they are working under an antiquated model that doesn’t set them up for optimal success in the digital era.

The goal of The Digital Matrix is to update the strategic playbook for legacy businesses who are now in a marketplace where they compete with smart, savvy startups who corner entire market shares.

The Digital Matrix helps business leaders understand the types of players in the new business landscape, the phases of transformation and three winning moves. Digital transformation is not one-size-fits-all and this playbook offers strategies that could work for most legacy businesses. As such, The Digital Matrix is an essential piece of literature for any business owner who has been in business prior to the Internet.

About the Author
Venkatraman is the David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management at Boston University Questrom School of Business. He is appointed to the Information Systems and Strategy and Innovation Departments. He has taught at MIT and London Business School and has received multiple awards for his work.

Even more great books

World Class IT

Peter High

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/World-Class-Businesses-Succeed-Triumphs/dp/0470450185

A Seat at the Table: IT Leadership in the Age of Agility

Mark Schwartz

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Seat-Table-Leadership-Age-Agility/dp/1942788118

IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain

Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Savvy-What-Executives-Must-Know/dp/1422181014

Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value

Richard Hunter and George Westerman

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Real-Business-Create-Communicate-Value/dp/1422147614

Building the Agile Business through Digital Transformation: How to Lead Digital Transformation in Your Workplace

Neil Perkin and Peter Abraham

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Business-through-Digital-Transformation/dp/0749480394

Conclusion: Digital Transformation Is Here

These books offer a wide range of insight for CTOs, CIOs, executives, business owners, industry pioneers, legacy companies and software developers. With many strategies for overcoming digital transformation, there is truly something for everyone in this list of top 12 books.

However, the one common thread in all of these publications is the warning that digital transformation is no longer approaching; it’s already here. And any organization that has not started to plan for a cultural shift to embrace technology in every process across all departments could face the risk of falling behind its competitors in the digital vortex of change.

Additional Resources

If you are anything like me, you like to learn and keep up to date with changes in the IT service management space. This knowledge can be helpful, giving you opportunities to improve your own practices. Of course, not everything must be new or reinvent the wheel: if there is something you want to improve, there is a very good chance that someone else has already thought of it—and hopefully written about it!

A wealth of published information is available both online and in books. In this article, I share my top five book picks. These are books that I have read and continue to refer to regularly. These are not necessarily new publications, but they are very relevant to the work we do in service management.

As with any list of this kind, the criterion is personal. These are the books that aren’t relegated to my bookshelf. These books comprise the pile of well-thumbed volumes that sit within arm’s reach on my desk, or in some cases downloaded on my Kindle. These are my ‘value add’ books, the ones that clarify my thoughts and help me to focus in on what needs to be done in order to drive improvement.

One caveat: I am not including the ITIL® core books in this list, or foundational texts from VeriSM™ and other official bodies of knowledge. If you work in ITSM, I’ll take it for granted that you own or have access to these. I will say, however, that if you have not read the ITIL4 Foundation, add that to your list!

In no particular order, these are the five ITSM books you should put on your wish list.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Plus! The Standard+Case Approach

Rob England

My first time reading Plus! Standard+Case gave me one of those exciting ‘ah ha’ moments. Many ITSM practitioners will read this book and realize they knew a lot of this, but didn’t know how to explain it. Rob manages, in a relatively short text, to give you the tools you need to dramatically improve your incident practices, lighten your workload, and improve customer satisfaction. If this sounds a bit like a magic bullet, it might because it is!

Rob describes Standard+Case as “a synthesis of our conventional “Standard” process-centric approach to responding, with Case management, a discipline well-known in industry sectors such as health, social work, law and policing”. If you are involved with responding to situations, at any level, this book will change the way you think and work.

Balanced Diversity: A Portfolio Approach to Organizational Change

Karen Ferris

Organizational change still seems to be the elephant in the room during technology change initiatives. If you don’t get it right, no matter how good your new systems may be, you are setting yourself up for failure.

In Balanced Diversity, Karen introduces us to a scalable portfolio of diverse practices that can be used to embed change, both small and enterprise-wide, into your organization. This book translates a comprehensive study of successful organizational change into an actionable methodology for change specifically targeted at the ITSM ecosystem.

In virtually every organization I have worked with, the concepts Karen introduces here have proved invaluable in embedding change successfully.

The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard about The Phoenix Project, a story-based introduction to using DevOps in IT service management. On my first read, I found myself recognizing the personalities of the characters in the story—I have worked with these people! That’s what makes the book resonate with technology workers: we have all met, worked, and battled with these people during our careers.

So, why invest time to read this book? Because it introduces new ways of working and cooperating, demonstrating clear, achievable benefits. It also highlights inevitable stumbling blocks you can prepare for. Plus, it is both an easy and enjoyable read that will help you explain why this way of working is changing the face of service management.

IT Change Management: A Practitioner’s Guide

Greg Sanker

IT change management is daunting. Get it wrong and either you will expose your organization to the risk of change-related outages or you will impede growth and stifle innovation. In our world, the rate of change is only increasing, so managing change effectively and efficiently is critical to delivering favorable business outcomes.

In IT Change Management, Greg demystifies change management, giving a no-nonsense, practical guide to getting it right, balancing risk and reward, and delivering positive results to your organization. Understanding when you can speed things up and when you need to put the brakes on to protect the business is a balancing act—a valuable lesson this book teaches to every ITSM change practitioner.

Basic Service Management

Rob England

Two books by Rob England in the same list! I may seem like a bit of a fan-girl, but Rob has a way of delivering valuable insights in an easily digestible and practical way. Basic Service Management is a book that every rookie in service management should read. Its quick 50 pages introduce key ITSM concepts, then point you towards additional resources to solidify your knowledge.

I recommend reading this before plunging into ITIL or other ITSM bodies of knowledge. It is also a perfect primer for anyone in management who needs to understand the basics of service management. Slip it under the boss’s door, or into their briefcase, it’s a perfect title for commuting.

I hope you will find some gems of wisdom in these volumes, and I’d love to hear your suggestions for ‘must reads’—I am always looking for new ideas. Happy reading!

While it is crucial for company leaders to have strong content knowledge, what separates great leaders from mediocre ones is emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to not only express, control, and be aware of one’s own emotions, but also to have the capacity to understand and empathize with others’ emotions, as well.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Research has shown that emotional intelligence is a key leadership skill, made up of components like self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and general social skills. The good thing about emotional intelligence, however, is that it can be learned, so even if it isn’t currently your strong suit, you can be well on your way to developing effective leadership skills with some practice. We have put together a list of the top ten books on emotional intelligence for CIOs and IT leaders.

On Emotional Intelligence
By: Harvard Business Review

About: Comprised of ten articles by experts in the emotional intelligence field, including bestselling author Daniel Goleman, this book is the perfect launching point to begin your emotional intelligence journey. Covering topics like how to manage conflict and regulate emotions, On Emotional Intelligence will help you to better understand your strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals.

This collection of articles includes:

• “What Makes a Leader” by Daniel Goleman
• “Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
• “Why It’s So Hard to Be Fair” by Joel Brockner
• “Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions” by Andrew Campbell, Jo Whitehead, and Sydney Finkelstein
• “Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups” by Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steve B. Wolff
• “The Price of Incivility: Lack of Respect Hurts Morale―and the Bottom Line” by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson
• “How Resilience Works” by Diane Coutu
• “Emotional Agility: How Effective Leaders Manage Their Negative Thoughts and Feelings” by Susan David and Christina Congleton
• “Fear of Feedback” by Jay M. Jackman and Myra H. Strober
• “The Young and the Clueless” by Kerry A. Bunker, Kathy E. Kram, and Sharon Ting

EQ Applied: The Real-World Guide to Emotional Intelligence
By: Justin Bariso

About: EQ Applied provides a variety of real-world strategies for applying emotional intelligence in day-to-day situations as well as in professional settings. Using compelling research and high-profile practical examples, like Steve Jobs’s exit and return to Apple, stories from the FBI’s former lead kidnap investigator, and a famous singer, this book offers insights into increasing your emotional intelligence quotient (EQ).

Author Justin Bariso covers topics like processing your emotional reactions, breaking bad habits, discovering how to protect yourself against toxic people, and learning how emotions can work for you instead of against you.

The Critical Thinker: The Path To Better Problem Solving, Accurate Decision Making, and Self-Disciplined Thinking
By: Steven Schuster

About: Critical thinking, the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment, is a crucial skill not only for the workplace but in general relationships, as well. Improving critical thinking skills will help you:

• Become a more effective communicator
• Filter out irrelevant information
• Understand different perspectives
• Enhance your problem-solving approaches
• Improve your logical thinking and reasoning skills

The Critical Thinker gives you a complete understanding of the rules and principles of critical thinking practiced by Einstein, Plato and every great thinker in history. Utilizing their methods, become a more solution-oriented leader, solving difficult tasks while unifying your workforce.

Show Up as Your Best Self: Mindful Leaders, Meditation, & More
By: Cathy Quartner Bailey

About: In Show Up as Your Best Self, executive coach Cathy Quartner Bailey presents a roadmap to becoming a more mindful leader. With experience working with hundreds of Fortune 500 executives, Bailey teaches you techniques that will help you increase your leadership potential by enhancing your confidence, decisiveness, and ability to stay calm amidst chaos.

Featuring engaging leadership stories and interactive worksheets, this is a book for leaders wishing to become more adept at setting priorities, solving problems, managing uncertainty, and developing strong relationships. As an added benefit, ten percent of royalties from Show Up as Your Best Self will be donated to Sheltered Yoga, a nonprofit organization that facilitates mental health and wellness through yoga and mindfulness education.

Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership
By: Michael Ventura

About: Although it is often considered one of the most challenging emotional intelligence characteristics to strengthen, empathy is vital in being an effective leader. For leaders at any level, this groundbreaking guide provides the foundation needed to establish a strong and innovative team by seeing things from their perspective.

Michael Ventura, entrepreneur and CEO of award-winning design firm Sub Rosa, shares practical strategies he has utilized in cultivating empathy with iconic organizations like General Electric, Google, Nike, Warby Parker, and The United Nations. Applied Empathy offers CIOs and IT leaders a radical new business book and way forward.

Emotional Judo: Communication Skills to Handle Difficult Conversations and Boost Emotional Intelligence
By: Tim Higgs

About: Difficult conversations are a necessary part of being in charge, and emotionally intelligent leaders cannot simply shy away from these types of situations. Emotional Judo is a book that helps decision-makers learn better ways to communicate in tricky scenarios, covering how to know what to say and when to say it.

Full of ten different engaging strategies, this book digs into easy-to-learn, memorable communication skills:

1. Learn the hidden, crucial key to building winning relationships
2. Assess your relationships through the five aspects of trust
3. Learn how to say “no”, set your boundaries, negotiate, and resolve disagreements
4. Bring up difficult subjects in a way that invites collaboration, minimizes push-back and conflict, and gains win/win outcomes
5. If people do push back, learn how to manage that with ease
6. Quickly assess whether now is the right time or situation to speak up
7. Deal effectively with a bully or a person who is not respectful of your boundaries
8. Gain courage to call people on their unethical behavior
9. Get people that are stuck to their viewpoint to see an alternative
10. Build stronger relationships with people across generations and cultures

Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
By: Brené Brown

About: No matter what industry, but especially in one as ever-changing as tech, when you take big chances you also take big risks. With these risks comes the potential of big failures. Brought to you from bestselling author and social scientist Brené Brown, Rising Strong is a compilation of hundreds of stories of failures and how the subjects learned from them.

With stories from leaders in Fortune 500 companies and the military to artists, couples in long-term relationships, teachers, and parents, this book uncovers how these individuals recognized their emotions throughout their struggles and leaned into the discomfort, rising stronger than ever before.

The Power of Your Potential: How to Break Through Your Limits
By: John C. Maxwell

About: One of the biggest components of emotional intelligence is self-awareness, which includes understanding and developing your own strengths as a person and as a leader. This book from John Maxwell identifies and examines the 17 key capacities each of us possess as well as offers clear and actionable advice on how to improve them.

Some of these key capacities include:

• Managing your emotions
• Increasing energy
• Conquering procrastination
• Becoming more comfortable taking risks

Utilizing these skills, Maxwell ensures you will discover your true potential, becoming a better leader than you ever thought possible.

How We Work: Live Your Purpose, Reclaim Your Sanity, and Embrace the Daily Grind
By: Leah Weiss, PhD

About: Based on Dr. Leah Weiss’s overwhelmingly popular course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, How We Work offers a practical guide to embracing emotional intelligence to become our best selves at work and in our personal lives.

Through techniques of mindfulness and awareness, Dr. Weiss emphasizes how we must stop being our false self in the business environment and instead bring our whole selves to the office, including oftentimes more negatively viewed emotions like anxiety, fear, or envy. By learning how to attend to these difficult emotions at the workplace without becoming consumed by them, we are able to increase our overall success by sharpening abilities, enhancing leadership and interpersonal skills, and improving satisfaction.

HBR Guide to Emotional Intelligence
By: Harvard Business Review

About: Another resource from Harvard Business Review, HBR Guide to Emotional Intelligence is the ultimate how-to on all emotional intelligence essentials, covering basic definitions and examples as well as how to understand your own personal EQ and how to cultivate the EQ skills on your team.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

• Determine your emotional intelligence strengths and weaknesses
• Understand and manage your emotional reactions
• Deal with difficult people
• Make smarter decisions
• Bounce back from tough times
• Help your team develop emotional intelligence

With the concept of digital transformation permeating almost every industry this year, it is crucial that organizations take notice and evolve. For leaders and key decision makers especially, it is vital to understand the different aspects of digital transformation for business as well as ways to ensure it is successful.

We have put together a list of some of the most popular TED Talks surrounding digital transformation, covering topics from AI and Machine Learning to the role of digital transformation and organizational change in general. These digital transformation TED Talks discuss ideas about new innovations in the field, their implications, advantages, and potential consequences.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Digital Leadership vs Digital Transformation

Nelson Phillips

Digital transformation is about fundamental changes needed in our organizations where we work, the society where we live, and, perhaps less obviously, the nature of the leaders and leadership we need. In this TED Talk, Professor Nelson Phillips argues the point that our digital leadership needs to get as good as our abilities to create and apply innovative digital technologies, leaving behind the traditional methods in its wake.

Why Digital Transformation Has Little to Do with Technology

Tobias Burkhardt

For most people, the potential of our digital future is extremely intimidating. In this presentation, Tobias Burkhardt discusses the idea of how technology’s exponential computing power and intelligent algorithms are nothing if our human mindsets can’t handle them. He covers ideas about how future generations can use technology to completely disrupt life we we know it, but only if they believe they can in the first place.

5 Ways to Lead in an Era of Constant Change

Jim Hemerling

Organizational change expert Jim Hemerling believes that adapting current business processes should be invigorating and exciting instead of something to dread. In this talk, he outlines five strategic imperatives for how leaders can turn company reorganization into an empowering, energizing task for all. These all involve putting people first and start with connecting to a deeper sense of purpose, instilling teams with the capabilities they need to be successful through change.

The Difficulty of Digital Transformation & How to Make It Happen

Rico Dittrich

Currently working as Digital Analytics Specialist at Google, Rico Dittrich specializes in collaborating with large German retailers to set them up for the future of online measurement, attribution, and automation. In this presentation, he shares three examples of major German companies and how they can utilize digital technologies to transform their business, providing a sample framework for other companies looking to do the same.

Big Data Is Better Data

Kenneth Cukier

In this TED talk, presenter Kenneth Cukier looks at the role that Big Data currently plays in the modern world and how technological advancements have already solved many common problems. By looking at the nature of work and how that is changing too, Cukier discusses how simply reframing challenges could help organizations understand how digital transformation could impact their company and its operations.

How to Start a Movement

Derek Sivers

In this bite-sized TED Talk (two minutes total), presenter Derek Sivers uses a nontraditional method to explain how to start a movement. By showing a humorous video clip, Sivers explains how digital leaders must be willing to not only take a plunge to spark radical change, but that they must have strong followers who believe in their vision, as well.

Why Not Robot?

Scott Klososky

Do you wonder how robotics, AI, Machine Learning, and other technologies will affect your life? Scott Klososky shares his vision of how machine intelligence could impact humanity in the close future as well as many years from now. He leaves his audience contemplating revolutionary ideas about the benefits and potential problems as well as how companies can approach these future trends.

How Data Will Transform Business

Philip Evans

As technology advances and changes, business strategies also need to be adapted. Speaker Philip Evans presents on the ways that technology is disrupting the value chain as we know it as well as how business models must adjust in response. He argues that business strategy is dramatically changing and organizations need to adopt a different concept of it in order to succeed and thrive in the digital future.

How to Build a Business That Lasts 100 Years

Martin Reeves

If you want to build a business that lasts, there may be no better place to look for inspiration than your own immune system. In this TED Talk, strategist Martin Reeves applies biology concepts to organizations. He explains how executives can apply six principles from living organisms to build resilient businesses that flourish in the face of change, including during digital transformations.

Ensuring a Successful Transformation

BMC offers a structured approach to digital transformation that helps businesses respond swiftly and effectively to digital disruption. Learn more in the blog series, “Digital Transformation that Endures.”

In the age of digital transformation, approaches to predicative analytics and automation look different for every organization. For some, it is a push towards embracing new technologies as a way to improve operations, while for others it is a radical shift in business processes to completely change systems as they know them.

We have put together a list of some of the most popular TED Talks surrounding automation and the effects of digital transformation through technologies like AI and Machine Learning. These digital transformation TED Talks discuss ideas about new innovations in the field, their implications, advantages, and potential consequences.

(This article is part of our Tech Books & Talks Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

1. Can we build AI without losing control over it?
Sam Harris

Have you taken the time to think about what will happen if machines ever become more intelligent than humans? Maybe you should. In this presentation, neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris poses this question and more, covering the benefits and risks associated with superintelligent AI. As technology only continues to be improved upon each year, this seemingly sci-fi idea could quickly become a reality, giving machines the power to further improve themselves.

2. What happens when our computers get smarter than we are?
Nick Bostrom

In a similar theme, philosopher and technologist Nick Bostrom examines how we will handle our AI once it becomes as “smart” as a human being (with some research suggesting this could even happen within the current century). As AI sees an intelligence explosion, it will be up to current engineers and technologists to figure out how to give it not only human capabilities, but our values and ideals, as well.

3. Don’t Fear Superintelligent AI
Grady Booch

Scientist and philosopher Grady Booch presents on the concept of superintelligent AI and what this could look like in years to come. Instead of fearing it, however, he recommends we view it as a way to enhance human life, teaching our machines human values and emotions when possible. By teaching them through systems and games, Booch rationalizes we will be able to one day trust machines more than people.

4. We’re Building a Dystopia Just to Make People Click on Ads
Zeynep Tufekci

In an eye-opening presentation, techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci details how personalization marketing goes far beyond clicking on ads. With companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon utilizing algorithms to personalize content, these same algorithms are used to predict personal and other social information, to most people’s lack of knowledge. Tufekci offers some solutions to help control this type of technology we well as what organizations can do to begin the conversation.

5. How we’ll earn money in a future without jobs
Martin Ford

As machines continue to become more intelligent, an underlying fear for many people has been: will a machine ultimately take over my job? In a straightforward talk about this idea, futurist Martin Ford points out how this fear has gone back hundreds of years, with the concerns coming up again and again as something new is innovated. He also makes the case for a universal basic income instead of an income from traditional work.

6. 5 ways to lead in an era of constant change
Jim Hemerling

Organizational change expert Jim Hemerling believes that adapting current business processes should be invigorating and exciting instead of something to dread. In this talk, he outlines five strategic imperatives for how leaders can turn company reorganization into an empowering, energizing task for all. These imperatives all involve putting people first, and start with connecting to a deeper sense of purpose, instilling teams with the capabilities they need to be successful through change.

7. The jobs we’ll lose to machines – and the ones we won’t
Anthony Goldbloom

As Machine Learning continues to become more complex, and moves beyond simple tasks like sorting mail and assessing credit risk, workers become more concerned that their jobs will eventually be replaced by a robot. Anthony Goldbloom, co-founder and CEO of Kaggle, presents on this concept and explains why machines may be able to take over frequent, high-volume tasks but how they will never be able to compete with humans regarding jobs that involve novel situations.

8. How AI can enhance our memory, work and social lives
Tom Gruber

Not everyone is worried about the potential threats that AI and Machine Learning pose. In fact, computer scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur (and one of the creators of Siri) Tom Gruber views AI as a way to make us better, with its purpose to empower humans with machine intelligence while enhancing our current abilities. Whether through perception, creativity, or cognitive function, Gruber shares his vision for a future where AI helps us achieve superhuman performance.

9. How computers are learning to be creative
Blaise Agüera y Arcas

Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a software engineer and principal scientist at Google who works with deep neural networks for machine perception and distributed learning. In his TED Talk, he demonstrates how we are beginning to model computers more after our minds, working towards making them as a human extension rather than just a machine.

10. How AI can bring a second Industrial Revolution
Kevin Kelly

We all know how life-changing the Industrial Revolution was for society, but have we yet experienced just how massive AI can be? According to Kevin Kelly, writer and founding executive editor of Wired magazine, we haven’t even scratched the surface. In this talk, Kelly examines three trends in AI we need to understand in order to embrace it and steer its development, which in 20 years, will consist mainly of things that haven’t even been invented yet.