One year later, what has Jim Swanson done?

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anonymous

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Jim Swanson started on 30 Sept 2019.

What are his accomplishments so far?

As we saw with the last 2 sorry CIO's, they flooded the joint with their old cronies from their past positions. Has Jim hired anyone from his old job(s)?

Or is he a puppet of Joaquin? Whatever Joaquin tells him to do, he does. No upsetting the apple cart.
 


anonymous said:
Jim Swanson started on 30 Sept 2019.

What are his accomplishments so far?

As we saw with the last 2 sorry CIO's, they flooded the joint with their old cronies from their past positions. Has Jim hired anyone from his old job(s)?

Or is he a puppet of Joaquin? Whatever Joaquin tells him to do, he does. No upsetting the apple cart.
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Agree JS has not done much in his first year; however, we are starting to see some mid-level changes. For example, that complete waste of space Tom Weck was recently forced in to retirement. Hopefully, we will see more changes along those lines.
 


anonymous said:
Agree JS has not done much in his first year; however, we are starting to see some mid-level changes. For example, that complete waste of space Tom Weck was recently forced in to retirement. Hopefully, we will see more changes along those lines.
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it should not have taken so long. How about that other waste of space CarlD - where is he now? Another one who had no clue what he was doing yet had connections high up in the org to get him a JnJ pension and benefits. No one could believe he made it more than a year and yet .....he did. Treated staff like crap, couldn’t make decisions and hid in New Hampshire the whole time. Those teams got nothing done when he was in charge because he had no idea about IT. When his business partners started balking, he’d blame someone on his staff and let them take the fall. It really shakes your confidence In leadership doing what is right.
 


anonymous said:
Jim Swanson started on 30 Sept 2019.

What are his accomplishments so far?

As we saw with the last 2 sorry CIO's, they flooded the joint with their old cronies from their past positions. Has Jim hired anyone from his old job(s)?

Or is he a puppet of Joaquin? Whatever Joaquin tells him to do, he does. No upsetting the apple cart.
Click to expand...

There's no making you happy lol. Must be sad to be so miserable
 


On the surface JS hasn’t shown any real change or roadmap of what he wants KJIT to be.. Dev Center issue is still there, JJT is still struggling for recoverability, the issue of shadow IT is still lingering...
Regarding Carl D and TW departure, they were on cards for last 12 months and it took JS that much time to finally make it happen...the JJT model is still confusing BT, PL, AD, AM,Platofrm teams... no clear indication on DevOpa Roadmap
 


anonymous said:
Jim Swanson started on 30 Sept 2019.

What are his accomplishments so far?

As we saw with the last 2 sorry CIO's, they flooded the joint with their old cronies from their past positions. Has Jim hired anyone from his old job(s)?

Or is he a puppet of Joaquin? Whatever Joaquin tells him to do, he does. No upsetting the apple cart.
Click to expand...

Lets get real here, the CIO really doesn't have a lot of power or considered strategic with board members. The CIO's job is to lower IT costs. IT does not generate revenue nor does it invent anything for JNJ. Jim is doing the right thing, in that he takes direction from the CFO who's job is to ensure IT costs are aligned with budgetary expectations. Honestly, you could outsource all of IT to not only lower costs but improve the quality of the service provided. I think about 90% of IT people at JNJ are lucky to be employed in IT given their lack of technology background and skillset. JNJ is not in the IT business, its in the pharmaceutical/health business. If Jim were to shake things up, then the 90% of JNJ IT people would be unemployed so maybe its a good thing that things don't change to drastically for those people. For JNJ investors/shareholders, they don't care about IT or how it is being operated, as long as IT costs stay within reason.
 


So I asked the following question ON PIGEONHOLE that JJT moderator conveniently chose not to post. Managers and Professionals take all the day to day stress and work on delivering critical JJT initiatives- yet our compensation framework guarantees LTI to directors and VPs that do not do much. why this hypocrisy? #JNJUnfair? They talk about equity, inclusion and diversity...when will they walk the talk? @JimSwanson - ask why the moderator did not post the question and send out a JJT communication to all employees on moderation?
 


You sound like someone who feels very entitled and wants everything handed to you. There's one simple fix to your problem: Work your butt off, out-perform 70% of your peers, take on more work, and get promoted. And no, promotions are not guaranteed.

Repeat that at every level you work at and you'll get rewarded for it, inclusive of LTI. At some point, most people max-out and cannot advance any further, and the people above them make more money than they do. That sucks, by those are the facts of life.
 


Agree, that’s how it should work but not in JJT. It’s all just a popularity contest, who you know, who you are aligned with. This goes back for 5+ years. Skill, competency, contributions, outcomes are not recognized via LTI in JJT. It really is at the root of all that has been wrong with this department. Unqualified leaders hiring unqualified friends, rewarding them with the LTI while those who really are doing the work are not recognized. This goes back to the SMc, SW, DZ days and has not been fully purged. No one is motivated to work hard and why should they. All the good leaders and associates have left for greener pastures. Those remaining are just waiting to turn 55.
 


anonymous said:
Agree, that’s how it should work but not in JJT. It’s all just a popularity contest, who you know, who you are aligned with. This goes back for 5+ years. Skill, competency, contributions, outcomes are not recognized via LTI in JJT. It really is at the root of all that has been wrong with this department. Unqualified leaders hiring unqualified friends, rewarding them with the LTI while those who really are doing the work are not recognized. This goes back to the SMc, SW, DZ days and has not been fully purged. No one is motivated to work hard and why should they. All the good leaders and associates have left for greener pastures. Those remaining are just waiting to turn 55.
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well said, so true
 


Jim needs to just rip the band aid off and disband TS by sending people to BT management and leave real infrastructure. Rowena answers to questions get more ridiculous each time justifying the stupid model and high overhead costs for little value. No one wants the TS model, even the people in TS. It’s way past time to finally disband it.
 


anonymous said:
You sound like someone who feels very entitled and wants everything handed to you. There's one simple fix to your problem: Work your butt off, out-perform 70% of your peers, take on more work, and get promoted. And no, promotions are not guaranteed.

Repeat that at every level you work at and you'll get rewarded for it, inclusive of LTI. At some point, most people max-out and cannot advance any further, and the people above them make more money than they do. That sucks, by those are the facts of life.
Click to expand...

your advice only works at the low levels. Once you are at Manager and above, its all about sucking up and not speaking out. If you can do this at the management level and above then you will get promoted. I have yet to meet anyone at the director level or above with any profound vision or knowledge.
 




anonymous said:
your advice only works at the low levels. Once you are at Manager and above, its all about sucking up and not speaking out. If you can do this at the management level and above then you will get promoted. I have yet to meet anyone at the director level or above with any profound vision or knowledge.
Click to expand...

but let me guess, you somehow think you will be the exception and that you will have “profound vision or knowledge “ at that level.
 


anonymous said:
Jim needs to just rip the band aid off and disband TS by sending people to BT management and leave real infrastructure. Rowena answers to questions get more ridiculous each time justifying the stupid model and high overhead costs for little value. No one wants the TS model, even the people in TS. It’s way past time to finally disband it.
Click to expand...

I'm in TS(non-infrastructure side), and couldn't agree with you more. The TS model is totally stupid and needs to go. Swanson should have got rid of it already. There's huge $ savings here that would help Jim's year-end bonus.

My typical day: 2-4 hours of morning calls with the developers in India and Brazil for my projects as the "technology solution manager". If a project has no issues, no need to do anything the rest of the day. Daily naps at lunch time. I "work" maybe 2-5 hours total, the rest I spend reading books, watching TV, playing games, whatever.

There's absolutely no career growth in TS when you don't get your hands dirty using technology. All this BS about machine-learning to assess and grow your skills is totally irrelevant when your only job is to make sure the project is implemented on-time and handle any issues that may come up.

I can't believe they pay us for this chit. I get more job satisfaction cleaning the cat's litter box than anything I do in TS.
 


anonymous said:
I'm in TS(non-infrastructure side), and couldn't agree with you more. The TS model is totally stupid and needs to go. Swanson should have got rid of it already. There's huge $ savings here that would help Jim's year-end bonus.

My typical day: 2-4 hours of morning calls with the developers in India and Brazil for my projects as the "technology solution manager". If a project has no issues, no need to do anything the rest of the day. Daily naps at lunch time. I "work" maybe 2-5 hours total, the rest I spend reading books, watching TV, playing games, whatever.

There's absolutely no career growth in TS when you don't get your hands dirty using technology. All this BS about machine-learning to assess and grow your skills is totally irrelevant when your only job is to make sure the project is implemented on-time and handle any issues that may come up.

I can't believe they pay us for this chit. I get more job satisfaction cleaning the cat's litter box than anything I do in TS.
Click to expand...

And the reward for rolling up your sleeves to get hands on with technology and advance your career is:

  1. Attacks by peers refusing to take on any new technology
  2. Leadership totally misunderstanding the capability you are being asked to deliver, while making unrealistic promises about the thing they don’t understand.
  3. Not having your subject matter expertise considered in the technical decisions, only to have the decision be politically/financially motivated instead of quality/feasibility/real-world financial implications.
  4. Zero tangible plans or alignment for adoption/maturity to get value of out purchases.

This is all totally accepted as “these are big company challenges and this is just the way it is and has been”

Jim if you read this, everyone is blowing smoke up your ass.
 


anonymous said:
Jim Swanson started on 30 Sept 2019.

What are his accomplishments so far?

As we saw with the last 2 sorry CIO's, they flooded the joint with their old cronies from their past positions. Has Jim hired anyone from his old job(s)?

Or is he a puppet of Joaquin? Whatever Joaquin tells him to do, he does. No upsetting the apple cart.
Click to expand...

Jim can only be 25% effective: he has to work within our entrenched IT culture, unattainable cost reductions, and bloated management layers draining G & A budgets; he is also afraid to fire overpaid underperforming IT leaders with friends in high places - if he crosses them, he will be fired soon. The only IT Leader who can truly right our IT ship is one who is overtly given a free hand by Alex to use every legitimate weapon in his arsenal to slash/cut/improve our IT Program. Jim is not that person by any stretch.

Besides, Jim has to protect his own comp, bonus, LTI and pension - so he has to first take care of himself before doing what is right for us.
 









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