

Heavy Strategy
Packet Pushers
From technology to workplace culture, from geopolitical trends to economics, Heavy Strategy debates pivotal questions in enterprise IT. Hosts Johna Till Johnson & John Burke bring their technical expertise, analytical acumen, and contrasting viewpoints to discuss complex topics of interest to IT leaders. Frequently irreverent and always thought-provoking, these are the conversations you wish you could have at the leadership table. Tune in and join the think tank, where unanswered questions are better than unquestioned answers.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 2, 2023 • 38min
HS053: IT Facilities in 2023
The use of physical infrastructure has changed substantially in the last three years. Data centres are scaling down, offices and branches are being re-considered. One view is that offices are ‘playgrounds’ where white collar workers gather to chat, socialise, drink free coffee and have face-to-face for one or two days a week. An opposing view is that its legacy way of working but it will take time for people to adapt to remote work.

Jul 18, 2023 • 39min
HS052: Professional Liability and Qualified Design
As technology becomes more critical and vital to companies business leaders are beginning to question the reliability and liability. Insurers now require audits and demand complienace with set practices before issuing a policy. Corporate boards are realising that so-called tech professionals have zero training or professional requirement, consultants have even less and the analysts are... Read more »

Jul 11, 2023 • 24min
HS051: Things I Wish I’d Known Back When
Oft-asked question that doesn't have a right answer. We discuss non-convential answers that career coaches or self-help twaddle won't give you.

Jun 28, 2023 • 28min
HS050: The Tech Job Debacle
Google, Microsoft, Twitter, META/FB and a few others laid off an estimated 200,000 tech and tech-adjacent folks in recent weeks. Other companies like Fedex and Amazon have made layoffs, many impacting the IT teams. What does that mean for the tech industry? Between AI and our corporate overlords are we all lucky to be employed, and should we go back to working 80 hour in-office weeks?

Jun 7, 2023 • 26min
HS049 Evanescent vs Enduring IT
IT organisations tend towards two strategic approaches - enduring, permanent and susatined. Or short term, consumable and fungible IT.

May 23, 2023 • 27min
HS048 Using Personal Product Branding To Be Better Paid Technology Engineer
Many business executives are incompetent scumbags and yet they managed to get the job and get paid serious money. What can technology engineers learn from these fools so that they get the same results aka more money and less work.

May 2, 2023 • 25min
HS047: Architect/Engineers/Operations, Career Progression and Liability
What are these roles and how do they fit into a strategy ? Who solves problems, designs solutions, and tests to make sure that’s workable ? How do we create/train people for these roles ? What about professional liability ?

Apr 18, 2023 • 28min
HS046 What Do We Do About China ?
The new geopolitical reality means that China is part of IT Strategy. The supply chain is changing, joint ventures are limited and more.

Apr 11, 2023 • 30min
HS045 Seize Opportunities for Modern IT Operations with VIA (Sponsored)
AIOps is been a buzzword but public generative AI and LLMs like ChatGPT mean there is a lot more awareness and demand. In todays sponsored show we are talking to Vitria about VIA AI Ops and how you can add it to your IT strategy.

Apr 3, 2023 • 24min
HS044 Is Digital Transformation Bollocks ?
So much wasted marketing on Digital Transformation. Was it all bollocks or was there something real underneath the bombast and hype ?