Pearl Zhu Quotes & Sayings

The well-defined principles last when time moves on. However, a progressive organization or society will love to break the old or hidden rules in order to move forward. — Pearl Zhu

The difference between an "Atypical CIO" and a "Stereotypical CIO" is not about the physical identity but at the mindset level. — Pearl Zhu

Change shouldn't be treated as a singular occurrence when it is an ongoing, continued process and dynamic capability within the organization. — Pearl Zhu

The emergence of potential opportunities for exploiting digitalization is likely to follow a nonlinear pattern as the pervasiveness of an organization's digitization journey increases. — Pearl Zhu

Agile is not prescriptive and which techniques are appropriate will depend on the context. — Pearl Zhu

The brain is the hardware, and the mind is the software, with the totality always in action, hardware plus software. — Pearl Zhu

In Systems Thinking, the true wisdom often comes from a willingness to let go of past learning. — Pearl Zhu

Passion is a strong emotion and the enthusiasm to do something. — Pearl Zhu

IT agility is a mentality, culture, process, and perspective. — Pearl Zhu

Thought leadership is by nature evolutionary, in that it must always be part of an ever-evolving flow. — Pearl Zhu

Reflection is an underlining theme of Design Thinking. — Pearl Zhu

Competition to further the world of pursuing ego=bad. Competition to improve both capabilities and processes = good. — Pearl Zhu

Metaphorically, if the enterprise is a vehicle, Enterprise Performance Management is like the gas pedal with speed scoreboard. — Pearl Zhu

It takes courage, motivation, discipline, and persistence to get out of comfort zone. — Pearl Zhu

A bridge-like CIO has the mind to think via the multidimensional lens, the gut to innovate fearlessly; the strategy to lead wisely and the skill to move progressively. — Pearl Zhu

The art of questioning is to ignite innovative thinking. — Pearl Zhu

The right set of unique digital capabilities directly decides the overall organization's competency and growth potential, to build high-effective, high-responsive, high-intelligent and high mature digital organization. — Pearl Zhu

The ignorance about the importance of cognitive differences and the behavioral dynamics that operate within their Board is contributing to the generally poor performance of Board. — Pearl Zhu

Having a title only doesn't make one a leader; talented people without a title don't follow blindly, they practice leadership via influence. — Pearl Zhu

Independent directors practice independent thinking. — Pearl Zhu

It is difficult to have a highly competitive organization without highly competitive talent. — Pearl Zhu

The problem of "Command-Control is that you can control people's behavior, but not their mind. — Pearl Zhu

Unprofessionalism damages the business reputation and tarnishes the trust of society. — Pearl Zhu

The business management is, in essence, the decision management and performance management continuum. — Pearl Zhu

The tough choice facing CIOs is not about only picking one identity as either being strategic or tactical, but about - when acting as a strategic leader, when playing as a tactical manager. — Pearl Zhu

Build a heterogeneous team to close three gaps in innovation management - idea gaps, collaboration gaps, and implementation gaps — Pearl Zhu

Most organizations fail to manage performance effectively because they fail to look into the system holistically. — Pearl Zhu

With proactive support and full engagement of top leaders, Change Management can become an enjoyable voyage to discover the new landscape of businesses. — Pearl Zhu

A business capability is the firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments. — Pearl Zhu

Creativity is fluid, like the fountainhead from within you, flowing out. — Pearl Zhu

IT can weave all crucial business elements such as people, process, and technology into organizational competencies for running a living and fluid digital organization. — Pearl Zhu

The discipline of focus that is necessary to think profoundly is certainly difficult for many people to achieve. — Pearl Zhu

Digital-savvy CIOs can envision the upcoming business trends and have both "sense and sensitivity" to understand people and lead effortlessly. — Pearl Zhu

Whatever the measurement system is, it needs to be consistent, repeatable and as unbiased as possible. — Pearl Zhu

Decisions are necessary as a result of limited resources in time, knowledge, capital, people. — Pearl Zhu

Governance is not about maximization, but about optimization. — Pearl Zhu

Creativity is a high level of thinking and intelligence. — Pearl Zhu

To make change sustain, the important thing is "end-to-end" performance. — Pearl Zhu

Creativity is an inherent ability that cannot be taught, only developed. — Pearl Zhu

Insight is a perception beyond the thought, a multi-dimensional cognizance, and it's the experience to explore oneself, surrounds and beyond. — Pearl Zhu

The "self-driven" talent performance management is pursuing the digital way to run a purpose-driven organization. — Pearl Zhu

First things, first frame the right questions before answering them, ensure doing the right things before doing things right. — Pearl Zhu

Dynamic capability is the ability to reconfigure your organization in the way that has the effect of increasing its variety. — Pearl Zhu

Culture is the organization's fingerprint. — Pearl Zhu

The sociological organization is alive, holistic, vibrant, energetic, responsive, fluid, creative and innovation. — Pearl Zhu

Strategic Thinking = Systems Thinking + Creativity + Vision — Pearl Zhu

Innovation is a mindset, and that's where governance comes in. — Pearl Zhu

Understanding requires a person's ability to grasp or comprehend information. — Pearl Zhu

Like many things, power is like the two sides of a coin. — Pearl Zhu

Though there are both hard and soft business elements in building organizational capabilities. Still, people are the capability masters. — Pearl Zhu

You can't improve what you are not managing, you can't manage what you are not measuring, and you can't measure what you are not focusing. — Pearl Zhu

Capability stands you out; capacity scales you up. — Pearl Zhu

The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. — Pearl Zhu

GRC is about collaboration and harmony. — Pearl Zhu

A strategic IT is a silver lining for a high-performing business. — Pearl Zhu

Managing change is no longer a one-time initiative, and change management turns to be a strategical ongoing capability in today's digital organizations. — Pearl Zhu

The true conflict in innovation is self-imposed by trying to make our visions reality. — Pearl Zhu

All leaders need to ask questions, but they also need to assist in providing answers, to bridge the gap between questions and answers. — Pearl Zhu

A responsive IT means a lot of things for the digital transformation: Speed, innovation, agility, integration, modernization, intelligence, value creation, and maturity, etc — Pearl Zhu

It's probably better and more accessible to measure change readiness rather than change progress. — Pearl Zhu

The future of digital organizations is to be complex enough to act intelligently and nimble enough to adapt to the change promptly. — Pearl Zhu

None of us will ever know enough, and that is why humility is a critical component of innovativeness. — Pearl Zhu

Learning agility means to learn, de-learn, and relearn all the times. — Pearl Zhu

Digital transformation represents a break with the past, having a high level of impact and complexity. — Pearl Zhu

Employee engagement takes mind, heart and hands unification. — Pearl Zhu

Trust is a collective mind - the corporate culture. You can't build and nourish trust without creating a conducive environment of trust. — Pearl Zhu

Breaking rules is indeed an important part of creativity. Innovation needs a level of guidance. — Pearl Zhu

Agile and DevOps are for harnessing integration, interaction, and innovation. — Pearl Zhu

Using two-dimensional lenses to perceive the multi-faceted world can limit your ability to observe the world more objectively. — Pearl Zhu

Digital creates the new demand and dimension for global leadership mind-set. — Pearl Zhu

Just like changing personality, culture change is possible but difficult. — Pearl Zhu

Sense and deal with problems in their smallest state, before they grow bigger and become fatal. — Pearl Zhu

Leadership view is multidimensional with the full spectrum of colors. — Pearl Zhu

At its core, Agile is a mindset. — Pearl Zhu

The mind is an innovation engine of any human progress, but also the root cause of almost all human problems. — Pearl Zhu

All our finite decisions are taken in a very transient emotional stage. — Pearl Zhu

Inspiration is not just a short-term momentum. It could take time and generations of change to truly build a culture of creativity. — Pearl Zhu

No decision in the world outlives the time, place, and person's constituents on the basis of which it was made. — Pearl Zhu

A vision should be attainable subject to current times and its ability to adapt to changing times. — Pearl Zhu

Agile does not mean laissez-faire, flexibility and freedom are based on the well-defined principles. — Pearl Zhu

Create and nurture an environment in your organization where curiosity is encouraged, and creative thinking is rewarded. — Pearl Zhu

Diversity of thought is in demand, for boosting collective creativity and harnessing collective wisdom. — Pearl Zhu

Inspiration is the result of moments of insight and a key component of internal "drive. — Pearl Zhu

Keeping it simple, you have a vision of what you are to become and a strategy for making that happen. — Pearl Zhu

Critical Thinking narrows and creative thinking expands, but they must work in tandem for problem solving and decision making. — Pearl Zhu

A Board can be harmonized through leadership humility, insightful business understanding, trustful culture, and learning agility. — Pearl Zhu

Innovation has to become the philosophy, and part of DNA in an organization. — Pearl Zhu

Applying deep insight and rubber stamping are such counter-propositions. — Pearl Zhu

The challenge for the IT leader is to set the right priority, manage the limited budget and resource, to "Do more with innovation. — Pearl Zhu

Be humble, desire insight, squash arrogance, and be cognizance of unknown. — Pearl Zhu

Fundamentally, leadership is more about the future, but starts at today. — Pearl Zhu

You have to be able to look objectively at the problem, deflating the emotional part of it. — Pearl Zhu

Framing the right problem is equally or even more important than solving it. — Pearl Zhu

An effective Board can connect all the right dots well. — Pearl Zhu

To clear the path, whether that be the elimination of obstacles, closing the blind spots, or to provide guidance, so that the business as a whole can take a digital leap and unleash its full potential. — Pearl Zhu

The business capability coherence is the decisive factor for the success of strategy implementation. — Pearl Zhu

Digital strategy is like a GPS to navigate through your digitalization journey. — Pearl Zhu

High-quality professions look decently, think profoundly, and act thoughtfully. — Pearl Zhu

Innovation is the only bridge to mind digital gaps. — Pearl Zhu

A wise leader doesn't just follow but discover the path. — Pearl Zhu