Get Fit for the Next Round!
 
Here 
are 
methods 
which 
we use 
to 
analyze 
the text		 The text is taken from an online version of a management magazine, CIO Magazine. (CIO stands for Chief Information Officer.) 

The readers consist of executives in technological companies who are responsible for information technology (data processing, networking, knowledge management, telecommunications, etc). 
 

 Well-written and interesting, this article has a rhetorical rhythm and is a lot of fun to read. 

Two factors make it difficult for non-english speakers: long and complex phrases, and colloquialisms and uncommon words 

To counter the first, we analyze and break up long sentences into simpler pieces. To help with the vocabulary, I add alternatives phrases.
 

Get Fit for the Next Round!

Be ready for the coming fight!
Identify 
the 
noun 
phrases.		 Well-designed training regimens, without steroids, can land your company a medal in the Net Business Olympics. regimen - a training programme, discipline and rules 
A good training schedule can win your company a prize! 
to land a medal - to ensure a good result
Identify 
the 
verb 
phrases.		 Your company's prosperity in the next four years will be directly tied to its ability to compete in the Internet economy—leaping past half a trillion dollars at an annual rate of more than 60 percent. Meaning: If you aren't competing, or at least intensively training, for the Net Business Olympics, your company will soon lose total economic relevance in the rapidly shifting global economy. A will be directly tied to B 

The Internet economy is leaping past $500 000 000 000. 

This means, if you don't C or D, then death!
Make 
a list 
with 
parallel 
commands. 

Analyze 
the last 
sentence.

 Lay into the Powerbars. Chug Gatorade till you burst. You've got to get the entire company into Net condition, ready to qualify for Olympic-level performance. But where the losers face obsolescence, gold awaits the winners. The efficiencies and opportunities available via the Web and related technologies are dictating an unprecedented level of achievement. 
 

The e and o [which are available over the internet] are dictating [a high level of achievement].

 These are "imperatives" - grammatically, commands, in second person 
  • Eat plenty of Powerbars (new muesli)
  • Slurp Isostar (an isotonic sugar and salt solution)
  • Drink an energy beverage
  • Get your staff into physical condition
  • Qualify for the Olympics

    • While the losers face death, the winners gain gold. 
    unprecedented = without a prescedent = never happened before 
    E and F are requiring G
    Here's 
    a list. 
    Move 
    the 
    intro 
    to its 
    start.    		 Infinite bandwidth, Web-based entertainment linked to employee education and a new generation of communication devices are only some of the stunning changes on the horizon. Collectively, they will turn your industry, and your job, upside down and inside out. stunning = amazing 
    There are fantastic changes coming: 
  • unlimited bandwidth
  • internet-based entertainment
  • online education
  • new communication devices

    • All together, they will reorganize your business and your job.
    Use all 
    these 
    methods!    		 To help you cope with the looming seismic shifts, here are six training regimens I suggest, based on discussions with scores of insightful CIOs. the looming seismic shifts = the coming earthquakes 
    To help you manage with the changes, 
    I suggest six training regimens=programmes. 
    They are based on my talks with many thoughtful executives. 
    score=20, dozen=12, baker's dozen=13
    We used these methods: identification of noun and verb phrases, breakup of sentences, conversion into lists, rephrasing in new words.
    Whoever sends me $5 or Fr 10 can have the annotated version of the rest of this text!  Mail mikewrobinson@hotmail.com for details.
     

    Nutrition

    New business environments emerge daily. Yesterday's competitors are today's partners. Geographies disappear. New marketing, manufacturing and fulfillment capacities have to be grown instantly. Your team must integrate a rapid learning capability into its function. Customer service and technical support staff must have a significant percentage of their time set aside for new proficiency education and testing.     		 emerge
    geographies
    fulfillment capacities
    rapid learning
    proficiency education
    The Net offers learning on fast forward. Cisco has transferred 50 percent of all organized education to e-learning. But the new goal is 80 percent. To make the goal real, business unit heads' bonuses depend on achieving it. Net learning allows employees to schedule at will and saves employers travel and downtime. Most important in the fast-changing environment of technological revolutions, it enables the technical and sales workforces to maintain currency despite location. on fast forward
    e-learning
    business unit heads' bonuses
    schedule at will
    downtime
    to maintain currency
    Like steroids, though, e-learning has been subject to hyperbolic ratings, which can lead some IT leaders down a primrose path. Teach your organization to approach training carefully. Here are some tips. 
    • Education is not cheap. Effective, relevant education in anything other than generic fundamentals requires skilled, company-specific customization. Interaction, along with materials specially designed for your company, products and work flows, accelerates learning and raises retention rates—and requires unusually talented, rare, expensive professionals. 
    • Face-to-face encounters are and always will be mandatory for certain communications. New hires need to get the mission and values of a company from top management in early orientation sessions. That's why Vividence's CEO Artie Wu insists on personally presenting the Web market research startup's 100-year plan to all new staffers. And why either CEO John Chambers or Gary Daichent, vice president of worldwide operations, addresses Cisco's corporate culture class.
    		 hyperbolic ratings
    a primrpse path
    generic fundamentals
    accelerates learning
    retention rates
    face-to-face encounters
    mandatory
    the mission and values
    corporate culture
    Whoever sends me $5 or Fr 10 can have the annotated version of this text!  Mail mikewrobinson@hotmail.com for details.
     

    Flexibility

    Especially in the rapidly changing ecosystem of e-business, the CIO must create a culture of agility. Using cross-functional teams with shifting compositions to attack projects is an excellent way to cultivate this vital talent across the organization. Note Jack Welch's "Destroy Your Business" effort, which assembled cross-functional teams in all of General Electric's business units to benchmark competitors' business models, their products, services and Web economics. The result: a new, Web-optimized operating model for each GE business unit. Such reinvention efforts can jump-start any company's self-cannibalization efforts and simultaneously limber up organizational attitudes.

    Reflexes

    In Internet business relationships, you're as close to the customer as a fencer. Your organization's powers of observation and response have to be that good. Especially as more companies embrace one-to-one marketing and presentation, and mass customization. But be aware that your competitors are closer than ever to your customers too. They're all talking—at online auctions and in B2B marketplaces in which you may share or compete. Responding to industry exchange PlasticsNet, GE Plastics quickly maximized customer information on its own proprietary site, enriching the customer's design experience and cutting out competitive suppliers.
     

    Tai-Chi

    Cultivate the ability to use the efforts of others—internally and externally. Internally, let employees serve themselves. Maximize shopping cart convenience so that they can participate in cafeteria (self-choice) smorgasbords. Get your human resource staff out of the business of administrivia and let them concentrate on the strategically significant areas of recruitment, retention and development of your intellectual capital. 

    Externally, let customers serve themselves. Web-based ordering offers more accuracy, faster delivery, fewer returns and more accurate fulfillment. Web-based self-service for customer service leads to greater customer vision of your processes, a familiarity that can breed satisfaction and trust—if, of course, your processes can stand up to the scrutiny. Using others' efforts creates a virtuous circle of effort. 

    It's not just tactical functions like HR. Cisco's success in part also stems from being a virtual manufacturer; of its 36 manufacturing sites, it owns three. Others, like Solectron, supply the physical plant and the employees. 
     

    Heavy Lifting

    IT is the moving muscle behind business-to-consumer, business-to-business and business-to-government commerce as well as emerging marketplaces and exchanges. This weight training requires practice in business process reengineering so that your company isn't the one that drops the baton in the relay. If you've done your ERP gym work, great; that should have sculpted some of the needed new business process definitions. If you haven't, your improvement regimen is cut out for you. And remember, with the new self-service interface with your customers, any failure or discontinuity in any of your processes will be painfully obvious.
     

    Lung Capacity

    Endurance is key. We are at the beginning, not the middle, of a technical revolution, and it's not about to curve out anytime soon. Many companies have just finished the ERP implementation hurdles. Now the Internet dashes are being run. Optical pole vaults are just around the turn. On the horizon are the wireless high jumps. Over the horizon are still more events to challenge the CIO and his IS organization. An ability to ventilate is the key to competing in this IT iron man challenge.
    Cultivate ventilation by deliberate exposure to other organizations' ideas, challenges and solutions—especially those outside your industry. At The Research Board, we have cultivated a "Noah's ark" diversity of members' companies for 27 years, because great ideas are easily identifiable and travel quite well between keen CIOs outside the stuffy atmosphere of industry-specific trade conferences. Participate in peer group organizations and have your staff do the same. Cultivate relationships with universities—faculties and students—which are a good source of fresh ideas and a great way to ease recruiting.
    The IT Games are not a four-year contest. They are an ongoing rivalry wherein the CIO and her team are coaches as well as contestants—teaching the organization the rules of the game and striving to achieve the fastest response to the next global challenge.