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Business

Hope Springs Eternal

The New York Times has an interesting article on infomercials. According to the article, successful informercials show viewers a magical transformation, relying on our hopes and fears to sell everything from pots and pans to fitness products.
Written by Michael Krigsman, Contributor

The New York Times has an interesting article on infomercials. According to the article, successful informercials show viewers a magical transformation, relying on our hopes and fears to sell everything from pots and pans to fitness products.

What does this have to do with improving IT projects? EVERYTHING!

We all hope tomorrow will be better than today, that our company will be successful, and that our IT projects will yield an enormous ROI (especially since that’s what we promised the CFO). Often, wishful thinking causes common sense to get lost in the shuffle: our bald head will not grow back hair, dinner will not cook itself, and that inflated ROI is not likely to be realized. Unless of course the blue moons align perfectly, in which case all bets are off and anything is possible. 

Magical transformation rarely happens. While wishful thinking may be fine for late-night infomercials, it can have disastrous consequences on an IT project.

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