Highlights from the annual NYC CIO Summit
This week was the annual New York CIO Executive Summit which is undoubtedly one of the best CIO leadership events and essential in the calendar for any CIO in the Tri State area http://www.evanta.com/CIO/summit/agenda.php?i=NYC. I rate it for the quality of the delegates, useful/content rich presentations and the down to earth style that the organizers Evanta and members of the Governing Body http://www.evanta.com/CIO/summit/governingbody.php?i=NYC bring to the day..
We sponsored the event this year and I had the opportunity to join the various break out sessions during the day so I thought I would summarize what I felt were some of the highlights... sorry I can’t share the contents of the free bar that wrapped up the event and caused me to be fashionably late for dinner with wife and friends. Whoever said technology and beer don’t make you cooler was clearly wrong!
With any event that causes you to take time out of a busy schedule you have to ask what is in it for you and what will you get out of it. Steven Sheinheit, Chair of the CIO Summit Governing Body (and ex CIO of MetLife) summed it up very well in his speech "Tell me something I don’t know!!". Any "lights on" moments at a conference where you learn something you don’t know is certainly a productive use of time (if you can apply that learning effectively of course) and I would go one step further and say being told something you think you know but weren’t sure or were not brave enough to try is also of great value. Let’s face it, the answers to challenges are often very simple and staring us in the face.
Here are some of the things I did know, some I didn’t know.. mixed in with some quotes that I thought were either useful, poignant or just plain funny. Apologies to any of the speakers if I have not transcribed verbatim.
* Jonathan White, SVP Worldwide Technology & Business Innovation at Pfizer spoke about his role in driving innovation across a hugely complex organization with significant challenges to the established/historical business models of the pharmaceutical sector. "Innovation is turning ideas into cash", You must legitimize innovation as there is always "massive strength to weak ties" (eg. the establishment is hard to change), the "radical end" is where you will see real innovation.. so you need to give is space to breathe, "MPV and ROI will kill any innovation" and then a fantastic quote from Machiavelli "Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new". That is a message that applies to pretty much any change initiative as any IT Exec will ruefully acknowledge!
* Other choice Jonathan included "Data is the most political thing as it represents the Archeology of an organization", "you must build it with other peoples money" and "every time you do something move towards the same end state" - being a massive proponent of Enterprise Architecture "done right" I agree whole heartedly.
*Atefeh Riazi, Global CIO of Ogilvy and Mather gave a thought provoking presentation on "Technology Bites Back" which examined the darker side of the Technology industry in terms of environmental impact. It was a bold and original presentation and I take my hat off to Atti for making some strong statements and moving out of the classic leadership topics. The snappy visuals and videos made no surprise that she works for one of the world’s premier Advertising agencies!
* Ray Pawlicki, Global CIO of Novartis Pharmaceutical gave a very engaging and spirited presentation on the transformation program he has led across Novartis Global IT. What I liked about Ray’s presentation in particular was that he shared with the audience some of his mistakes and learning in his role and how this has led to him adapting his style. How this led to the ultimate success of the program was an all too rare insight.. hearing just about the stuff that worked is often all we hear at these events and the real nitty gritty stuff is much more valuable. On the subject of process change I also liked that Ray convinced the business to roll out the new process before they implemented a new CRM system. Sounds like an obvious way to increase chance of success (and it may not be feasible for every project) but I am guessing many failed implementations would have had a greater chance of success taking this approach.
* The "CIO Conversation" on Shared Services was great. In a chat show sofa style, three industry heavyweights discussed the challenges of creating shared service organizations, moderated by the inimitable Thornton May. On the panel was Tom Fountain VP & CIO Honeywell Specialty Materials, Brian Lurie VP IT Stryker Orthopedics (and winner of one of the two top CIO awards at the National CIO Summit this year) and John Repko SVP & CIO at Covance. It was a great debate and I believe it was John Repko who distilled the complexity of the issues down into the soundbite "Shared services equals trust". Enough said!
The keynote address from Mark Hennessey (CIO of IBM) was very entertaining and I will write another blog entry around his "It’s a great time to be a CIO" theme that drove his presentation.
So hopefully I have told you something you didn’t know and that CIOs in the NYC area who were not aware of the Summit will have the opportunity to attend next year.. because the famous expression "what you don’t know can’t hurt you" is not always true... For a role that is responsible for driving innovation in a business, "what you don’t know" is often what will hurt you the most.. and you may just hear it here first.
