Speaker: Coleen Young
Introductory presentation; what the future will look like for IT leaders. Will point forward to other sessions this week; providing context for other presentations. “The futuristic CIO must THINK and BEHAVE differently.” Everything you know about what it takes to succeed, is potentially irrelevant, insufficient or obsolete. There are new behaviors, principles etc that will replace the existing ones. How and why will the evolving CIO role change?
Business has changed from rigid hierarchy, through matrix organizations to more changeable organizations, less based on control—instead based on partnerships (since not everyone involved in the business necessarily works for the same organization).
· IT as cost center: supply driven, cost obsessed; technology centric; functionally and technically siloed; insulated and monopolistic.
· IT as a service and solutions provider: demand driven; internal customer centric; process based; competitive and engaged; service obsessed
· IT as business innovator: opportunity driven; external customer–centric; ecosystem based; inventive; market or industry obsessed
We seem to be moving away from the first and towards at least the second, if not the third model. The third model is that to which we should aspire (IMHO). For example, that might make us focus on delighting external customers like RAE, or HESA. With the right balance,w e can ensure we delight external and internal customers. Delighting some of those external customers will, in turn, delight internal customers too.
Business expectations of CIOs in 2008 (top four priorities):
· Improving business processes
· Attracting and retaining new customers
· Creating new products or services (innovations)
· Expanding into new markets or geographies
Interesting how all four of these priorities relate to WIP and specifically to the needs of post-graduate recruitment and admissions.
Business expectation is likely to be innovation; so to be able to innovate for the business we need to see IT provision as transformational. Question arises: how do we find the time to innovate and transform while we support the set of services we currently provide? IT plays a valuable role in building business differentiators.
Need to show business leadership to be considered a business influencer. Expand scope of competencies and skills to reflect the business leadership that is required of the transformational CIO.
“The futuristic CIO holds many opposing realities and choices in her head and reconciles tem with holistic, unconventional thinking. This is the DIO’s true role in innovation. Rejects the need to choose between two undesirable alternatives; finds opportunity where others see constraints.”
· Stop: being a victim; dictating standards; wasting energy on incremental efficiency; worrying about cost transparency; managing projects; focus on alignment; on making internal customers happy
· Start: questioning; developing a vision; establishing alliances; experimenting; reading; volunteering; travelling; investing in talent; exploring the more “out there” web neighborhoods; tapping into social networks; researching non-corporate IT; spreading risk/investing in options; monitoring micro-trends; leveraging intellectual property
Interesting lists for us to look at—until this point I had been wondering how we would make the time to develop a futuristic IT organization. Now I realize there are things we could stop focusing on, which might buy is the time to innovate.
The theory of constraints: why process management matters. Worth investigating, as this might make it clearer why implementing ITIL matters.
This was a very interesting and dense presentation, and I have not captured it all here. As a result, a lot of this entry looks like my notes rather than a well thought-out response. I will be going back to re-listen to this presentation and make sure I have internalized everything that Coleen had to say.
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