Peter High
05-28-2015
Excerpt from the Article:
Hogan Lovells is a global legal practice that helps corporations, financial institutions and government entities with their critical business and legal issues both globally and locally. It is among the top 10 largest law firms in the world, with more than 2,500 attorneys operating out of more than 40 offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.
Yet until three years ago, the firm had never had a global CIO. Mike Lucas was elevated to that role from the position of CTO, and in the process has helped drive tremendous change through better use of technology for purposes of collaboration, knowledge sharing and management, among other initiatives. Here, he describes his journey to CIO Insight contributor, Peter High.
CIO Insight: You are the first ever Global CIO of Hogan Lovells. What spurred the need to develop this role?
Mike Lucas: It started with the need for a global strategy. A natural outflow from developing that strategy was recognizing the need for a global realignment of the technology function. That work required a global leader; hence the global CIO role was born. The primary mission at the time was to streamline decision-making and unify the technology function globally.
CIO Insight: When you were named Global CIO, you needed to pull together a very diverse team that resides across multiple countries. What steps did you to take to be sure the right people were in the right roles, and ensure they were motivated to stay?
Lucas: It was most important to strive for balance in team composition, to recognize previous accomplishments, and to form a diverse team with global scope and responsibility. Reinforcing an already present focus on ‘customer first’ service, and establishing good IT governance were key drivers.
We place a great deal of emphasis on proper governance and transparency to the business. The next step was to permeate this approach down the organizational stack so that everyone understood and aligned with our global mission to deliver the very best service to our lawyers.
To read the remainder of the article, please visit CIO Insight
by Peter High, published on Forbes
5-26-2015
Celso Guiotoko’s background is quite diverse. He is half Brazilian and half Japanese. Having a foot in multiple cultures has served him well, especially in his current role as the Alliance Global Vice President, Corporate Vice President, and Chief Information Officer of Global Corporate IS/IT for Renault-Nissan. Guiotoko must balance a number of responsibilities, but he also has to juggle a diverse travel schedule. One of the keys to making this work is to have a solid team in place in each geography, and in each area of responsibility.
Guiotoko and his team have also tapped into Silicon Valley, setting up shop there along side the Engineering function’s team there. This innovation lab has helped spur creative thinking around investments into the Internet of Things, and driverless cars, as Guiotoko notes herein .
(To listen to an unabridged audio version of this interview, please visit this link. This is the 22nd article in the CIO-plus series. To read the prior 21 articles, featuring interviews with the CIOs of ADP, P&G, McKesson, the San Francisco Giants, and Walgreens among others, please visit this link. To read future articles in the series, please click the “Follow” link above.)
Peter High: I thought we’d begin with your responsibilities, which are quite varied. You are the Alliance Global Vice President, a Corporate Vice President, and Chief Information Officer of Global Corporate IS/IT. You have responsibilities within Nissan and across the relationship between Nissan and Renault. Could you talk a bit about your various areas of responsibility?
Celso Guiotoko: In 2004, I joined Nissan, as the CIO, and I was responsible for the global IS/IT for the company. Since 2009, I have also had the mission of creating synergies between the two companies, and I was appointed the IS/IT managing director for Renault-Nissan. Since then I have also become responsible for the Renault IT organization. It’s been almost six years since that time.
In the beginning of 2014, we announced the creation of four additional converged functions. One is on the engineering side, the second is in supply chain manufacturing, the third is in purchasing, and the fourth is HR. I think we’ve had a good contribution in those areas because the board members of both companies (Renault and Nissan) felt comfortable that with the many benefits to having a single leader driving some of the functions there. I believe the IS/IT functions in Renault-Nissan are very proud of the fact that our experiences since 2009 have been very successful.
We have several initiatives to support the conversion functions. This is one part of the job where we need to make sure that the business strategies in Renault and Nissan are fulfilled by the organization in each of the companies. At the same time that we need to fill the needs of the individual companies, we also need to make sure that we are going to generate synergies so that we can communalize the solutions that can be deployed in both companies. It’s quite the exercise in terms of communicating and making sure that everybody is aligned and has great teamwork because it is so important to make this alliance successful. Independent of the fact that there is an alliance, Renault and Nissan have independent boards and executive committees, so it is a little tricky. My job is a little different from most CIOs because you need to keep the independence of the two companies, but at the same time you need to bring them together.
To read the full article, please visit Forbes
5-18-2015
Having worked with dozens of IT departments at corporations around the world, I am constantly struck by how often I will speak to a CEO or a CFO to whom the chief information officer reports, and find that they are frustrated with the performance of the IT leader and his or her team. What comes next is often a litany of complaints, the substance of which differs depending on the company, the CIO, and the CEO or CFO. There are some common themes however:
These are just four examples of a far more extensive list of complaints that I hear. I should say that upgrading and validating IT’s value is the job of the CIO, and so primary responsibility rests with the IT leadership team to improve IT’s image, but it takes two to tango. IT does not operate in a vacuum, and more often than not, I find that most companies have the IT departments they deserve. That is to say, if a company truly values IT, and wishes to engage the IT leadership team in the strategy setting process, they need an IT leader who is a member of the executive team, optimally reporting to the CEO. Moreover, the divisions of the company need to formulate plans in a way that allow IT to drive greater value.
05-13-2015
To survive, CIOs need to rethink their roles. They need to be more strategic and deeply immerse themselves in both their businesses and industries. The New Style of Business means external partners now perform an increasing number of tasks once relegated to IT departments. Likewise, technology that was once expensive and laborious to maintain has become much less so.
Traditionally, CIOs have been primarily chief infrastructure officers. It’s only recently that an elite cadre of CIOs has begun treating information as a strategic asset. Yet realigning the CIO role will be challenging. Most companies use a timetable that is woefully short—quarter to quarter, or over one year.
TAKE THE LONG VIEW
In my latest book, Implementing World Class IT Strategy: How IT Can Drive Organizational Innovation, I describe the experience of Gerry Pennell, CIO of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Pennell notes how technology changed over the four-year span between games. At the 2008 summer games in Beijing, the iPhone and Twitter were in their infancy; Myspace and Facebook had roughly the same number of users; cloud computing was more hype than reality; and the iPad didn’t even exist.
If Pennell had translated and transposed the 2008 strategy for 2012, it would have been a disaster. This illustrates why CIOs would do well to develop strategies with multiyear timelines.
To continue reading the Article, please click here:
by Peter High, CIO Straight Talk Issue 6
CIO Straight Talk: Why were you interested in learning about CIO’s first 100 days?
Peter High: In our consulting practice, over half of the time, our first engagement with a company will be a collaboration with a CIO at the beginning of his or her journey, as we look at how their new teams compare to what we call “world class IT” organizations. It’s very important to do so at the start of the journey, because after 100 days, any problem that you have not identified up to that point is your problem- even if it results from the actions of your predecessor. It’s really important to have an eyes-wide-open perspective: How do I augment this department’s strengths, where is it weak, where do we have to prioritize funds and people and activities to improve in areas where there have been issues?
Everyone will have the “first 100 days” at some point in their career, and it can happen multiple times in the same company if one is promoted from within. This is a widely shared experience, and I think it’s possible to identify a few universal principles that have made some executives very successful.
CIO Straight Talk: So there is a recurring pattern that you’ve observed in CIO’s first months on the job?
Click here to read the full article
5-13-2015
Next month, Filippo Passerini will conclude an exceptional career as an executive at Procter & Gamble. Passerini joined the company in his native Italy, and had a broad set of experiences in different countries and in different product areas before his ascent to become chief information officer, and eventually President of Global Business Services. This is not uncommon for people as talented as Passerini within P&G. Just as he was chosen for advancement early in his tenure, he has done the same in grooming the next generation of leaders. As a result, late last year, he transitioned his two roles to two able executives who had been groomed for each. This is a key component of P&G’s culture, as it has a bias toward promoting from within whenever possible.
Not surprisingly, Passerini is a part of the small but growing group of board-level CIOs, having joined the board of $5.7 billion United Rentals in early 2009. In my conversation with Passerini, he offers thoughts on how he became board ready, why the trend of board-level CIOs is likely to grow, as well as providing thoughts about talent management and succession planning.
(This article is one of many in the “Board-Level CIO” series. To read past articles in the series with the CIOs of the World Bank Group, Cardinal Health, FedEx, and Kroger, among others, please visit this link. To read future articles in the series, please click the “Follow” link above.)
Peter High: Filippo, first of all congratulations on a very successful career at P&G. You are on the cusp of retiring. I thought we’d begin with first and foremost what you have planned for your future. What will you be doing in the weeks and months ahead?
Filippo Passerini: I have three operating principles for my future. One is I want to give back to the IT community by meeting with and advising fellow CIOs and other IT exeuctives. Second, I would like to be in a position to continue to learn. Learning is a very important part of my well being and my life. Third, I want to work with people with whom I share values.
I will join the Carlyle Group as an advisor, I will do some consulting, and I will work with Columbia University to develop an advanced degree in analytics.
I have been proud to help companies improve and transform businesses through better use of technology. It is what I have been doing within P&G for 30 years, and I’ll continue to do so in different capacities.
05-07-2015
Excerpt from the Article: When Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post for $250 million in 2013, the portion of the company that was not purchased was rebranded as Graham Holdings. Its holdings include Kaplan, Slate, multiple television stations, CableOne, and Graham Media Group (which is the former Post-Newsweek Stations), among others. Yuvinder Kochar has been chief technology officer of the company pre- and post-divestiture, having held that role for more than 12 years. In this interview with CIO Insight contributor Peter High, Kochar talks about the changes afoot at Graham Holdings, his own methods of managing IT, and his thoughts about the future of technology.
CIO Insight: You were the CTO of the Washington Post Companies until that organization was split up. Jeff Bezos purchased the Post, and the other part of the organization is called Graham Holdings. What makes up Graham Holdings?
Yuvinder Kochar: Graham Holdings Company (GHC) is a diversified firm whose principal businesses include Kaplan (educational services), Graham Media Group (television broadcasting), CableOne (cable systems), Slate and Trove (news media), Celtic and Residential Healthcare, Social Code (social marketing technology and services) and a couple of manufacturing companies. We are a public company with operating revenues of $3.5 billion in 2014.
Since the divestiture of the Washington Post in 2013, GHC has acquired several health care and manufacturing businesses. In the most recent annual report, Don Graham (our CEO) very succinctly answered the question, “What kinds of businesses do we want to buy?” Businesses we can understand. Businesses with a proven record of profitability and a management team that wants to continue to run the company after selling it to us. And businesses that aren’t too capital intensive.
CIO Insight: Graham Holdings is diversifying quickly, going beyond education and media into health care and manufacturing investments. How do you think about technology in such a diversified group of businesses?
Yuvinder Kochar:My strategic thinking about technology at GHC derives from the way we manage our businesses: Our diverse businesses share common goals and values, but each has its own identity, workplace culture and management responsible for its operations. To allow maximum flexibility to our businesses to respond to market changes, we do not try to consolidate and centralize functions across our businesses. To read the remainder of the article, please visit CIO Insight
05-05-2015
Annually, lenders purchase more than 10 billion FICO scores, and about 30 million U.S. consumers accessed their scores on their own. FICO is an $800 million software company founded in 1956 and based in San Jose, Calif. Nearly 98 percent of credit-related decisions are made using FICO, but the company has diversified into providing a broader set of analytics tools. As FICO CIO Tony McGivern tells CIO Insight contributor, Peter High, his responsibilities have expanded from those that are traditional to the CIO to his service responsibilities for the FICO Analytic Cloud offering.
CIO Insight: Tony, 98 percent of credit-related decisions are made using FICO’s backbone, and yet many people probably do not know much about the company. Could you please provide an overview of FICO?
Tony McGivern: FICO, in addition to our well known Scores product, offers analytic software and tools that help organizations make smarter decisions. We’ve been around for nearly 60 years providing our products and services to customers in over 80 countries around the globe.
05-04-15
Kroger Chief Information Officer Chris Hjelm has led IT at a number of leading companies such as FedEx, eBay, and Cendant prior to joining the $108 billion business, operating food retail and drug stores, multi-department stores, jewelry stores, and convenience stores nearly ten years ago. Not content to lead a mere support organization, Hjelm has always thought about the strategic use of technology, and has long been a contributor to top and bottom-line gains to the enterprises of which he has been a part.
For example, Hjelm has instituted a research and development-type function within Kroger IT to investigate new innovations. Examples include investments in locationing technology that help the company ensure enough people are at the cash register before a rush of people have arrived to check-out, and digital shelf signage that help associates and customers more readily find what they seek. He also encourages his team to think like customers as they shop for groceries.
It is no wonder that Hjelm has been asked to join a number of boards in his time, as other companies seek to have him bring the same creative thinking to their companies. In the process, he has forged a path that a variety of others should seek to follow.
(To listen to an unabridged audio version of this interview, please visit this link. This article is part of my series on board-level CIO series. To listen to the prior articles featuring the CIOs of companies like FedEx, Cardinal Health, The World Bank Group, and Southwest Airlines, among others, please visit this link. To read future articles in the series, please click the “Follow” link above.)
Peter High: You’re the Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the Kroger Company. Please talk about your role at the company.
Chris Hjelm: From the CIO perspective, it has everything to do with technology at Kroger, so that’s everything from technology in our stores, to the systems that run the business, as well as the corporate office and other divisions around the company. The simple thing about Kroger is that, versus some other places I’ve worked, it’s a US company. So we have pretty much everything here in the US market, which makes life a lot easier than traveling the globe, as I’ve done before.
4-20-2015
Rob Carter is on the short list of the finest CIOs in history anywhere. I have profiled his accomplishments in an interview published roughly one year ago. A few months ago, Carter spoke at the Forbes CIO conference with his CEO, FedEx founder Fred Smith. First, it was readily apparent how much Smith values Carter’s opinion, indicating that no strategic decisions are ever made without Carter involved. I was also particularly struck by Carter’s overview of the IT transformation that he has led. As he said then, and as he describes in greater detail in this interview with him, the systems that were at the core of FedEx’s success in recent years in becoming and maintaining its position as a logistics and data analytics leader would not be the same ones that would sustain its success. In fact, as Carter notes, the longer the organization waited to transform, the more those systems would actually impede its success.
Carter graciously agreed to dive into greater detail in describing the transformation, and what he describes as the “Four Horsemen of Dominant Design.” At the heart of this transformation would be a cloud-first strategy. Carter readily admits that this is a decade-long journey that they are roughly in the middle of, but the results so far have already proven the value of simplifying in the ways described herein.
Peter High: You have mentioned that it dawned on you a couple of years ago that the technology that helped FedEx achieve success was not the technology that would help FedEx maintain that success. What led to that insight?
Rob Carter: I started at this role in 2000, and at that time the number one thing that I wanted to do for the business was to become fast and flexible at creating business value, because the world was changing. The needs of FedEx and the expectations of our customers were changing rapidly. The complexity of the system which we had deployed – which at one time was one of our most powerful assets – was becoming a challenge to agility for our business.
The reality of the modern computing era – and with a company like ours that has deployed technology over the last 40 years – is that this is the advent of the modern computer era. 40 years isn’t a long time. We’ve deployed unbelievably strategic technology over the years, but some of them were things like 800 MHz spectrum coast to coast so we could stand up radio towers and communicate with data to our vehicles. These weren’t voice communication tools; they were data communication tools. They communicated with the first generation of handheld computers.
Well, as much of a breakthrough as that was in allowing information to flow freely back so that customers could have the ability to track their packages, it clearly became a legacy that burdened us as the modern generation of connected mobile devices began to surface. One of the first ways they surfaced was with cell networks that could communicate with industrial handhelds, not just consumer devices. So that is a window into creative and strategic deployment of technology which becomes a burden over time.
When you’ve invested in an aggressive way, as FedEx has, to further the technology brand that our company is well known for, you wind up with a lot of things that market forces find a way of providing a more general solution for; and often one that is more economical, flexible, and frankly works better than those first generations of technology.
