by Peter High, published on Forbes.com
12-09-2013
The U.S. is blessed with perhaps the best immigrant talent in the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the technology sector. From Sergey Brin to Elon Musk to Andy Grove, the number of high powered organizations that have been started and/or led by someone born outside of the country is too numerous to count. An inordinate number of patents are filed by immigrants in U.S. Like a convert to a religion, many times the most ardent supporters of a country are those who have chosen to immigrate to said country. Why do they come? During the course of a recent conversation that I had with uber-entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun (CEO of Udacity, and former leader of Google X, I was inspired by a segment of our conversation regarding his feelings about his adopted country.
In his native Germany, Thrun completed a Vordiplom (bachelor’s degree) in computer science, economics, and medicine, from the University of Hildesheim in 1988. At the University of Bonn, he completed a Diplom (master’s degree) in 1993 and a PhD in 1995 in computer science and statistics. He pursued academic positions in the United States after graduation, and accepted a role as research computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1995. Three years later, he became an assistant professor and co-director of the Robot Learning Laboratory at the university. He joined the faculty of Stanford in 2003 and he was appointed the director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His work would attract the attention of Google through which he founded Google X, which would propel him to lead projects that would become Google Glass, the self-driving car initiative, and Google Street View, among others.
When I asked Thrun how his improbable rise to lead so many greatly influential projects both at the academic settings as well as in industry was impacted by his having come to America, he indicated that the two were inextricably linked. He said, “I am deeply in love with Silicon Valley and with the American Dream that we can change the world. I came from Germany, which is a bit more traditional in its thinking and risk taking isn’t as prominent there as it is in Silicon Valley or in America more generally. In Silicon Valley, I have learned by being here that you can ask any question and you can climb any mountain and if you don’t aim high enough you won’t shoot very high. This is the time to go crazy about innovation, and what better place than in Silicon Valley where I am surrounded by people that are much smarter than me and from whom I can learn a lot in how to change the world.”
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Much has been written of late about the need for healthcare reform in our country. Whether one is a fan of the Affordable Care Act or not, the case for change is quite clear. The fact that healthcare makes up such a high proportion of our gross domestic product (north of 17 percent), and has grown at such a fast clip relative to the consumer-price index (one and a half times) underscores the need for change. However, there is an industry the fundamentals of which have not dramatically changed in hundreds of years, and yet its costs have risen at a rate three times as fast as the consumer-price index. That field is education.
The classroom setting with a professor standing at the head of a class talking at a roomful of students is largely the same model that existed when the first universities were established in the United States. It is no wonder that some creative people have stepped forward with truly innovative ideas in the education space to attempt to turn the traditional model upside down.
The most prominent example of this is the massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Companies like Udacity, Coursera, and edX offer content from some of the world’s leading universities for free. Interestingly enough, each was founded by current or past academics from Stanford, Stanford, and MIT respectively. The inspiration for at least one of these was the Khan Academy, which famously began when Salman Khan began tutoring his young cousin in mathematics using Yahoo Doodle notepad. When he uploaded his lessons to YouTube, hundreds of thousands of people began to learn from Khan’s teachings, convincing him that there was a broader opportunity to pursue. Some foreign MOOCs have been established, as well. A prominent example is the UK’s FutureLearn, led by former BBC executive Simon Nelson, which has drawn in content from many leading UK and Commonwealth of Nations universities…
11-25-2013
This month, Forrester released its list of top technology trends for the three year time horizon. The author of the report, Forrester Analyst Brian Hopkins makes the point that now that consumers and employees have continuous connectivity and an endless supply of apps, the CIO must drive the nimbleness that will be demanded by employees and customers, while he or she must also do so securely. These trends are so woven into the business drivers, that IT leaders must become much more strategic, providing the rationale for the changes that are afoot. With this background in mind, Forrester identifies the following ten technology trends for the 2014 through 2016.
1. Digital convergence erodes boundaries
Physical and digital worlds are converging. As a result consumers expect uniform service whether they are in the physical world or if they are in the digital world. The convergence of the business and personal use of technology is also fueling this trend.
11-19-2013
Cathy Bessant has one of the biggest technology roles on the planet. She runs Global Technology and Operations at Bank of America, and in that role has nearly 100,000 people on her team in 35 counties. She first joined the company in 1982 as a corporate banker in Texas. Since then she has been the President of Bank of America Florida, the National Small Business Segment executive, the President of Consumer Real Estate and Community Development Banking, the chief marketing officer, the President of Global Treasury Services and Global Product Solutions, and the President of Global Corporate Banking. Therefore, she has had an extraordinary breadth of experiences at the Bank, but she did not grow up in IT per se.
The prudent use of data and information is as important in the financial services industry as any other industry. It touches everything that a bank does. In many ways, having someone who has had such a wide variety of executive positions in the company is the ideal candidate for the Technology and Operations role that Bessant occupies. As she notes below, the key to filling in any gaps she might have on the technology side, is having a skilled team, while learning from the various companies whose boards she sits on.
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Peter High: Cathy, I thought we would begin with your role. You run what is referred to as Global Technology and Operations at Bank of America. What is your purview in that role, and what functions report to you?
Cathy Bessant: I have CIOs who are responsible for each of our lines of business, as well as for risk and finance, who report into me. For their respective businesses, each CIO manages his or her business’s technology and operations. All told, I have a team of nearly 100,000 employees and contractors in 35 countries. Global Technology and Operations provides the platforms and fulfillment services that sustain the company’s consumer banking, wealth management, commercial banking, treasury services, sales and trading, and investment banking businesses – as well as risk management, finance and other critical support functions. I also have responsibility, of course, for infrastructure, for information security and for business continuity.
Additional topics covered in the article include:
To listen to a Forum on World Class IT podcast interview with Cathy, click here.
The CIO Takes Over Multichannel Commerce
11-18-2013
Red Wing Shoes has been a well-known brand for over a century especially among those who require the highest quality work boots. For those who do not conduct the sort of work that requires work boots, however, the brand may be more familiar due to the oxfords, chukkas, and the like that are sold as the Red Wing Heritage Collection in partnership with retailers such as Brooks Brothers, Nordstrom, and J. Crew.
Joe Topinka brought his size 15 feet to the Minnesota-based shoe company in May of 2008 as the company’s first ever chief information officer. (Foot size is listed on employees’ business cards.) Recognizing the opportunity to leverage technology more creatively to market and sell Red Wing Shoes’ products, Topinka pushed the organization to develop a more creative multichannel commerce strategy. He made the case so effectively that in recent months, he was given responsibility for multichannel commerce for the entire company, taking on a rare but quite logical CIO-plus role that other business-to-consumer companies will likely adopt in the future.
(This is the 16th interview in the CIO-plus series. To be apprised of future articles in the series, click the “Follow” link above. To read past interviews with CIO-pluses from companies like ADP, P&G, Waste Management, McKesson, and Walgreens, please visit this link.)
Peter High: Joe, can you describe Red Wing Shoes’ business?
Joe Topinka: Red Wing Shoes is an iconic, 108 year old footwear manufacturer and retailer. The company has maintained its roots in the city by the same name where it was founded in 1905. Red Wing Shoes operates in over 100 countries, with global manufacturing anchored in Red Wing, MN. For over a century, Red Wing’s purpose-built footwear has been at the spearhead of innovation and the standard of excellence for work footwear.
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11-11-2013
So much is written about how digital retail is supplanting traditional retail, and there is much data to prove this. However, consumers still spend more time in physical stores than they do on individual websites, they purchase more often, and the opportunity to get to know a customer in a physical setting is better in many ways, potentially forging a stronger and longer-lasting bond with customers.
I recently spoke at an IT conference in Hong Kong. One of my fellow keynote speakers was a Spanish businessman named Ion Cuervas-Mons, who is the CEO of Think Big Factory, a Madrid-based product and strategic design consultancy that creates opportunities at the intersection between digital and physical realities. In his presentation, and in a detailed conversation he and I had later, he described what he refers to as “programmable retail” as a key to unlocking the power of the physical retail experience.
Cuervas-Mons indicates that the term “programmable retail” is “meant to incorporate the characteristics of e-commerce – convenience, efficiency, and personalization – into physical stores, while maintaining certain aspects found in a traditional shop – the ability to generate surprise, discovery and the possibility of touching the products.” Comparable to the changes made in the physical retail format in the 1960s and 1970s with the ascension of big-box retail that was compelling for a couple of decades hence, this represents a great leap forward. The magnitude of change in the physical store space has not been so great since then, and at a time when formidable online competition has arrived in the form of Amazon.com, and other innovative e-channel retailers, it is important for stores with a physical presence to think differently to establish a source of competitive advantage.
Cuervas-Mons describes five steps in the process of developing programmable retail:
1. Identification
Traditionally, it has been difficult to identify customers before payment. As a result, they meander anonymously through the store without any indication of who the biggest potential customer is, who the most loyal customer is, or who proverbial window-shopper is. There is an opportunity to treat the best customers with the best service, but if one only finds out who each person is after he or she has selected what to purchase, an opportunity has been lost.
There are three technologies that are making it easier for customers to gain these essential insights earlier:….
10-21-2013
Jay Ferro joined the American Cancer Society with a very personal connection to the disease. He lost his wife to cervical cancer in early 2007. She had, in many ways been his inspiration to become a CIO, as she was his cheerleader, and someone on whom he could lean as he pursued an MBA while working full-time. He established a foundation in her honor called Priscilla’s Promise. Despite his connection to the disease, he did not actively seek this opportunity. He had been a CIO twice over, once at a division of AIG, and later at AdCare Health Systems. When he was approached to join the team, he had many of the preconceptions (and as he later learned, they were truly misconceptions) about non-profit organizations and their ability to drive value efficiently.
In fact, as Ferro notes in my interview with him herein, he would be called upon to drive just such a transformation. American Cancer Society’ s IT department had been very diverse, and therefore very inefficient. In his first 100 days, a big part of the plan that he created was to develop more of a common IT model, exerting much more influence from the center, and in the process, rendering the operation more efficient, and enhancing its ability to create value for the American Cancer Society more broadly.
(To listen to an extended audio interview with Ferro, please visit this link. This is the ninth article in the CIO’s First 100 Days series. To read the prior eight articles with the CIOs of companies like Intel, Time Warner, Caterpillar, and J.Crew, please click on this link. To read future articles in the series featuring the CIOs of Johnson & Johnson, SpaceX, Viacom, Amtrak, and AmerisourceBergen, please click the “Follow” link above.)
Peter High: Jay, you joined the American Cancer Society early last year. Your prior experience was in the private sector. What have you found to be the differences between the for-profit and non-profit worlds when it comes to managing IT? Jay Ferro: I was very surprised to find that a large non-profit actually has more in common with a large corporation than it has differences. That said – there were two interesting distinctions that were apparent right away:
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10-28-2013
There are an increasing number of chief information officers who earn upwards of $1 million in salary and bonuses annually. Most of them are unknown, as compensation for CIOs are not necessarily disclosed at public companies, and private companies need not report the compensation packages of employees. The fact that a growing number of IT executives receive such hefty pay packages is a sign for the important work they are doing, their ability to definitively convey the value that they and their teams contribute to the company, and the increasingly important role that information technology has in most businesses.
Janco Associates has compiled a list of 15 CIOs who earned more than $1 million in 2012 leveraging SEC data. (The original list includes 20 executives, but five of them are not CIOs.) There are some interesting trends. First, over half of the people on the list (eight of the 15) held additional titles to that of the CIO during 2012. This is a phenomenon I refer to as the CIO-plus. I profiled a variety of CIO-pluses, some of whom earn more than $1 million, but do not appear on the list, as their companies do not disclose this fact.
It is interesting to assess the “plus” roles, as well:
10-14-2013
Gartner just concluded its Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013 in Orlando, gathering tens of thousands of IT executives. Among the most anticipated aspects of the gathering are the ruminations from the Gartner pontificators regarding IT trends. Among several trends shared were the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014. Here is a summary of those trends:
1. Mobile Device Diversity and Management
Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable. The unintended consequence of bring your own device (BYOD) programs has been to render much more complex (by two or three times, Gartner estimates) the size of the mobile workforce, straining both the information technology and the finance organizations. It is recommended that companies better define expectations for employee-owned hardware to balance flexibility with confidentiality and privacy requirements.
Patty Hatter is the rare CIO-plus who took on CIO responsibilities second. She had worked for a number of technology-centric companies such Bell Labs, AT&T, and Cisco prior to joining McAfee roughly three years ago, but she had held a number of operations roles across her company. In her mind, she was fortunate to take on the CIO role after the operations role because the standardization of processes and insights she drew in the latter greatly impacted the former and made a difficult job a little bit easier. She had two sets of first 100 days within McAfee, and the lessons of her true first 100 days (as operations leader) made the first 100 days as CIO much easier.
(This is eighth article in the CIO’s First 100 Days series. To read the prior seven articles with the CIOs of companies like Intel, Time Warner, and Caterpillar, please click on this link. To read future articles in the series featuring the CIOs of Johnson & Johnson, SpaceX, Viacom, Amtrak, and AmerisourceBergen, please click the “Follow” link above.)
Peter High: Patty, you have had two different first 100 days at McAfee. You were the Senior Vice President of Operations starting three years ago, and then became CIO two years ago. What did you do commonly across each of those experiences, and were there any things that you learned in your time in the early stages of your first role that you brought to your second?
Patty Hatter: We were actually in a very different situation within that one year span. When I first joined McAfee as SVP of Operations, we had multiple challenges. We had challenges with the level of service we were providing, cost challenges, challenges between Operations and IT, and more broadly between all of the business functions and IT. Even with all of that work that was in front of us at the time, we were lucky because the culture of our organization was very open to change. That was the critical ingredient in getting our efforts started that first year. So in those first 100 days, my priorities were to leverage the willingness for change that we had, and engage our employees, at all levels and in each of our geographies, in both coming up with the improvement suggestions, as well as helping to drive those changes forward. Within that first year, we improved our business metrics and our velocity in creating change. A key part of that was being able to engage our employee base, shown by more than a 50% increase in our employee engagement score the first year, which has taken us to world class engagement scores.
After my first year at McAfee when I took on the additional role as CIO, an important advantage that I had was the strong cross-functional relationships that I had developed with the other business function leaders. Since I had previously been a ‘customer’ of IT with my Operations role, I knew the reputation of the IT organization was not positive, and that there was not a productive or trusting relationship between IT and the business functions. That’s where I was able to leverage the relationships that I had developed with the other business leaders over the prior year. These relationships were critical in quickly getting a much more open and transparent dialogue between all of the teams in order to drive to agreement on priorities and to smooth project execution. Additionally, within my first 100 days, I focused on meeting the IT staff and understanding our skill set. I was very pleased to discover that we had a very talented and passionate IT team. Our challenge was getting the right people in the leadership positions across IT, so that we could unleash the talent that we already had in the organization. Within that first 100 days, I started a series of organizational changes at the leadership level. We continued to refine the leadership team during that first year.
