FedEx, Home Depot, GE, H-P To Headline Forbes CIO Summit
by Bruce Upbin featuring Peter High, published on Forbes
10-15-2014
The relaunched Forbes CIO Summit is only a few weeks away and we couldn’t be more excited. Yes, there are a ton of CIO conferences, but none are as focused as this one on redefining the role of technology leadership. Best part: there are still seats left. So if you’re an active-duty CIO, by all means request an invite. It’s taking place Nov. 2-4 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla.
Chief information officers are in the middle of all the big changes in enterprise tech: cloud, mobile, social, security, virtualization, consumerization. The best CIOs nail the basics while looking beyond to create real value for their organizations. Real IT leadership means focusing on the hard stuff in between tech and the customer and between cost and opportunity. One thing is for sure: It’s not about plumbing any more. As Box cofounder Aaron Levie (who will be speaking at the event) says, “The first 20 years of the web were won by those that built the best infrastructure. Now it’s won by those that build the best experiences.”
The goal for the truly ambitious CIOs is to become so strategic to an organization that he or she assumes more responsibilities than just IT. Peter High, president of Metis Strategy and a Forbes contributor as well as my editorial partner in producing the event, calls them “CIO-pluses,” tech executives who take on operations, sales, manufacturing or marketing. The ‘best of the best’ rise beyond to become CEOs and COOs, or nab a seat on the board of directors.
To read the full article, please visit Forbes