Board Level CIO | episode 523

Stanley Black & Decker CIO Rhonda Gass

Rhonda Gass is the chief information officer of Stanley Black & Decker, a $14 billion manufacturing company operating in 3 segments: tools, an industrial business, and security products. As CIO, Rhonda is responsible for technology strategy, delivery, and technology operations for all of the business technology in the company, as well as digital risk management for all areas of technology. Prior to joining Stanley Black & Decker, Rhonda was the vice president of information technology at Dell. January 20, 2021

523: Stanley Black & Decker CIO Rhonda Gass discusses

  • Why Rhonda formed an enterprise IT organization to consolidate all of IT across the company 
  • Why Rhonda has aligned IT to the company’s three strategic pillars: financial performance, innovation, and responsibility
  • The company’s North Star innovation model, which has the data platform positioned at the core and 4 interconnected platforms
  • Ways in which IT’s standardization and modernization helped prepare the company for the pandemic
  • The company’s 4 top priorities once the pandemic hit
  • Rhonda’s path to a public board
  • Her advice to others wishing to do the same

Among a variety of other topics. 

"It is very important that you have the strong rapport with the leadership of the company you serve on because you want to make sure that you can make a difference and feel comfortable doing so with those board members and not just be a seat at the table and tick a box. If I think about other advice for me, it was network, value your networks. You never know when the opportunity is going to meet with the occasion."

The World Class IT principles in yellow were the focus of this interview

  • 01 1- People
  • 02 2- Infrastructure
  • 03 3- Project and Portfolio Management
  • 04 4- IT & Business Partnership
  • 05 5- External Partnerships

From strategy to implementation

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