Ben Fried, CIO of Google, discusses the challenges and opportunities of being the CIO at one of the most successful technology companies of our time.
by Peter High, published on Forbes.com
07-22-2013
One might think that being the CIO of a legendary technology company would be like aTale of Two Cities: the best of times and the worst of times. On the one hand, one need not ever make the case that technology needs to be thought of as a strategic weapon in the arsenal of the company, as many IT executives still must do in their companies. On the other hand, there are many people throughout the business who feel they can do the job of CIO better than the actual CIO can. For many of the company’s engineers, CIO seems like the easiest of the executive positions.
Google’s CIO Ben Fried’s job is far from easy, but he focuses more on the best of times scenario, recognizing that by being surrounded by some of the best technology talent in the world inside and outside the IT department, there is no dearth of opportunities to pursue. In fact, even the issues turn out to be opportunities. As he says, “At Google, we are programmed to think that if you see an opportunity or a problem, we need to do something about it.”
When Fried joined Google roughly five years ago after more than 13 years at Morgan Stanley, there were a great number of opportunities to chase down and a reasonable amount of issues to resolve. This is typical for an organization that has been through such tremendous growth as has been the case for Google. The company’s core services such as search, Gmail, YouTube, and Maps have grown tremendously, and the company continues to grow through acquisition. The complexity is exacerbated and the opportunities multiplied by the company’s continued desire to strive for moonshot ideas such as Google Glass or the driverless cars emerging out of Google X. Fried’s team’s ability to react quickly to these opportunities earned it a reputation for being experts with the tactics. They could seize upon an opportunity or squelch a problem as soon as either was identified.
A couple of years ago, Fried wanted to plant a flag figuratively to declare what IT stood for, however. As the company continued its tremendous growth, the demands on IT would grow accordingly, and without a filter to judge certain kinds of ideas so that some would be de-prioritized would mean the department might be crushed under the weight of growing needs and expectations of the rest of the organization.
IT missions typically sit above the strategy of the organization and they should not change as often as a strategy will, and therefore should offer a lasting initial screen to help determine whether a given idea is worthy of pursuing or not. The IT strategy and the portfolio of projects connected to that strategy will get to the next level of granularity closer to the transactional level of the business.
As a result, Fried and his leadership team defined Google IT’s mission as “To Empower Googlers with World Leading Technology.” This is a bold mission, and it clearly states that average is not good enough. Fried and his team embraced this mission because it complemented the company’s mission as a whole, which is “To Organize the World’s Information and Make It Universally Accessible and Useful.” One ambitious mission deserves another to support it.
There are a few things that are noteworthy about this plan:
First, it requires that IT develop tight collaborations with colleagues outside of IT, so that the IT department truly knows what “Googlers” need to be successful. Fried had a valuable arrow in his quiver: he had some of the deepest engineering talent in the world, and in many case his team could seek the counsel of colleagues who invented significant aspects of the Internet, technology infrastructure, and computer languages. IT needed to develop stronger ties with these experts earlier on in the development of new technologies…
Additional topics covered in the article include:
To read the full article, please visit Forbes.com
To explore the recent Beyond CIO Series articles, please click here.
To explore the recent CIO-plus Series articles, please click here.
To explore the Technovation Column library, please click here.
To listen to an older Forum on World Class IT podcast interview with Ben, click here.
After executive IT positions with Verizon Wireless and Boeing, it is no wonder that John Hinshaw’s career took him beyond CIO at this $120 billion company.
06-03-2013
John Hinshaw has been an IT executive at three iconic corporations and with each successive position, the company and the role has increased in size. He was the senior vice president and chief information officer of Verizon Wireless, the head of the Information Solutions business unit and CIO at Boeing, and he is now the executive vice president of Technology and Operations at Hewlett-Packard. In his current role, the CIO and IT report to him, as do several other business units.
Hinshaw has overseen a radical restructuring of HP’s cost structure, rendering a significant portion of the company’s infrastructure into the cloud, developing more common processes, and fostering collaboration across his organization and across the company more generally. Hinshaw’s is an organization that provides the glue to the diverse $120 billion behemoth.
As Hinshaw describes, his knowledge of technology combined with a head for broader business concepts began at an early age.
(The “Beyond CIO” series kicked off with this article, and the all past interviews in the series can be found here. If you are interested in future articles in the series with executives from companies like Symantec, Ameristar Casinos, and Aetna, among others, please return to the Technovation column in the coming weeks.)
Peter High: John, when you joined HP in late 2011, you did so as the executive vice president of Technology and Operations. You are a rare person who has been hired into a “beyond CIO” role from a CIO-plus role (you accomplished the latter by running the Information Solutions business unit while also being the CIO of The Boeing Company). Can you describe your current responsibilities?
John Hinshaw: In my current role, I oversee company operations including global information technology, global sales operations, global procurement, global business shared services, global real estate, and global security. It is a broad set of responsibilities, but it is actually quite an advantage to have the tech functions and the business functions mentioned reporting into the same group.
This was a new role created when I joined. It was an attempt by Meg [Whitman, HP’s CEO] to reduce the number of direct reports that she had, but also to increase the sphere of influence and enhance collaboration across these functions. It has been an important set of changes.
To explore the full collection of Beyond CIO Series articles, please click here.
To listen to a recent Forum on World Class IT podcast interview with John, click here.
Filippo Passerini of Procter & Gamble powers the Global Business Services for an $84 billion company with advanced analytics and diligent strategic planning.
03-18-2013
Filippo Passerini had a circuitous route to the CIO role, both in terms of functional as well as geographic experience. He rose through the ranks from junior to senior-most positions at P&G beginning in his native Italy through his arrival at P&G’s world headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. He started in IT, but also spent time in marketing and operations roles before becoming CIO.
As Passerini notes herein, P&G has a history of hiring CIOs who have traditional business experience in the hopes of having IT run as a typical business function. Passerini continued this tradition, and in 2005, as CIO, he led the integration of Gillette. In 2008, Passerini was also named the president of Global Business Services, and 2011 he was named Group President of Global Business Services. Now with his cross-functional responsibilities, he has developed digital war-room of sorts, assembling an assortment of leading edge analytics capabilities to enable the $84 billion colossus to make better decisions, drawing insights from across geographies, product segments, business functions and the like. As such, his organization has managed the “big data” conundrum as well as any organization in the world.
(This is the fourteenth piece in the CIO-plus series. To read the prior twelve interviews with the CIO-pluses from Waste Management, McKesson, Merck, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Ameristar Casinos, Owens Corning, Marsh & McLennan, ADP, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the San Francisco Giants, Walgreens, and GSX as well as a partner in the CIO/CTO practice for Heidrick and Struggles, please click this link. To receive notice about future interviews in the series with CIO-pluses of P&G and others, please click visit the column’s page. in the weeks to come.)
Peter High: Filippo, you have a non-traditional path to the CIO role. You joined P&G as a junior IT resource in Italy, and then spent time in a variety of business functions within the company before being named CIO. How have such diverse experiences colored your thought process in what makes a successful IT leader or a successful IT employee?
Filippo Passerini: I don’t see myself as a “stereotypical CIO.” I continue a long-tradition at P&G of CIOs who are not entirely technical. At P&G, we have a few hiring practices that set us apart from IT organizations elsewhere. First, we hire people for who they are, not what they know. The technology can be learned, but you cannot teach curiosity. You cannot teach passion for the business. So, much of our recruiting focuses on finding people who have the right raw ingredients—leadership, business acumen, communication skills, passion for technology—that helps ensure that they will be successful almost no matter where they are staffed.
We are also a promote from within company. It is rare at P&G to find a person in a senior role who did not rise through P&G. We invest heavily in our people. This long-term commitment that we make to our leaders of tomorrow means that we have well-rounded colleagues with deep knowledge of our business. This business knowledge is more important than technical knowledge.
We take the view that technology is almost always a commodity. It is what you do with it, what business priority you solve, what business capability you enable, what process you render more efficient. This is true value. The conversation should never begin with technology, and our recruiting and training reflect this fact. Therefore, the ideal employee for us is a business person who is passionate about technology as opposed to the other way around.
To explore other CIO-plus Series articles, please click here.
A leader that is never settled: as Chief Information, Innovation, and Improvement Officer, Tim Theriault is constantly seeking new avenues for adding business value.
02-18-2013
Tim Theriault’s title is more than a mouthful, but it befits the many responsibilities he has at Walgreens. He is the Chief Information, Innovation, and Improvement Officer of the $72 billion pharmaceutical retailer. In that role, Theriault is responsible for all of IT, but also “Big I” and “little i” innovations, as he explains herein, centered on revenue enhancement and cost reduction.
It is not a surprise that Theriault would add revenue and costs reduction responsibilities to his role as CIO since he was once the chief technology officer of Northern Trust Bank, but then rose to the role of president of the bank’s corporate and institutional services business. He now finds himself squarely in the middle of a major healthcare transformation that the company is in the throes of, and sees creative use of information and technology as a key component of that transformation.
(This is the twelfth piece in the CIO-plus series. To read the prior eleven interviews with the CIO-pluses from Waste Management, McKesson, Merck, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Ameristar Casinos, Owens Corning, Marsh & McLennan, ADP, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and the San Francisco Giants, as well as a partner in the CIO/CTO practice for Heidrick and Struggles, please click this link. To receive notice about future interviews in the series with CIO-pluses of P&G and others, please click visit the column’s page. in the weeks to come.)
Peter High: Let’s begin with your title. Can you please describe the three aspects of your title as chief information, innovation, and improvement officer?
Tim Theriault: I joined Walgreens as Chief Information Officer in October of 2009. In that role, I have been responsible for IT across the organization regardless of the business unit, making sure IT is aligned with the priorities and strategies of all business units in the company and that we are servicing their needs. I also am responsible for integrating all technology, optimizing that technology, and rendering it as efficient as possible.
More recently, I added the Innovation and Improvement roles. On the Innovation side, I am responsible for a small group that is primarily responsible for disruptive technologies. We encourage innovation at all levels of the company. We engage our colleagues globally to identify innovative ideas to exploit and develop. The innovation team stands apart from the normal way of doing business. They have different ways of doing things, a faster path to develop new ideas, and the like. I want them to feel unconstrained in their thinking except that they must tie those ideas to our business strategies. My goal is that we identify opportunities that will yield benefits over $50 million to $100 million, but eventually opportunities that are over a $1 billion in return to the corporation. Therefore, I’m referring to “Big I” innovation here. We look for the triple play wherever we can, which I define as something that will grow revenue, reduce costs, and enhance the customer experience all at once. We may have innovations that do only one, but truly disruptive ideas can do all three, and technology has a large role to play here.
On the Improvement side, we focus on continuous improvement of our operations. In some ways, this is the “small I” innovation, primarily focused on internal processes and cost efficiencies, and extremely important to operating successfully.
A reflection on technology thought leadership in 2012.
As 2012 draws to a close, I have gathered what I believe to be the best technology writing and interviews from the year. I have divided the articles into the categories of people, organizations, and ideas. As you put your feet up in front of the fire this holiday season, consider giving these articles and interviews a look and listen.
People:
Elon Musk has been called the reincarnation of Thomas Edison. One of his companies is shooting for the stars (or at least for Mars), and another hopes to revolutionize the auto industry. In this Bloomberg Businessweek profile entitled “Elon Musk, the 21st Century Industrialist“, Ashlee Vance provides a solid snapshot of this dynamic leader. (To get an insider’s perspective on Tesla Motors, listen to my interview with Tesla IT head, Jay Vijayan.)
I am admittedly a devotee of Charlie Rose, and there are three tech-centric interviews of his from the past year that are worth watching:
Mary Meeker was an early advocate for and investor in the dot-com companies of the late ‘90s. She is back, and this Forbes profile by Eric Savitz entitled “Meeker: new Job, But Still Queen of the Net” provides interesting insights into where she sees the next big things emerging from her perch at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Organizations:
With all of the articles written about big data, Charles Duhigg’s New York Times Magazine article “How Companies Learn Your Secrets” does an outstanding job at digging deep into the methods used by Target regarding its approach to data analytics to make better decisions.
(…)
Ideas:
I have been interested to see a number of business and IT executives who I counsel gaining a better appreciation for culture. This is not a technology piece per se, but is especially relevant for the department of the company that is most vulnerable to having great people leave for greener pastures. In this Fast Company article, Shawn Parr argues that “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch.”
Open Source- more than a business model, it is a culture driven by the CEO.
12-11-2012
Jim Whitehurst, the President and CEO of Red Hat has had an interesting career to date. He was a consultant for a number of years, joined Delta Air Lines right around September 11, 2001, and played a big role in securing the future of that company as its Chief Operating Officer, and now is the President and CEO of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world’s first billion dollar open source company. Whitehurst and I recently spoke as part of my Forum on World Class IT podcast series, and hearing him compare his time at Delta to his current role at Red Hat struck me as an interesting case example in how older generation businesses and newer technology firms differ in terms of culture, hierarchy, collaboration, and the like.
When Whitehurst worked at Delta, a company in an industry that has deep ties to the military, he was literally saluted at times by colleagues of his. He would help formulate the strategy for the divisions under his control, and when those plans were finalized, entire teams were mobilized to see that they were enacted effectively. Airlines require a great deal of planning, given the complexities of managing planes (both flights and maintenance), crews (pilots and flight attendants), and customers. Time is of the essence, but more important still is safety. Add to this the irregularities caused by issues of weather or planes that require unplanned maintenance, and one can understand the need for everyone to be operating together in order to make the operation work effectively.
Red Hat, by contrast, is an open source company. It operates under the assumption that the best ideas require developing a solid kernel of an idea, and then freeing employees, customers, and external partners to help make it better, to prove the value of the idea, and possibly to identify value that was not planned at the outset. Red Hat refers to itself as a “catalyst of communities.”
To listen to Jim Whitehurst’s Forum on World Class IT podcast interview, please click here.
(In the interest of full disclosure Red Hat is a partner of my Forum on World Class IT podcast series.)
Summarizing five ways to drive IT productivity, Peter High references a recent CEB study that suggests how CIOs can get the most out of their teams.
11-19-2012
I recently had a chance to speak with Shvetank Shah, who is the Executive Director, IT Practice at CEB , and he made me aware of a recent study that his team conducted, surveying 23,339 employees at organizations globally regarding how to “Prepare IT to Drive Productivity in the New Work Environment.” (That is the title of a CEB CIO Executive Board analysis that was just released.) I have included the five conclusions in italics below with my own thoughts in regular text:
1. Refocus on Team, Not Individual, Productivity—As opportunities for process automation run low, IT will refocus on enabling teams, not just individuals, to be effective at collaboration and knowledge work.
This is very much in line with where my CIO contacts are focusing a lot of attention these days. As the workforce ages, and key staff retire in greater numbers, and as the market for talented individuals is heating up, effective knowledge management is crucial to ensure that as people leave the corporation, knowledge remains. Moreover, as collaboration across product and service areas, across geographies, and with external partners (vendors or customers) increase, having processes and technologies to facilitate and capture the output from that collaboration will be essential.
2. Shift Support from Tool Usage to Employees Using the Tools—IT and other corporate functions will redefine support, moving away from teaching how to use a tool and instead helping employees build the skills they need to effectively collaborate, apply judgment, and use data for decision making.
In other words, employees need to be taught “skills” in collaboration, analysis, and the like, and to a greater extent centralized functions like IT will play a significant role in these efforts. These will be fundamentally new responsibilities for many IT departments, and will require training and new hiring in some cases in order to meet this imperative.
The remaining three ways are:
3. Separate Flexible Interfaces from Foundational Data
4. Prioritize the IT–Employee Relationship
5. Adopt “Test and Learn” IT Strategy and Budgets
To read the full article, please visit Forbes.com.
To read past pieces in the Technovation Column, please click here.
Being a CIO for a company with “Data” in the name means you need to be on the leading edge of innovation. ADP CIO, Mike Capone, fosters a culture of innovation within his team to do just that.
10-15-2012
The unemployment figures sometimes mask the fact that there is a war for IT talent in corporate America and beyond. As companies across a large number of industries have awakened to the fact that technology has a major role to play in their operations, internally and customer-facing, they have understood that solid IT resources are a must. Add to that the fact that outsourcing has stripped many IT departments of the commoditized work, meaning that the average IT employee must be of a higher quality and contribute to a higher level of value. Lastly, Silicon Valley and the tech start-up community is again white hot, and that is drawing some the best and brightest engineering talent who might otherwise choose to join IT departments.
Late last month, Mike Capone, the Global CIO of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) asked me to speak with his team about IT led innovation and to facilitate a brainstorming session with his team. The approach used was truly novel.
To provide some context, ADP is one of the last four AAA-rated companies in the United States. Its growth has been steady, and one might suspect that that would translate into a conservative culture, but in recent years, the company has developed an emphasis on innovation. Traditionally known for being the unquestioned leader in Payroll Services, ADP has transformed itself into a full Human Capital Management provider over the last decade. Well established in the Cloud before the term became fashionable, ADP now counts over 300,000 clients leveraging their internet solutions. In May of 2006, the company developed the ADP National Employment Report, recognizing that in providing one in every six checks in the US, it had statistical significance when it came to employment figures. Capone and his team have been at the forefront of that change, as well, developing a vast array of innovative product offerings through its Innovation Lab. ADP’s Mobile Solutions, advanced Semantic Search engine and a behavioral intelligence algorithm based on Big Data are some examples of ADP’s investment on research and focus on innovation.
The three steps from the remainder of the article are:
Brainstorm Scenarios that are Several Years Ahead
Engage High-Potential Future Leaders of IT
Live the Future You Hope to Create
Peter High and Chris Laping, CIO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, speak with XChange Events at their Midsize Enterprise Summit 2012 in San Antonio, Texas after their on-stage interview for the Forum on World Class IT.
Meet the new IT leader—an executive intensely focused on building out an unparalleled IT core while increasing the business value of IT. Those two initiatives are what motivate the next-gen CIO. This session will unlock the secrets to breaking through by sharing innovative ways to manage projects, forge partnerships with internal departments and influencers and execute on a vision for driving business value and change. No matter what the critics say IT is uniquely equipped to drive change and foster innovation.
This interview is with Chris Laping, who is not only the CIO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers but the Vice President of Business Transformation and Peter High, President of Metis Strategy.
To watch Chris’ full video interview with Peter, please visit his interview page on the Forum on World Class IT.
In an industry known for risk aversion, Great American Insurance’s Senior Vice President and CIO Piyush Singh has managed to innovate and transform the company’s entire operative platform, while simultaneously influencing its business philosophy.
by Peter High
09-01-2011
In Summary
Who: Piyush Singh, SVP/CIO of Great American Insurance
What: Singh has transformed the 4,000-employee company’s entire operative platform and influenced the company’s business philosophy.
Where: Cincinnati
Why: Singh’s experiences innovating in a traditionally risk-averse industry provides a recipe for success for any CIO grappling with governance, risk and compliance challenges.
Piyush Singh has been a CIO in the insurance industry for more than a decade, currently holding the title of senior vice president and CIO of Great American Insurance, as well as vice president of its parent company, American Financial Group in Cincinnati. Singh led a large-scale transformation of Great American’s entire operative platform and has had a major influence on its business philosophy. Under his leadership, the company’s IT role changed from that of custodian of a legacy IT environment to respected partner that participates in—and contributes to the success of—the businesses it supports. Great American has implemented a modern technology architecture as a foundation that will adapt for future growth and evolving business needs. CIO Insight contributor and Metis Strategy President Peter High recently spoke with Singh about how he balances his team’s role in innovation with governance, risk management and security—especially in light of the increasing demands of his colleagues and the company’s customers.
To read the remainder of this article, please visit CIO Insight.
