CIO DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS Where leadership, vision and technology converge to transform and advance business. Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First | 04.24.15 JUST THINK IT MOVING FROM DOING TO ENVISIONING PARTNERS 2 CIO-Tomorrow.com | Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First | 04.24.15 Welcome to the ‘new’ CIO Tomorrow W where we can bring the area’s IT thought leaders together,” White said. elcome to our inaugural CIO Tomorrow event and special publication. More than a decade ago, a group of enterprising Central Ohio chief information officers came together and created an event, then titled The CIO Symposium. Later, the event was renamed CIOhio in an effort to attract CIOs from around the state. Several years after, the event again was renamed TechTomorrow. Indeed, CIO Tomorrow is the same event. And some of the same chief information officers who first created this event continue to serve as the organizers of our new CIO Tomorrow. I’d like to personally thank Angelo Mazzocco, chief information officer of COPCP, Central Ohio Primary Care Physicians, who came to me some 18 David White Angelo Mazzocco CIO, Battelle CIO, Central Ohio Primary Care Physicians months ago to gauge Business First’s interest in helping to market and produce their event. Mazzocco was the inaugural chairman of this event in 2002. Special thanks go to Mazzocco and David White, chief information officer at Battelle Memorial Institute, who is chairman of our CIO Tomorrow event this year. “I’m very hopeful that we are beginning to create the premier IT conference for the Central Ohio region, “We will share some very meaningful content and offer great opportunities to network and share intelligence,” the CIO Tomorrow chairman continued. “I’m excited that we have included other C-level leaders in our conference—it’s not just IT people talking with other IT people.” Added Mazzocco: “This is an event that is put on by CIOs for CIOs, for the purpose to learn more, network more, and add value to the technology and information services across Central Ohio.” “The core planning team is made up of CIOs,” Mazzocco said. “We went out and found some of the most knowledgeable IT leaders to talk about topics of most interest to CIOs.” Director Nick Fortine, who is our point person on this event, says CIO Tomorrow is all about preparing the future IT leaders of Central Ohio to be more than just technology leaders. “How do we harness technology to be part of our overall strategy?” Fortine asks. “Today’s technology leader is really a business strategy leader.” If you are a chief information officer, chief technology officer, or you plan on becoming one, put this event on your calendar. CIO Tomorrow will indeed become a stepping stone for your IT career. n Don DePerro President & Publisher Columbus Business First Advertising ROLTA ADVIZEX: A WORLD OF EXPERIENCE The CIO of tomorrow will need to navigate a new world where physical infrastructure is replaced by the cloud, oceans of data flow seamlessly in real time, and the traditional boundaries between IT and lines of business disappear. It’s a world that Oracle and Rolta AdvizeX are helping to build today through innovative solutions and managed services that help enterprises leverage the cloud, big data, mobility, and social media in the new data-driven economy. Rolta AdvizeX also puts a world of Oracle experience and expertise at your fingertips. We’ve won nine Oracle Titan Awards, authored seven of the top 10 books published by Oracle Press, and boast a global services team of more than 2,500 IT professionals— many with a deep understanding of Oracle applications and technology including big data, converged infrastructure, virtual data centers, cloud computing, and more. To tap into a world of possibilities with Oracle and Rolta AdvizeX, contact us at 1-800-220-8454 or visit our website at www.advizex.com. 04.24.15 | Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First Developing the Next Generation of Leaders | CIO-Tomorrow.com FROM THE CHAIRMAN CIOs tie innovation to business strategy T he world continues to move at alarming pace. Change isn’t just inevitable – it’s constant. And nowhere is that more evident than the digital space. That’s why we’re so excited about this year’s conference. We know just how easy it can be for a company to fall behind. If you aren’t prepared for constant changes in the industry, the learning curve is steep and difficult to overcome. CIO-Tomorrow grants you direct access to veteran executives who can share their perspectives, experiences and insights to help you navigate this new area in leadership development. As the current CIO at a company that opened its doors in 1929 – when the world was much different – I am no stranger to the difficulties of moving into the 21st century and embracing all that the digital world has to offer. There are daily struggles to address – security vs. ease of sharing information, strict guidelines for government clients vs. more relaxed parameters for others, etc. – that require a great deal of agility. If we don’t have the right leaders in place – leaders who are willing to embrace innovation – we all will have difficult paths ahead. Ensuring the right education opportunities exist also plays a key role in future successes. I’m proud to work for a company that values STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math) and is doing its part to help develop future leaders in our field. Additionally, it is important that we provide opportunities for entry to women and minorities who are underrepresented in the digital workspace because a diverse workspace is a strong workspace. From arming up-and-coming leaders with new skills to ensure their success in a more complicated digital world, to finding ways to keep the momentum going, we hope that you leave here today equipped with the right tools to make sure you are developing the next generation of leaders. n David White CIO Corporate Information Technology 3 Developing the Next Generation of Leaders | CIO-Tomorrow.com 04.24.15 | Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First 5 KEYNOTE INSIGHT Futurists will rely on intersection of people, process, technology Thornton A. May Futurist & Executive Director IT Leadership Academy Conference Moderator I began my career as an anthropologist studying tribal behavior in the modern Japanese corporation. Upon returning to the U.S., I apprenticed with überfuturist Alvin Toffler [Future Shock; Third Wave; and Power Shift], assisting in creating the national digital strategies for Singapore, Korea and Mexico. We discovered the ultimate driver of national competitive advantage is the talent pipeline – specifically an executive cadre who can sense future technology-created opportunities in time to capitalize on them and identify threats early enough to avoid them. Too many executives still have a value-destroying “IT is a black box” or “IT is someone else’s job” mental model. Job #1 for high performance organizations is developing the next generation of leaders. I am often quoted as saying, “All organizations are on a digital journey – most have no map, no guide and bad shoes.” A fellow futurist has a simple and yet surprisingly accurate predictive model of how a given individual will react to any technology. It all comes down to the birthdate of the technology. The number one driver of the “State of the World by 2015” will be the content of people’s heads – the beliefs, desires and ideas that executives have about technology. If the technology was completed after you were 35 you view it as “completely pointless, and it tends to make you angry. The CIO of Tomorrow – actually the CIO of Today – has a major role to play in developing the next generation of business leaders. ficer. The boffins at various subscription research firms seem intent on burying CIOs. We are bombarded with statistics like “54 percent of line-of-business executives agree with the statement that non-IT departments view the IT group as an obstacle to their mission” [CIO Magazine] and “Thirty-eight percent of total IT spend is outside of IT already – heading to 50 percent by 2017”. These statistics are worthless. This obsession with “who spends the money” has to stop. The real issue becomes, “Did the money spent create supra-normal value?” Executives now running most organizations are in that third category. Much has been written about the impending demise of the Chief Information Of- One of our keynotes when CIO at Chico’s was the only executive left standing after If the technology was invented before you were born, you don’t even think of it as “technology”, you think of it as “just there.” If the technology was invented before you were middle aged you view it as very exciting –something to be engaged actively with. When asked what will determine the “State of the World by 2025”, most futurists would not answer powerful computers, breakthroughs in medicine, or even 100percent renewable energy. The number one driver of the “State of the World by 2015” will be the content of people’s heads – the beliefs, desires and ideas that executives have about technology. a private equity purge of the executive suite. The IT organization was viewed as “the value base”. The private equity chief explained, “My dad always said to me, ‘You’ve got to dig it, grow it, or build it; everything else is just fluff.’” IT is not fluff. Another critical question to ask is not what line of business executives think of IT but the quality of thought on the part of the business executives regarding how to make money/create competitive advantage with IT. A broad systemic issue exists here. Most boards of directors today do not include executives who have a proven track record of managing disruptive technologies to create competitive advantage. The challenge of managing the intersection of people, process and technology is not a new one. There is a lack of best practices. Attending the “CIO Tomorrow” conference is a great way to explore the new way. I hope to see you there. n Is your company at risk of being disrupted? The disrupters go after multi-billion dollar industries through cutting-edge ideas and technology. At Pillar we do not believe disruptive innovation is limited to a select group of people. We believe in creating innovative ideas, for big or small companies. Be a part of the journey. 2015 ©Pillar Technology Group, LLC www.pillartechnology.com 1.888.374.5527 6 CIO-Tomorrow.com | Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First | 04.24.15 KEYNOTE INSIGHT Listening to customers is important as ever A s the world becomes more digital and more social, today’s consumers live in the land of now – tweeting, pinning, posting and streaming in between texting and status updating. At no other time in history have customers had such an ability and opportunity to aim their voices at companies, and even leaders. As leaders, we must tap into this territory, listen to what these customers are saying and act decisively. We must instill this movement of change in our employees as well as give them the tools to execute. That is what Gary King EVP and CIO T-Mobile has been doing for the past two years. And, it seems to be working. Two years ago, we faced a number of challenges in an industry dominated by a duo- poly. The wireless industry rules were holding us back. What do you do if the big guys won’t let you play? You create your own rules. Un-carrier is our response. We are tearing down the rules of wireless and challenging the norms all for the benefit of our customers. These industry moves, as well as IT changes we’ve made, have come out of a focus on the customer. This focus drives T-Mobile leaders and employees to listen, develop and execute. T-Mobile is dragging the wireless industry kicking and screaming into the future. Our reward? Customers telling us we are doing something right. They recognize we are changing the industry for the better and are choosing T-Mobile in unprecedented numbers. The key is to have the common sense to listen to customers. Then, empower employees to turn that conversation into executable deliverables that make customers’ lives easier, simpler and better. n Belief, momentum critical for future IT leaders A primary lesson for the next generation of IT leaders is that real success comes from not only developing a viable agenda, but also getting people behind that agenda with sustainable momentum. While that may seem obvious to some, this is not an easy task. There is often much to learn about how that momentum gets established and how it can be assured in the face of technological change, business uncertainties and expanding global influences. The question that intrigues me, and which Dr. Don Marinelli Academic Director Entertainment Technology Management Program Columbia University School of Continuing Education will propel my comments at the “CIO Tomorrow” conference is, “What can we as IT leaders really learn from our inventions?” This investigation focuses on how the arduous creation of software, code, operating systems, data management, and overall system and server architecture, can then inform, guide, enlighten, and potentially rewire, the “hardware” that is us. What is it that IT leaders can learn from the fruits of their labor; namely, the creation and sustenance of solidly built, reliable, and innovative software systems? What we will discover is that there is an incredible amount of humanity in these systems, a replication of both the machine that is our corporeal self, as well as the aesthetic and spiritual aspects to human existence. And, in the same way that software is con- stantly evolving, improving, and achieving greater clarity and efficiency, so, too, must IT leaders be evolving in their understanding of their responsibility and obligation to the companies they serve and to greater humanity. n Right Talent. Right Time. Tomorrow’s IT Staffing and IT Recruiting solutions delivered today. • Ranked #1 Supplier by over 50% of our clients nationwide. • Ranked Top 3 Supplier by over 75% of our clients nationwide. 4900 Blazer Parkway Dublin, OH 43017 614-336-1122 | [email protected] High-velocity innovation. From idea to implementation. Skytap gives software development and test teams a boost in agility with on-demand lab environments that are complete, collaborative and constraint-free. W W . S K Y T A P. C O M Developing the Next Generation of Leaders | CIO-Tomorrow.com 04.24.15 | Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First 7 KEYNOTE INSIGHT PHOTO courtesy of: San Francisco Giants Redefine your peak performances Bill Schlough SVP & CIO San Francisco Giants W inning in business, like in sports, requires peak performance. Performance that is superior to the competition, on a sustained basis. What is the secret to sustaining peak performance? Day after day, year after year? Is it even possible to sustain peak performance—or is that an oxymoron? Yesterday’s peak performance is tomorrow’s status quo. Sustainable competitive advantage is just as hard to find in sports as it is in business. The secret is finding ways to redefine peak performances through a sustained commitment to innovation. There is always another mountain to climb. The San Francisco Giants have spent the past decade redefining peak performances. If we’re not questioning and reinventing every aspect of our business on a regular basis, we are doomed to fail. Three World Series titles in five years. MVPcaliber contributions from every player on the field, finding unique and different ways to win. A 347-game regular season sellout streak. The first sports facility to become a Wi-Fi hotspot and the first to deliver video replays to fans’ mobile devices. The first team to embrace and create an online secondary market for their tickets. The first Social Media Café. One of the first baseball franchises to pilot pitch tracking, hit tracking and player tracking technologies. The first sports organization to commit 100 percent to dynamic ticket pricing of every seat in the ballpark. These achievements are a reflection of our organizational mission: “The San Francisco • Tier IV data center with capacity up to 30 Megawatts • Ohio’s largest carrier hotel, with 40+ carriers present • Pristine record of no outages • SOC2 Type II certified, SSAE 16, HIPAA, PCI and IRS 1075 compliant • 24 x 7 on-site operations center To get a behind the scenes tour of the most connected data center in Ohio, contact [email protected] or 855-497-2537 Giants are dedicated to enriching our community through innovation and excellence, on and off the field.” Innovation is clearly at the core of our DNA. Being satisfied with the way things have been done in the past (aka complacency) is not culturally acceptable at the Giants. If we’re not questioning and reinventing every aspect of our business on a regular basis, we are doomed to fail. Today’s peak performance is tomorrow’s status quo. Perhaps you can win once on the basis of good fortune or good timing. Maybe twice if you’re really lucky. But to do it three times in five years? That requires a sustained commitment to innovation. n 8 CIO-Tomorrow.com | Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First | 04.24.15 What a CEO looks for in tomorrow’s IT leaders Tying innovation and technology to business strategy by Molly Culbertson Reporter | CIO-Tomorrow “Executives want IT leaders who can translate technology into business strategies,” said David White, CIO of Battelle Memorial Institute. “What can you do to help the business make more money? How can you tie IT systems to revenue growth?” In its annual CIO survey last year, global consulting firm Deloitte reported that a significant majority of CIOs say that responding to new business needs and driving digital strategy are their top priorities for the next 12 to 18 months. Deloitte compared today’s IT leaders to venture capitalists: Venture capitalists “operate in a high-stakes environment where extraordinary value creation and inevitable loses can coexist inside a portfolio of calculated investments. So do CIOs.” The Deloitte report also said that more and more, CIOs are seeing themselves as part of the executive team: Half of the CIOs that Deloitte surveyed rate themselves “strong and effective” partners with their executive teams—a 10 percent increase over the previous year. “Battelle is working to develop savvy and well-rounded future CIOs by putting IT folks into leadership cohorts.” David White | CIO, Battelle Branndon Kelley, CIO at American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP), a nonprofit power and services provider for member municipal electric systems, said, “A CEO expects his or her IT leader to bring new ideas to the table. It’s all about wrapping IT around the strategy of the organization.” Kelley said he learned early in his career that “I could deliver value by first understanding how I could help my peers do their jobs better. A CIO has to be diverse. You have to be able to understand and discuss finance as easily as technology. You have to be able to talk about value and business strategy…you can’t be just the IT guy who fixes computers.” As an example of adding value, he said, when AMP plans new power plants, Kelley brings predictive analytics to the table, to help determine such things as the likelihood of future outages. “The executive team can see how critical technology is to the business.” Be strategic about building relationships, too, Kelley said. “Understand what other leaders contribute to the business, and how their operations work. In the old model, the IT leader might have announced, ‘This is what we’re going to do [with technology] and this is how it’s going to work.’ That model simply doesn’t work any more.” Kelley recommends making a point of “living a day in the life of the people you work with. What are your peers’ pain points? How can you help them get to solutions?” Battelle’s CIO White agrees. “It’s critical that you understand what your clients internally are doing. You may have a technology solution that works technically, but doesn’t work at all functionally.” Battelle is working to develop savvy and well-rounded future CIOs by putting IT folks into leadership cohorts, White said. “Our future leaders are learning diversity in thought as they learn how different areas of Battelle work.” Industry leaders and analysts agree that the time is right for CIOs to fully engage with their CEOs and the rest of the executive team. When the technology research firm Gartner, Inc. released the findings of its global CIO survey late last year, it noted that “CIOs are being presented with a unique opportunity to become digital leaders.” Gartner VP Dave Aron said, “Being a powerful digital leader and influencer takes time, and CIOs need to spend time being digital leaders. The survey data… tells us that, all things being equal, the CIOs with higher performance as IT leaders spend significantly less time running the IT shop and delegate some business unit leader engagement. This gives them an extra 5 percent ‘time bonus,’ or a day per month, to engage the board, senior leadership, and external customers.” AMP’s Kelley said, “I think that in 10 years, the CEO will look at the IT leader, and understand all the things that a strategic CIO brings to the table. I think then that CIOs will be seen as logical heirs to the top leadership positions in corporations.” n Award Winning Telecommunications Solutions Engineering - Design – Installation Services • • • • • • • Passive Optical LAN, Wireless, Distribution Antena System Network Design, Deployment, Support Services Structured Cabling Installation Fiber Optical Network Design Aerial Fiber Installation Underground Construction & Directional Boring BICSI Certified Design & Installation • Award-winning Multifunction Products • Capture & Workflow Solutions • Managed Print Services • Document & Device Security • Digital Signage Solutions • Eco Solutions Contact Us Voice, Data and Fiber Optical Systems Ken Funai at: [email protected] Passive Optical LAN Solutions Jeff Van Horne at: [email protected] Underground and Aerial Construction Jerry Andrus at: [email protected] 5197 Trabue Rd. Columbus, OH 43228 l www.STATcom.net l (614)299-0184 business.toshiba.com © 2015 Toshiba America Business Solutions. Inc. Electronic Imaging Division Developing the Next Generation of Leaders | CIO-Tomorrow.com 04.24.15 | Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First 9 Earning a seat at the executive table Marketing yourself internally is key to gaining a seat at the executive table, say several Central Ohio CIOs by Molly Culbertson T Reporter | CIO-Tomorrow oday’s successful CIOs have moved their IT divisions from being the custodians of core IT systems to becoming partners in the strategic growth of their companies. “The executive team must see their CIO as an effective partner,” said Sally Miller, CIO at Exel. “You want them to know that you’re a strong and key contributor to the business. That means several things: You’re competent in your role, you’re on top of the constantly changing world of IT, and you can educate the executive team on what technologies can do for the business.” Kris Merz, CIO at The Limited, agreed. “Technology used to be in the background of most businesses, a costly expense center. But technologies today can help any business to be successful. It’s really important that, as an IT leader, you can make your voice heard, so that you can bring those new technologies to the business.” Key to maintaining relevance, Merz said, is “your ability to change. Things change all “Get out and engage with your peers in the business. Understand what your trusted vendors are bringing to you. What are the solutions you can bring to the business? ” Kris Merz | CIO, The Limited the time, both in your business and in technology. Being a leader means really understanding the business and what’s new in IT. Get out and engage with your peers in the business. Understand what your trusted vendors are bringing to you. What are the solutions you can bring to the business?” Merz said that she reports directly to the CEO at The Limited, but recognizes that many CIOs do not. “When you’re really a key partner, though, you’re reporting to the CEO,” she said. “If you’re not, if you’re reporting to the CFO, for example, it’s your job to convince the CFO that you need a spot at the table. This isn’t a personal power thing: It’s about making sure that you’re able to do your job and bring solutions. You’ll be able to deliver better ideas and better solutions if you hear things first hand.” Recognized Global Leader in Managed Hybrid IT Learn More at www.centurylinktechnology.com Ron Frissora, CIO and part of the executive steering committee at M/I Homes, said he is constantly presenting new technologies to vet and approve. By keeping technology top of mind with the executive committee, he said, he can help keep IT relevant. “It’s also really helpful to find business partners internally that you can work with and help provide solutions for. They’ll help sell the power of IT for you.” John Kish, CIO at Safe Auto Insurance Company, concurred. “If you start by solving a business problem, you’re probably not going to go wrong.” To ensure that his IT organization was solving problems effectively, he said, “I organized application development teams who work directly with business developers in a highly collaborative way.” When he first joined Safe Auto a couple of years ago, Kish said, “the backlog of IT projects was prioritized by who spoke the loudest about the projects they wanted.” Now, he said, his IT team prioritizes by focusing on growth projects. “I take a central role in measuring IT projects by looking at opportunity costs: What opportunities will we not be able to take advantage of if we don’t take on a growth project?” Kish has also made the relevance of IT more evident through accessible data. “We’ve created a data analytics team, and the team has made current data available to anyone who needs it when they need it. We’re also making sure that the folks who need the data understand how to read it.” By helping their executive teams understand the tremendous value of technology and how it can help drive business strategies, these IT leaders have changed the perception of IT within their businesses. No longer viewed as simply running costly service divisions, they’ve gained a seat at the table, and have become partners with their executive teams. n 10 CIO-Tomorrow.com | Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First | 04.24.15 Just Think It: moving from doing to envisioning To get the most from technology’s potential, area CIOs say, IT leaders need to focus on more unstructured and creative thinking. Those that can’t are at risk of losing their value within their company structure. by Molly Culbertson Reporter | CIO-Tomorrow “Traditionally, IT organizations have done just what the business requires,” said Denise Zabawski, CIO at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “But today, companies are recognizing that technology has the potential to drive business strategy.” The primary IT function used to be providing back office support, she noted, with IT focusing on systems implementation, repairs, and updates. “Of course there is always a critical service aspect to what IT does, but in organizations where IT has been successful at gaining a seat at the executive table, that service aspect is paired with thinking and expertise that help move the business forward.” Gaining a seat at the table is often easier said than done, she said. “The executive team has to be able to see technology as a supporter of the strategic plan, rather than just a service.” The industry a particular IT team is in also has a lot of impact on how executives view technology, she said. “In healthcare, there are so many changes happening so quickly, industry leaders recognize that technology is the key to keeping up with and even keeping ahead of changes.” The impact of big data has helped business leaders understand the power of IT, Zabawski said. At Nationwide Children’s Hospital, for example, the largest pediatric accountable care organization (ACO) in the country, “we have to have data to do accountable care well. And IT has to provide the data.” (ACOs bring healthcare providers from various organizations to help ensure that Medicare patients get highquality care: the goal is to improve health outcomes and reduce costs.) “The executive team has to be able to see technology as a supporter of the strategic plan, rather than just a service.” Denise Zabawski | CIO, Nationwide Children’s Hospital As IT’s strategic role in the business grows, it’s important “to work smarter, not harder,” she said. In this way, IT can give a company a great advantage. For example, because IT works with every division, “you get to see the particular pain points of nearly every department. And sometimes you can come up with one software solution for pain points in multiple departments: That’s strategic, smart, and saves money.” Exploiting new technologies can create competitive advantages for the company. Ben Stormer, who co-directs Fuse, Cardinal Health’s year-old innovation center, said, “Today, you absolutely have to be digital to be relevant. The traditional IT model was all about saving dollars. But there just aren’t many products in existence that don’t have digital components. Investments and developments in new technologies can provide new business opportunities.” With Fuse, Cardinal Health has created a space for IT to focus on new technologies. Fuse was developed specifically as an innovation space, because Cardinal’s leadership was not satisfied with the speed at which it was developing new technologies in its traditional corporate setting. (The ser- vice function of IT still resides at Cardinal’s headquarters.) At Fuse, which is situated away from Cardinal’s corporate campus, a large open workspace is filled with teams of six or so innovators, working together to test various technology solutions. “Our systems are lean and agile, so that we can bring successful products from ideas to market ready more quickly,” Stormer said. For Zabawski and Stormer, and their respective organizations, moving their IT departments from service organizations to envisioning organizations has represented transformational change, and also requires the ability of their organizations to continually adapt to a continually changing environment. The transformation has brought about tremendous advantages: the ability to create, evaluate, and pursue new business opportunities in an ongoing and strategic way. n WE DEVELOP strong teams to build YOUR IT WORKFORCE It’s our job to match the best network of certified IT professionals with the best companies in Columbus. Learn how that network can work for you. Call (614) 255-1400 or visit dawsoncareers.com today. @DawsonColumbus Developing the Next Generation of Leaders | CIO-Tomorrow.com 04.24.15 | Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First 11 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Future technology must meet ever-increasing expectations Bruce Barnes President, Bold Vision A Chinese philosopher once said, “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading”. Considering the two absolute certainties now looming on the horizon, all industries would be wise to re-examine the paths they are currently on. The first certainty is that the upcoming generation of workers and consumers will be more “digitized” and technology dependent than any other time in history. The resulting second is that in order to survive this environmental transformation all enterprises must find viable ways to meaningfully respond to this growing wave of increased expectations, both internally and externally – and that clock is ticking loudly. We are now at a pivotal moment where things will undeniably be different from here on out. Going forward, all future leaders must be fully dialed in to the new ways in which true value will be measured, the new tools and methods through which that value can be delivered, and the level of “new knowing” that will now be required in a world where ignorance (i.e., “the lack of knowing”) will no longer be tolerated. Yes…I do think that most enterprises recognize the emergence of this growing change and uncertainty. Yet, I also think that many businesses are still struggling to cope with these disruptive and competitive effects. Simply wishing it all away, or instead trying to rationalize why the recharting of legacy directions is somehow not needed, will likely add yet one more certainty……that you and your enterprise will end up as laggards or losers. The one clear reality that we all now face here is that this is a true “leadership moment”. No more excuses, no more denials. If our expanded opportunities are to be fully realized in the midst of this fast-learning/fast-applying world, we need leaders who can help us not only see the implications of where we are now, but also articulate viable visions of where we instead could be, as well as help us quickly and willingly navigate to those new end points by making use of all of the resources at our disposal. That includes talent. Businesses that are ready to effectively engage our next generation workforce in achieving those new end points will have a head start in overcoming legacy barriers sooner rather than later. The “CIO Tomorrow” conference is a meaningful way to help next generation leaders start to think forward, past the mental barriers of what we do now, and instead focus on the possibilities that could exist, as well as how to get there. n Columbus Data Center • Collocation • Cloud Computing • Disaster Recovery • IBM Mid-Range • Storage Racksquared Corporate Headquarters 325 E Spring St., Columbus, OH 43215 Phone: 855-380-7225 (RACK) Email: [email protected] www.racksquared.com 12 CIO-Tomorrow.com | Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First | 04.24.15 Speeding the innovation lifecycle Today’s CIO must be an agent of innovation: defining, developing, and testing processes for rapid technology solutions by Molly Culbertson Reporter | CIO-Tomorrow “In today’s economy, and in an era of profound technological advancement, companies have to be willing to disrupt themselves, or they’ll be disrupted by forces outside the company,” said Ben Blanquera, a senior executive at Pillar Technology Group in Columbus. “In order to exist and thrive into the future, companies need to be able to change, and change more quickly than they ever did before. They must be able to innovate, and innovate fast.” Technologies are advancing so rapidly, he said, “most industry leaders will soon be fighting for survival. Challengers will come from everywhere: from all sorts of start-ups and from other industries. “I don’t think they have to change 10 times faster; I think companies need to change and innovate 100 times faster than they currently do.” The good news? “Disruption equals reinvention: A company that can disrupt itself is more focused and energetic than before.” “A CIO has to be diverse. You have to be able to understand and discuss finance as easily as technology, value and business strategy.” Branndon Kelley | CIO, American Municpial Power, Inc. Blanquera cited Amazon as a company that has successfully reinvented itself repeatedly. “Amazon began as an online Barnes & Noble,” he said. “Today, it’s the easiest place in the world to find just about anything you want, and have it delivered to your door.” Large, publicly-held companies often find that such reinvention is very difficult. “Once you scale, the level of inertia grows. But when a company’s leadership knows it needs to innovate more quickly, the company can change,” Blanquera said. Innovation—the transformation of ideas into successful products and services—is all about meeting customer needs, Blanquera said. “The goal is to identify customer needs, identify the right ideas to meet those WHAT’S NEXT FOR IT LEADERS? WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? “The challenge facing CIOs and their teams is how the IT organization can play a more strategic role, especially as many of the tactical tasks they focus on today continue to diminish in importance.” CIO Insight, April 2014 Fisher offers two Executive master’s programs that can provide the knowledge and the skills required to enhance your contribution, and transform your role in the organization. EXECUTIVE MBA MASTER OF BUSINESS OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE • Consistently top-ranked program • Expert faculty, elite cohort • Designed for your schedule • First national program of its kind • Develop lean leadership skills • 12-month program go.osu.edu/emba15 go.osu.edu/mboe15 needs, then test them quickly—and inexpensively.” According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), today’s strategic CIOs can help speed the innovation lifecycle by developing and instituting an end-to-end process for innovation. (PwC calls this the “idea-to-cash process.”) As a key member of the executive team, the CIO can help drive the creation and management of the innovation process, and put together and implement the technology through which the business executes the innovation process. Forge, the Pillar Technology Group’s innovation center in downtown Columbus, was created to help Pillar speed its innovation lifecycle, and to help its large Fortune 500 clients do so, as well, Blanquera said. Forge is a large, open, collaborative workspace. “It’s an ecosystem where all employees are learning all the time. We hire the best people, and together we come up with ideas, create solutions, test them, refine them.” Forge has become an attractive place for some of Pillar’s clients to send their best innovators to work, too, Blanquera said. “Once there’s an idea that might address a customer’s problem, creative people need to collaborate to evaluate it, refine it, combine it with other ideas, throw it out, whatever,” said Tim Heller, co-director of Cardinal Health’s Fuse, which has a vibe similar to Forge. “We evaluate an idea based on potential value, market trends, and how it works with our existing efforts. Ideas are vetted through our teams; together, we prioritize them.” An idea might be put on hold, retested, or merged with other ideas. “The question really is, ‘How do you enable innovation?’” Heller said. “How do you inspire passion and engagement, and get people excited about moving the ideas in their brains to the tangible?” Developing the Next Generation of Leaders | CIO-Tomorrow.com 04.24.15 | Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First 13 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Heller and Cardinal’s leadership clearly believe that an important part of enabling innovation is to provide an environment where smart people talk with each other and create together. “Here, ideas are shared among others constantly. The ideas are vetted every day—and the best ones are ultimately turned into healthcare innovations.” Fuse implements lean management techniques, too, focusing on continuous improvement, efficiencies, and quality. “We’re very product-centric,” Heller said. That is, teams work on products, not projects. “Innovation starts with a problem, and we know that innovation can come from anywhere. You certainly don’t have to be an ‘innovator’ to innovate.” When a team has an idea that they believe might result in a business solution, Heller said, there is an expedited 48-hour approval process for funding. “Once a team provides specific information about the product it wants to work on, we’ll get a quick answer as to whether it will be funded.” When funded, the team goes to work on the product, taking it through a rapid innovation cycle. “Generally, it takes about three months to prove out an idea,” Heller said. “We invited our customer advisory group to visit us here at Fuse, and hosted a sort of ‘Shark Tank’ like event. The group threw out some challenges, gave us some problems to try to fix. They went away; we went to work. When we brought the same group back here eight weeks later, they were floored with what we delivered.” Fuse has been in existence just under a year. To date, its innovators have created eight startups, including mobile devices, cloud-based software, and medicine dispensers that help manage inventory and reduce waste. At both Pillar’s Forge and Cardinal’s Fuse, the focus is on creativity. (At Fuse, each employee gets some “spark” time each week, spending about 5% of work time on whatever is most important to them.) The environment and team structure encourages experimentation, where teams work out lots of different concepts and are allowed to fail fast, without penalty. “You have to experiment to innovate,” Heller said. “Some experiments are going to fail. That just leads to more learning.” This work environment has enabled much quicker idea-to-market innovations. It’s also enabled Cardinal and Pillar to attract some of the best and brightest technology talent from around the country. “Our goal is to give our customers the technology solutions they want,” Heller said. “Our folks have been finding ways to bring innovative solutions to market much faster than we could in a more traditional corporate setting.” n 14 CIO-Tomorrow.com | Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First | 04.24.15 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE What makes a great CIO today? Pamela Springer Founding Partner SpringerNav LLC L ike everything else around us, the role of a CIO has changed. The rate and pace of change is accelerating and so are expectations. I’ve witnessed and participated in successful organizations shifting from a commandand-control environment to one where employee empowerment and engagement is the new way of doing things – a change of thinking… how things really need to be to have associates that are motivated and aligned with the vision. The company that values having a motivating environment for associates is moving in the right direction. Even more critical for a great company is aligning individuals to what truly drives their satisfaction. This will attract and retain great people. It’ll keep all associates aligned with the vision as working for something greater than themselves and is much more rewarding than working We all realize that technology is not the end point, but a means to it. on our own art of perfecting our craft where the perfection becomes an end in itself. I’ve also witnessed a dramatic shift in both the small and large company IT departments as they’ve transitioned from being an executor of projects, to having a place at the table in defining strategy, whether that be participating in a product road map discussion or overall direction of the company. We all realize that technology is not the end point, but a means to it. The headline here is that technology can be a key competitive advantage to an organization. The challenge is how you can maximize it to drive results. The CIO needs to be thinking about this everyday. One of the ways to unlocking this advantage is having the right people, combined with putting them in a position to make a difference. Pamela Rucker, chair of the CIO Executive Council’s Executive Women in IT recently stated that a company really needs to know its employees. “The pace of change in technology means that you always have some segment of your staff that wants to learn the hottest new tools, and you need to keep them out front so that they stay engaged. On the other hand, you have other leaders that tire of always having to learn a new technology and really want to focus on the business aspect of technology deliver. It’s important for you to know how to manage both types of people and have the right blend of staff members to keep you technologically savvy and business-focused,” says Rucker. The successful CIO makes sure he/she is engaged and is an active participant on the executive team. An engaged technology leader enables an active dialogue and debate to happen amongst the executives – having a clear seat at the table. After the debate, it’s equally important for all executives to leave as a unified team - core to keeping a company’s culture in tact. This is especially critical as each executive connects with their respective teams and provides deeper context to decisions and direction. Early on in a company’s life cycle, the CIO most likely needs to be able to do hands on development, may be helping define the product, be intimately involved in code releases, and in hiring. However, as a company grows it’s critical that this leader be able to understand how the workflow changes. Role definition also evolves and gets more specialized. Initially, the CIO is all things tech. It does change over time to focus on internal information systems, including the business infrastructure. The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) role will likely evolve later through this specialization and can be seen as the person on point for research and development and possibly new product plans. Ultimately, the great CIO/CTO will be able to attract and retain the right team, be part of a dynamic executive team and be able to shift gears in understanding where technology needs to lead the discussion to help evolve the strategy and deliver on best in class implementations that drive value and help delight customers. n GET SMARTER IT SOLUTIONS WITH DRS Our data center is always ON. 35 Collegeview Rd. | Westerville, OH 43081 877.527.3423 | www.drsllc.net Developing the Next Generation of Leaders | CIO-Tomorrow.com 04.24.15 | Advertising Supplement to Columbus Business First 15 $10,000 in scholarships awarded C IO-Tomorrow is designed for CIOs from across the country, and is the premier annual conference for CIO’s, Business Executives and IT Leaders. The one-day conference was held April 23 at The Hyatt Regency. In 2015, CIO-Tomorrow in cooperation with Student Scholarship Partner Fibertech, will continue its tradition of honoring today’s students and tomorrow’s future leaders who excel in the fields of computer science and IT fields through scholarship opportunities. Applications were completed by undergraduate students who are a resident of Ohio, majoring in Information Systems, Computer Science, or other Technology-related fields, is at least a sophomore and has at least one year of study remaining, beyond the current academic year. The 2015 CIO-Tomorrow Program Scholarship Committee reviewed all applications and awarded one $5,000, one $3,000 and one $2,000 scholarship based on academic success, involvement in extracurricular activities, and leadership. Two letters of recommendation were required. The scholarship winners were notified April 10 and will be awarded the scholarship at the beginning of the next quarter/semester. The winners were recognized at the 2015 CIO-Tomorrow event. CO N G R AT U L AT I O N S $5,000 Scholarship $3,000 Scholarship $2,000 Scholarship Hannah Cedargren Xu Weng Sam Lewis They attended the CIO-Tomorrow oneday event as the sponsors guests. n Thank you panelists, attendees and sponsors CXO Panel - What CEO’s Are Looking For In Future IT Leaders Moderator: Thornton May - Futurist, Educator and Author “Just Think It” – The Motto of the IT Organization of the Future Moderator: John Hrusovsky - VP - Navigator Management Partners LLC Panelists: David Evans - EVP & CFO - Battelle Bill McDonough - SVP & CMO - M/I Homes Pamela Springer - Founding Partner - SpringerNav Hugh Cathey - Principal - Columbus-Partners / CRO - HealthSpot, Inc Panelists: Gary R. Cavin - Director & CIO - City of Columbus, Department of Technology Tim Hibner - VP of Consulting Services - Quick Solutions/ Fusion Alliance Gregory S. Jackson - Managing Client Partner - Advocate Consulting Ben Stormer - VP, Commercial Technologies, Pharmaceutical Segment - Fuse by Cardinal Health Denise Zabawski - VP & CIO - Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Information Services Panel Leader: Branndon Kelley - VP, IT & CIO - American Municipal Power, Inc. Marketing Yourself and Maintaining Personal Relevance Moderator: Ron Frissora - VP & CIO - M/I Homes Panelists: Joe Gottron - SVP, CIO Pharmaceutical Segment - Cardinal Health John S. Kish - SVP & CIO - SafeAuto Insurance Company Kris Merz - CIO - The Limited Sally Miller - CIO, North America - Exel Mike Rosello - SVP & CIO - Alliance Data Retail Services Breakout Leader: Angelo Mazzocco - CIO - Central Ohio Primary Care Premium sponsors: Breakout Leader: Moez Chaabouni - Deputy Director, Technology - City of Columbus Innovation Lifecycle Moderator: Michael Bills - Executive In Residence, Executive Director The Ohio State University - Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Panelists: Tim Heller - VP of Engineering, Fuse - Cardinal Health Matt Scantland - Co-Founder - CoverMyMeds Ned Schwartz - Partner - Drive Capital James Walz - Mobile Strategy / Services - Alliance Data Breakout Leaders: Ben Blanquera - VP Growth Hacker - Pillar Technology Bart Murphy - SVP & CTO - York Risk Services Group ToMorroW’S AnSWErS. At Battelle, we believe in preparing all young people for tomorrow’s careers by giving them a strong foundation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Together with public and private partners, we’re bringing quality STEM education to millions of students across the U.S. Want more bright minds engaged in the future? Think Battelle first. 800.201.2011 ú [email protected] ú www.battelle.org
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