MITSloan CIO Symposium - Panel 1

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 | Posted by AAB

8:45 - CEO Keynote Panel

Moderator David Roush, Xconomy

Joe Alsop, former CEO and cofounder of Progress Software
Bob Brennan, CEO of Iron Mountain
Jim Champy, Chairman of Consulting for Perot Systems
Alan Treffler, CEO of Pegasystems

 

7 comments:

Logic Penalty Box said...

Opening Questions

What is it senior executives hope to get from their CIOs (and are and aren't getting)?
What is it senior executives want to teach their CIOs?

Joe Alsop - too much unneeded complexity in the IT world; and the more we are trying to solve this complexity "the further we run, the further we seem to fall behind."

Bob Brennan - from CIO perspective, two issues:
1. CIO as business strategist, unifying the face of Iron Mountain
2. Developing technology talent

Jim Champy - does not presume what to tell the CIO; he would ask the CIO a couple of things, though:
1. Decrease the cost basis, as top line revenue is least predictable now that it has been in his career and delivery of innovation to the business model is needed.
2. Example: publishing industry where nobody seems to understand the business model

Alan Trefler - recast the vision of what it means to leverage technology; business process management is a misnomer - think process automation, so that the way we deliver systems is radically different.
"80% of what goes on can and should be automated."
"Everything has to pay off in the near term"

May 20, 2009 9:20 AM  
Logic Penalty Box said...

Question 1: What's the relationship like with your CIO? What conversations are you having, both good and annoying?

Bob Brennan - developing organizational capabilities on the basis of 6 leadership dimensions of leadership; annoying conversations - what's broke and why, but that's unavoidable

Joe Alsop - new CIO just started - more externally focused, customer and user

Jim Champy - CEO doesn't pay attention to IT unless something breaks down in non-technology companies. The question is how to elevate the discussion when the CEO is not tech-savvy. Create something that impacts the business to get their attention in a positive direction.

Alan Treffler - a lot of CEOs and CIOs don't have the imagination of what could be done with technology. Most CEOs would spend more on IT if they had better understanding of profitability of that investment.

Question: What about metrics? CIO's are being asked to do more with less, so what kind of metrics can CIO bring you to demonstrate that return?

Bob Brennan - it's not about more with less. it's about technology investment - putting money to work. P&L leader has to come with IT to demonstrate the investment metrics. If it's just a technology argument, interest is just not there. "For those of us that are public, we are going to be judged on how we invest capital"

Alan Trefler - it is all about the return. Focus has shifted from top line growth to cost avoidance in this environment.

Jim Champy - the question of metrics in IT has been around for so long that we forget that it is all about business performance. That can be managed in segments - (portfolios? AAB)

Question: importance of simplicity - CIO as the chief simplicity officer. How can one quantify how simplicity improves the bottom line?

Joe Alsop - it's not about percentage of revenue spent on IT, as much as the fraction spent on keeping the lights on vs what is spent on delivering new capabilities

May 20, 2009 9:21 AM  
Logic Penalty Box said...

Question: What if your CEO is not as tech-savvy as the panel? How does one start the conversation?

Bob Brennan - you have a responsibility to manage your boss. Otherwise, just wait it out - the CEO is going to be replaced1 (j/k)

Alan Treffler - the right way to go to the CEO is based on primary business. Influence the business P&L owner to own the idea

Bob Brennan - fundamentally, things have to work before you can get CEO's attention on strategy conversations.

Jim Champy - real cases of dramatic improvement in performance will get their attention.

May 20, 2009 9:21 AM  
Logic Penalty Box said...

Audience question:

BPR and BPM and such are great, but isn't the real elephant in the room innovation?

Joe Alsop - talking about capability-based management, rather than focusing on individual technologies. Frustrating to vendors, but probably even more frustrating to practitioners.

Bob Brennan - notion of innovation gets overcomplicated and over-engineered. It's all about problem solving that is pragmatic.

Alan Treffler - innovation is easy, it is continuous improvement by another name. Find those things that can quickly add value.

Jim Champy - innovation comes in time of crisis. While you don't want wait for it, innovation is highly cultural and comes from the senior management team's appetite for change.

Bob Brennan - hard part is explaining to people who are doing a good job that status quo is not sustainable.

May 20, 2009 9:22 AM  
Logic Penalty Box said...

Question: the difficulty of selling to CIO and then getting CEO's support. What have the vendors missed?

Alan Treffler - any vendor selling just to CEO is missing a lot opportunity. 98% of Pega's sales involve walk throughs with business customers and their process.

May 20, 2009 9:22 AM  
Logic Penalty Box said...

Question - why do we need to tell CIOs to present their business case in concert with their business partners? Isn't it obvious?

Joe Alsop - night before Xmas ditty of clients at the end of projects - "That's just what I asked for, not what I want!" Trouble is with long lead times of putting something in place.

Alan Treffler - there is a lot of cultural surface tension that comes from politics, that leads to "sign-off" mentality.

Jim Champy - we have to increase the number of organizations that run IT as a business function. 80% of companies would not be here without IT in today's world.

Bob Brennan - there is a large performance gap between where people are now and where they need to be.

Jim Champy - don't waste a crisis, and you can't be only cost-focused. This is the time to make this case to the CEO. Companies that don't do this now will be set back 5-10 years.

May 20, 2009 9:23 AM  
Logic Penalty Box said...

Question - what is the root cause of the Sisyphus effect described earlier?

Joe Alsop - incomplete delivery of projects leads to other projects trying to plug the leaks, and the cycle repeats. Perhaps the smart sourcing arrangements will provide some help?

May 20, 2009 9:23 AM  

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