CIO
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Learn how the perspectives of former CIOs changed along with their job titlesn Hear what new business leaders have learned about the need for communication
Find out why former techies say great technology isn’t always great for business
C. Lee Jones wasn’t quite sure if he’d been brainwashed by IT. n As vice president of IT at Abbott Laboratories from February 1996 to March 2000, the businessman-turned-techie was spending his days devouring analyst reports, meeting with other IT chiefs and giving spiels to managers about the impact and value IT could bring to the century-old health-care company. "You can start to feel that the universe is revolving around the IT organization," says Jones, reflecting on his years in Abbott’s IS department. "I started wondering, have I become biased because of the role I’m in? Is [IT] really having a potential impact on the organization, or is it just because I’ve read about it and listened to it that I’ve become convinced it’s true?" n Jones can see things more clearly now that he’s stepped out of the CIO role and into that of president and COO of AmericasDoctor, a Gurnee, Ill.-based company that helps the pharmaceutical industry develop and promote its products. The good news? He found that his gray matter hadn’t been scrubbed white by all those IT reports. "IT is critical," he says. "Being in this job, I can tell you that’s absolutely true." The bad news—isn’t there always bad news?—is that although he has an MBA and 15 years of senior management experience, as a CIO, Jones had to work at making sure he looked at business problems first and then at whether there was an IT solution. These days, the opposite occurs. "When I think of the business, I automatically subsume the IT issues in that thought process," he says.
Jones belongs to a slowly growing coterie of former CIOs who have alighted at other spots at the table, and who have an evolving perspective on what IT leaders should think about and provide to other executives as they pursue alignment. So what snaps into focus for them now that was blurry before? Don’t be dazzled by technology, develop business smarts, and start building relationships. Oh, and don’t stare too long at any swinging pocket watches.
It’s Not the Technology
Pat Fortune is attracted to whiz-bang technology—like all those three- or four-letter acronyms and buzzwords ("More than you can shake a stick at," he says) that surround e-commerce. But if there’s one thing that the former head of IT at medical products manufacturer Baxter International, agricultural bioengineering company Monsanto and pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb has learned as a business leader, it’s that the best technology doesn’t necessarily make for the best business decision. "What’s changed in my mind is that it’s not the technology that’s an issue; it’s whether or not you can create business value by deploying the technology," says Fortune, who since 1999 has been president and COO at New Era of Networks (NEON), a 1,200-person e-business integration software provider based in Denver. "If you’re just doing pure technical things, [choosing solutions] that are technically good is not a bad way to make decisions. However, as you move into business, you realize that the investment business is making in information technology is targeted to produce a business return on investment. Then you begin to focus much more on [whether you are creating] value for the business or simply doing things that are technologically interesting."
