Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »August 15, 2001 — CIO —
The result of nine months of talks between General Mills and DuPont surprised even those involved. The two industry giants, with almost three centuries of business traditions behind them, last September created 8th Continent, a joint venture designed to speed new soy-based products to market while remaining nimble enough to respond to an exploding demand for health foods.
What was unexpected to those involved in the talks is what didn’t 93happen: a straightforward purchase or licensing pact, or a deal under which General Mills could buy and use DuPont’s soy isolates. General Mills, for one, had swung plenty of such agreements, and one of them (an international cereal strategic alliance with NestlŽ) is hugely successful. From the start, though, the vision for 8th Continent was different. This would be a lasting relationship, with both sides contributing people and resources to their corporate child?$40 million for the first two-and-a-half years. And yet the child, quite on purpose, would be markedly different from its parents. 8th Continent would remain small. It would avoid the stodgy, bureaucratic levels of decision making familiar to General Mills and DuPont. It would move quickly, with an emphasis on creativity.
The managers of 8th Continent would act like upstarts, says its 42-year-old president and CEO, Scott Lutz. "I have to get these big companies to allow us to be daring and to respond to market conditions and changes quickly and flexibly," says Lutz. "I’m supposed to act as a corporate revolutionary and push both sides hard." Some companies wouldn’t allow this, Lutz adds. "They’d get scared and veto our ideas and bog us down, but both General Mills and DuPont have been quite tolerant. Even so, I have to be careful and pick my battles. If I push too hard and too fast, people will entrench and I won’t get anywhere. I sometimes have to walk the fine line between being courageous and being stupid."
No one would think of calling Lutz stupid. High-energy, yes?both in his career and in his intense manner of speaking, the way he launches words and ideas at you. Innovative, you bet. Before joining General Mills 10 years ago, Lutz dreamed up the Tide Racing Team for Procter & Gamble in the mid-1980s. Later, he led the General Mills creative team that in 1995 developed eat-on-the-fly GoGurt. Eighteen months ago, his group launched Milk ’n Cereal bars, a product that has grown into a $100 million business. This latest project, 8th Continent soy milk, was due to hit grocery shelves this July. The result of an innovative partnership, 8th Continent impressed judges to make it a CIO-100 honoree.