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 »
Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives
Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.
Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices
Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.
Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices
This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »January 01, 2002 — CIO —
According to the handbook Karma For Dummies, a CIO who has been evil, cowardly or prone to signing outsourcing agreements in this life is condemned to spend the next as a bean counter. Justice indeed. In all, life as a CIO is better than a zero-sum game. The upsides do outnumber the downsides, good times are more memorable than the bad, and no matter how bad things get, you have the satisfaction of knowing that at least you’re not a CFO?a knee-jerk pessimist, skinflint, spoiler.
Of the three large corporations I’ve worked for, PepsiCo was my favorite. It makes great products, aggressively develops talent, does its best to eliminate the hopeless jerks, and maintains a well-mannered and respectful workplace. I worked there for more than 10 years; my last gig was as the CIO of its largest and most profitable division, Pepsi-Cola Co. For better or worse, PepsiCo’s traditional culture extended to its organization chart, so I reported to the CFO, my team buried (it seemed to me) in the finance department, a layer (and light years) away from where the real strategic decisions were being made. It drove me nuts.
I resigned in 1996 to take the CIO position at Dell Computer, in large part because Michael Dell agreed to move IT out from under finance and give me a seat on his senior team. Here, I thought, was a chance for IT to play a key role in strategic decision making, a place in the inner circle, a chance to spread the message of technology’s bountiful goodness without having it filtered by some tight-fisted luddite. Hurrah!
Things don’t always work out as planned. A CFO with no IT responsibility is just another dissatisfied department head, with lots to say about your budget and little compunction about chartering IT projects using outside resources. Even though I was no longer reporting to the CFO, nothing really changed, so I had to fall back on old skills and even older tricks to get the situation and my soon-to-be best friend under control.
Now, it would be too dull and pointless to replay for you the dos and don’ts of managing up, especially since they don’t generally work with CFOs. The most effective method, known to only a few and shared with you at considerable personal risk, is a reversal on the Stockholm Syndrome?wherein the hostage identifies with his captor, except in this case the CFO identifies with you, sees in you a soul mate, a fellow bulwark, a CFO in the making. It’s a touchy process and won’t come naturally to most CIOs, but here are a few tips to help you get started.