Fashion Industry CIO Fernando Gonzalez Talks IT Challenges, Leadership
In the fast-paced fashion industry, agility is this CIO's core strength.
Mon, December 05, 2011
Fernando Gonzalez, CIO at San Francisco-based Byer California, has worked in the IT field for decades, making his way through the healthcare, aerospace and medical devices industries. In fact, he says he cut his teeth with EDS founder Ross Perot back in the 1960s. Over the years, Gonzalez's career has taken a few twists and turns, including a return to Byer, which he had left to take the CIO role at a large semiconductor company. Lured back to the maker of women's apparel about eight years ago, Gonzalez is happy to be working at a private company, without shareholder pressure, and with an IT team whose members are all in one location. But he also revels in the constant and evolving challenges of IT.
Computerworld:What's been the most challenging initiative you've undertaken recently?
Fernando Gonzalez: Implementing an ERP system. Everything else does not fundamentally change your company. It's just hardware and software behind the scenes. When you go to a new ERP system, you are really changing your company and putting it in place to go forward. We told everybody who was going to have to deal with it, "You are going to hate this thing, it's going to be difficult, it's going to be unforgiving, it's going to be more disciplined, it's going to require a lot more data, and it's going to require a lot more work on your part. And there's not much in it for you, the individual user. What's in it for you is that the company is going to be around in five to 10 years, and you'll still have a job."
What are some of the unique challenges you have found in the fashion or retail industry, compared with other companies you've worked for?
Time to market. The product has a shelf life of about 10 weeks. There's close to a dozen seasons in the year now. You're going from the design or the product idea to hanging it in the stores in 10 to 12 weeks. That's a very short cycle for any product.
How does that short shelf life influence IT's needs?
Our systems have to be up and available all the time. Everything we do has to be directed to getting it out the door faster, quicker, seeing where things are at all times in the supply chain. That's where it affects IT. Having a system that's reasonably fast, that's the key to our business.
What effect does such agility have on your need for network security?
