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By Peter High, published on Forbes
05-01-17
For the second year in a row, I have the privilege of announcing the Forbes CIO Innovation Award winners, recently announced at our Forbes CIO Summit at Half Moon Bay. Like last year, the award focuses on revenue enhancing innovation led by the information technology department. It has been wonderful to see such a wide array of chief information officers drive aspects of the innovation conversation as a starting point, as this is not yet the domain of the average CIO, but rarer still is the CIO who leads revenue augmenting innovation activities. The 2017 winners of the Forbes CIO Innovation Award have each driven significant revenue from their perch as leaders of the information technology division of the company.
The three winners of the 2017 award are:
Jim Fowler, Chief Information Officer of General Electric, who has helped drive Predix, which is the operating system for the Industrial Internet, powering digital industrial businesses that drive the global economy. It has already led to nearly $1 billion in productivity gains, and is projected to garner billions more in revenue lift for the company.
Trevor Schulze, the Chief Information Officer of Micron Technology drove the development of an Enterprise Analytics and Data IT group that has developed nine figures of revenue growth.
Lidia Fonseca, the Chief Information Officer of Quest Diagnostics, who drove the development of an end-to-end digital experience for the company’s customers through the Quanum suite of technology and data analytics solutions, also driving roughly nine figures of revenue lift for the company.
In 2016, the award was bestowed upon John Marcante, the CIO of Vanguard, Federico Flores, the Chief Information and Innovation Officer of Ferrovial, Michael Macrie, CIO of Land O’ Lakes, and Kim Stevenson, the CIO of Intel.
Click here to read the full article on Forbes
Quest Diagnostics Chief Information Officer has never thought of IT as a cost center. She knows that there is gold in the data that the company collects, and synthesizing it better so that the company and its customers can make better decisions ensures better healthcare outcomes ultimately.
She has been a driver of the company’s Quanum suite of technology and data analytics solutions, which provides clients with a better understanding of how the company can provide critical insights in healthcare and help the healthcare community overcome pressing analytic, clinical and financial challenges. As she notes herein, “Ultimately, Quanum strengthens the overall Quest Diagnostics brand promise of Action from Insight with a robust suite of technology and data analytics tools that allow patients, payers and providers to better analyze, connect and engage.” This has led to a nearly nine figure revenue lift of the company, and for that, Fonseca has been awarded a 2017 Forbes CIO Innovation Award.
When asked for comment on Fonseca’s contribution, Quest Diagnostics’ President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Rusckowski noted, “As the leader in diagnostic information services, we are in a unique position to connect patients, providers, payers and ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) with actionable insights based on lab, clinical, quality, claims and other health data.Our Quanum suite of solutions reflects this new way of thinking about Quest and our broader ability to harness insights and technology to deliver better healthcare. With our national connectivity, big data, technology and clinical expertise, we’re able to provide the kinds of technology solutions that will improve quality, lower costs, engage patients and optimize financial performance.”
Peter High: Please describe the innovative idea that you and your team in IT pursued.
Lidia Fonseca: The innovative concept our team pursued was an end-to-end digital experience for our customers with our comprehensive Quanum suite of technology and data analytics solutions. Launching Quanum in early 2016, our objectives were to make it easy for customers and consumers to select solutions that are beneficial to them. The new Quanum brand provides our clients with a new way of thinking about Quest Diagnostics. It offers a better understanding of how we can provide critical insights in healthcare and help the healthcare community overcome pressing analytic, clinical and financial challenges. Ultimately, Quanum strengthens the overall Quest Diagnostics brand promise of Action from Insight with a robust suite of technology and data analytics tools that allow patients, payers and providers to better analyze, connect and engage.
by Peter High, published on Forbes
General Electric Chief Information Officer Jim Fowler is a member of the latest class of Forbes CIO Innovation Award winners. In his 20 months since ascending to the top IT role in GE, he has helped lead a major digital transformation, which has included the development of industrial internet platforms that are being used by the company and by GE’s customers. They have already yielded nearly $1 billion in productivity gains, and the revenue gains from the offering will soon be even higher.
When asked about Fowler, GE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey R. Immelt noted, “We are undergoing a massive IT transformation at GE which requires a new type of CIO, and Jim is the right person to lead us. When I go into a discussion about how to drive revenue and productivity across GE, I want Jim next to me making those decisions. CIOs have gone from working to keep the costs down and working behind helpdesks to demanding a seat at the table. When I need to drive billions in service productivity and better customer quality, Jim and the Digital Technology organization are one of the most important parts of the process.”
Peter High: You have been in the throes of a major digital transformation. Please describe the innovation that IT helped drive, and the value it has created.
Jim Fowler: We transformed IT from back office administrators to productivity makers, delivering more than $700 million in productivity in 2016. We stopped being a piston in the engine of each individual business and became the engine for all of GE by working horizontally. We reinvented how IT operates and serves the business units, from being reactive to business needs to proactively creating solutions that drive business. We moved away from vertical business silos, and now operate horizontally across the company. There is no longer IT at GE there is only DT…. Digital Technology!
Our previous silos resulted in the creation of independent solutions for each field service organization across GE, creating redundant systems that responded to similar issues in disparate ways. Development teams of solution architects focused on refactoring an existing app, SmartOutage developed in our Power business, using Predix to create FieldVision. Redundant solutions from across and within the businesses were transformed into a single mobile field services application enabling all GE services businesses.
Over the last 18 months we’ve also established Digital Hubs around the world, where GE employees come together to use these new connections, data and advanced analytics to create applications. Employees across these locations are completing amazing projects everyday with outcomes that are going to take GE, and our customers, to the next level. We are igniting the workforce and bringing the knowledge content and intellectual property inside the company. Finally, we are retraining an agile workforce for the future that values technology ownership.
It’s a mind shift away from managing projects to digging in and developing the products we need for the future – like FieldVision – that take GE and our customers to the next level of digital transformation.
High: What opportunity or issue to be resolved yielded this IT-led innovation?
By Peter High, published on Forbes 5/01/17
Mike Keller has had one of the longest tenures as CIO of one company, as he has surpassed 16 years as CIO of Nationwide. The long tenure has had a number of significant advantages. It has helped him build rapport from the board to the executive team to his entire IT team to the company’s customers. It has also allowed him to play an influential role in the technology and business communities in Columbus, Ohio, where Nationwide is headquartered. He also makes the point that the transformational programs he has led have taken longer than the average tenure of CIOs in some cases. Having the long-term view in mind has been beneficial for Keller and for the company.
Keller has recently been a leader in Nationwide’s “One Company, One Brand” mission. As IT reaches across the entire enterprise, it is especially well suited to be the glue of this mission. Along the way, he has built an unusually strong leadership team, and a culture of collaboration inside and outside of IT.
Peter High: Mike, can you describe the diverse array of experiences that led you to your current position as chief information officer at Nationwide, as well as your responsibilities in that role?
Mike Keller: I began my career at IBM where I worked in customer facing roles that focused on technology oriented consulting and systems integration. My final position at IBM was running a P&L in their global services area before joining Bank One as their chief technology officer for technology infrastructure. I joined Nationwide as CIO in 2001, during that time I have run Sourcing and Procurement, internet, and several other areas. We have moved toward a functional organizational alignment, so I run the IT operation which is an approximately $1.3 billion a year expense operation, with over 5,000 associates and over 3,000 contractors. It is a large-scale operation in traditional areas like application development, application maintenance, infrastructure, and operations.
High: What are some of the items on your current strategic roadmap?
Keller: Our core mission remains stable. We are an insurance and financial services organization dedicated to helping protect consumers and businesses, empowering them to build a secure financial future. However, several years ago when we considered what we want Nationwide to look like in 2020 and beyond, we decided to make several fundamental changes as part of our “One Company, One Brand” strategy. Nationwide grew, in part, through acquisitions, and in many instances left those companies, their brands, and their products intact with a fair degree of independence and autonomy. The One Company, One Brand strategy involves not only a considerable amount of work at the superficial or branding level such as building signage, updating websites, and redesigning printing outputs, but also includes significant strategic initiatives. These more substantial changes are part of what we call Tier 1 Business Transformation Programs that are designed to both bring us together as one company and to simplify products, processes, and technologies.
High: What is IT’s role in the strategic business transformation? Is technology seen as the glue that holds together a One Company, One Brand mentality and mission?
To read the full article, please visit Forbes
By Peter High, published on Forbes 4/24/17
NetApp is in the throes of a major transformation from a data storage company to a data management company. The implications are profound, and the company’s chief information officer Bill Miller is at the center of a lot of the change. As the CIO of a company that serves many IT departments, he and his team have multiple programs that impact and influence product and service design, from being customer one to running the NetApp-on-NetApp program to helping evolve what the company refers to as the Data Fabric, which is a set of solutions that allow NetApp’s customers “to gracefully, securely, intelligently, and quickly move information across their on-prem and off-prem environments,” as Miller notes in our interview. His IT team tests the new utilities and provides feedback on NetApp’s tools and partner solutions. Miller also notes that his team operates as a bit of a talent factory for the product development organization, for as his team develops insights into the product, some of them are logical candidates to fill needs of that team, either temporarily or permanently.
Peter High: For the past six months, you have been the senior vice president and chief information officer at NetApp. What is in purview of your role?
Bill Miller: I was attracted to this position because it provides me with the opportunity to contribute at the strategic level as NetApp continues to evolve. The reshaping involves functional organizations such as information technology, as well as product lines, product offerings, and how we offer solutions to our customers.
I play two integral roles as the CIO of NetApp. First, I am helping to retool the business as we move toward more cloud offerings and software enabled solutions around data. While the first 24 years of the company were focused on data storage, we are shifting to data management and helping our customers do more with their information. The opportunity to help transform the company and its systems, particularly in the go-to- market space and how we bring those solutions to our customers, appealed to me because it would not be business as usual as a CIO.
The second aspect of the position that intrigued me is that NetApp can utilize its own systems and run its own solutions in its own IT shop to leverage increased productivity, performance, uptime, and a variety of other desirable characteristics. NetApp shares these outcomes not only across the business, but also with customers.
High:Part of the retooling at NetApp includes the programs NetApp-on-NetApp and Customer-1. What role does your team play in these initiatives?
Miller: The two programs that you mentioned and a third that we are spinning up align with our core mission in IT. We relish our roles in all three. In the Customer-1 program, the IT team beta tests our solutions, our products, our software, and the workflows before we introduce them to our customers. The process starts when the Engineering and Product Development teams envision and develop new technologies. The IT team then deploys the product or solution in our hand-crafted, exquisite, global data centers using the latest technologies and NetApp platforms. We provide early feedback to the Product Development and Engineering organizations about how to tune and optimize the products and solutions. IT’s role with the Customer-1 program, however, is not only to be the pre-release customer, but also the early post-release customer. It is a valuable internal feedback loop that optimizes the products by utilizing the partnership, or handshake, that NetApp has between Engineering and IT, which is not the case in every organization.
The second initiative is NetApp-on-NetApp. We run our new products and capabilities in our own operations for a period of time and gather statistics and information such as uptime, availability, change control, and restoration processes. Then, we share what we have learned about best practices both within the company and with our customers through executive briefing visits, roadshows, and through collegial relationships with our peers. We enjoy it because while we are trying to sell a solution to our customers, we also bring information technology and real world experiences to the table which allow us to share the true flavor of what it takes to run the equipment, the platforms, and the software, as well as to discuss the benefits gained by running those solutions.
Our third initiative, the Data Fabric, has evolved from our shift toward becoming a high end, data management solutions company and away from our legacy as a superb storage company. The Data Fabric is a set of solutions that allow our customers to gracefully, securely, intelligently, and quickly move information across their on-prem and off-prem environments. The IT team’s role in this initiative is to test drive the new utilities and provide real time feedback on NetApp’s tools and partner solutions.
High: Are there organizational adaptations that are necessary for accomplishing these new initiatives and having IT more involved in the strategic planning process? Or, is success dependent on the culture and the expectation that this is part of everyone’s job?
04-17-2017
Kevin Delaney, Connected Futures senior writer, interviews Peter High, President of Metis Strategy; Niel Nikolaissen, Chief Technology Officer for O.C. Tanner; Kevin Bandy, Chief Digital Officer of Cisco; and Ross Dawson, futurist and strategy advisor.
Overview of the Podcast:
Life isn’t easy these days for IT leaders.Cloud, mobility, shadow IT, and relentless cyberattacks all drive mounting complexity. To the point where simply keeping the lights is a bigger challenge than ever. But today’s CIO must deliver so much more. Given the pace of business disruption, CIO’s can’t just be operational; they must be transformational.
To listen to the podcast please visit ConnectedFutures.com
Kevin Delaney, Senior Writer 04-17-2017
Excerpt from the Article:
Security is a constant headache. Disruptions fly out of left field. And new technologies promise never-ending complexity. But the news isn’t all bad for CIOs.
“Some people are going to be grabbing their surfboards and able to ride this tidal wave successfully,” said Peter High, president of the CIO advisory firm Metis Strategy. Those who adapt and change with the new demands placed on IT will catch the wave successfully. That includes driving innovation and impacting the business in new ways. Those who don’t, High warned, “will be washed away.”
High, who is the author of Implementing World Class IT Strategy: How IT Can Drive Organizational Innovation, sees this as an exciting time for IT, despite the challenges. “I think the CIO is in many ways structurally in an ideal position to add value to the other divisions of the organization,” High said, “the functional areas, the business units, operating companies, however the organization might be structured.”
That means rethinking some fundamental assumptions about IT. Starting with a better understanding of those whom IT ultimately serves. According to High, if you ask IT professionals today who their customers are, “their answer will be the colleagues within the enterprise that they are serving. I think what is unfortunate about that is the declaration of distance between IT and where the ultimate value is created.” But how can IT move beyond understanding only their internal users and gain a clearer picture of the company’s external customers?
To read the remainder of the article, please visit ConnectedFutures.com
4-23-2017
Brad Stone has written multiple bestselling books that have chronicled leading technology companies and the leaders behind them. His book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon highlighted Amazon’s rise from online bookseller to a digital channel through which you can purchase almost anything. Along the way, he highlights Jeff Bezos role in setting a high- achieving though at times abrasive culture that has allowed the company to thrive for more than two decades even though it has reached a scale that might seem unwieldy.
Stone’s latest book is The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World. In the era of the unicorn (venture funded private companies with valuations over a billion dollars), Uber and Airbnb have captured the public’s imagination (as well as the ire of regulators) more than most. Stone highlights the remarkable similarities between the companies. They were founded within months of each other in San Francisco. Each faced long odds and tough competition, but through a combination of idealism and ruthlessness (an essential combination for start-ups to balance correctly according to Stone) emerged as leaders in their respective spaces. The story is also a fascinating account of the founders and leaders of each company, each of whom have molded the companies into their own images in many ways.
Stone finds fascinating stories to tell, but his telling is especially artful. These books are great primers for aspiring entrepreneurs as well as those who are simply interested in what makes entrepreneurs successful.
Peter High: Congratulations on a terrific book,The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World. Early in your book, you describe the process of getting Airbnb and Uber executives to speak on the record, which must have been difficult. Can you describe how you made both companies and their executives comfortable speaking with you for the book?
Brad Stone: Executives are rarely comfortable speaking on the record, particularly in secretive Silicon Valley companies. They are never excited about opening the kimono and talking about their companies’ history beyond the self-styled mythology they have created. I learned that with my book about Amazon a couple of years ago. The inevitability of the project is a large part of getting executives to speak on the record. You are asking for access, but the book will proceed regardless.
When I went to Uber and Airbnb for The Upstarts, the responses were characteristic of the organizations. Airbnb is a company with values around hospitality. They welcomed me in, they were nice hosts, and they expressed enthusiasm. I immediately sat down with Brian Chesky, their CEO, and ultimately the organization gave me quite a bit of access. Of course, they managed that heavily and tried, as all companies would, to shape their message aggressively. By and large, my Airbnb experience was smooth. Uber, on the other hand, is more of a combative company. After a couple of months of asking to pitch this project, Travis Kalanick went to dinner with me. He forcefully told me there was no way he would cooperate with a book right now. I had expected that, and I chipped away for another couple of months. Eventually, when Uber saw that I was proceeding with the book, and it was going to happen, Travis started cooperating and gave me a couple of interviews and access to members of the senior team. When you are facing a project like my book, it is smart and tactical for companies to share their perspective. In the cases of Uber and Airbnb, they both have plenty of critics, plenty of competitors, plenty of enemies, they need to aggressively share their story.
High: In The Upstarts, the differences between Chesky and Kalanick are stark. You write about how the shared experiences created a bond between the two and they would meet to discuss similar challenges and concerns. However, after their meetings, Chesky would go back to Airbnb and say, “We have to be tougher,” Kalanick would go back to his team and say, “We have to be nicer.” Given the accomplishments of both organizations in disrupting industries, what can you draw from the different cultures at each company, in terms of similarities and differences, and what importance do you give to those elements of their cultures?
Stone: Both companies rode the same fundamental wave of technology. They extended the digital world into the physical one. They marshaled the movement of people around cities; Airbnb putting people into homes, Uber putting people in their cars. They both ran headlong into city regulations, local politicians, unions, and pretty entrenched companies. Since the companies followed a similar path, they experienced similar challenges. They saw the opportunity to look at each other and learn from each other. To some extent, they were jealous of each other. Uber because Airbnb, for the first couple of years in most parts of the world, was able to fly under the radar of local regulators. That is no longer true, now we see pushback against Airbnb in many cities. For a while though, probably everywhere other than New York City, Airbnb almost got a free pass. Whereas Uber was in a fight from the beginning. Three months after it launched in San Francisco it got a cease and desist order. They had to battle and marshal their customers together to persuade regulators to change the law, or to clarify the law. Airbnb was impressed that Uber created a powerful force out of their customers, and they were able to use that to pressure lawmakers. Airbnb was never able to do that as successfully because half of their customers are out of town or traveling around the cities they are visiting. The other half, the host community members, will not always speak publicly because their actions may bend the law or alienate neighbors.
While the challenges faced by the two companies were similar, and they did learn from each other, their dispositions are different. Uber is an attack dog, which served it well –until somewhat recently. Airbnb puts a nice little shine on everything. They talk about the regulatory brand, wanting to be in the room with regulators and talk with them. They think if they are there, they will be liked. Uber does not care about being liked. In my book I describe how Travis would go into meetings with regulators and position his chair so his back was toward them.
High: You write about the number of companies that at one point competed right alongside Uber and Airbnb, but ultimately failed. In some cases these were companies that even beat Airbnb or Uber to the transformative or disruptive ideas. What are some of the differentiators that allowed Airbnb and Uber to succeed where others did not?
04-12-17
Shelton Shugar has been named CIO of Barclaycard. He will play a critical role in managing and developing Barclaycard’s technological capabilities to serve its customers in the United States. Shugar will leverage his experience in Big Data, Cloud, and distributed systems to advance Barclaycard’s technology infrastructure. He will drive the creation of the Barclaycard US next generation platform, leveraging Domain-Driven Design, OpenSource, Cloud and Agile. The new platform will speed time to market for new offers and provide more flexibility for partners.
Shugar will report to Roy Aston, CIO, Barclaycard International, who said, “I’m incredibly pleased to announce Shelton’s appointment. His expertise will contribute to driving Barclaycard’s tech growth and execution strategy in this vital market. I look forward to working with Shelton as we further develop the U.S. technology architecture and embed data into everything we do.”
Shugar added, “I’m delighted to be joining Barclaycard, a company with a unique brand and long history of excellence in financial services. The financial services industry is increasingly led by technological capabilities, and each new development is a chance to better serve customers and push the boundaries of innovation. I am excited to be joining an industry leader at this important time.”
Shugar brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise computing to the position, as well as deep knowledge in cloud computing, product development and e-commerce. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Enterprise Cloud Services with Hewlett Packard Enterprise in San Francisco. He had previously held positions at CA Technologies, Yahoo!, eBay, Homestore and Verisign, The Thomson Corporation, and AOL. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.
By Peter High, published on Forbes 4/10/17
Angela Yochem joined Rent-A-Center as chief information officer in May of 2016. Her skills as both a technology savvy CIO but also one with unusual business acumen were apparent early in her tenure, and she was asked to lead the digital transformation at that $3 billion revenue company, which is the largest in the rent-to-own industry.
She has also been unusually active as a board member, first at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, and since October of 2016 at data analytics company, Rocana. She offers advice on how to achieve board membership for those who wish to follow in her footsteps among other topics we cover herein.
Peter High: Angela, you are the Chief Information Officer at Rent-A-Center, which is the largest furniture rental company in the U.S. Since joining the team last May, you have led a digital transformation of the company. Can you give us an overview of the journey to date?
Angela Yochem: Digital transformations are happening across the world, in every company and in every industry. This is largely because technology advances no longer only enables business evolution, they drive that evolution. Technology advances create new channels to reach the customer and allow us to generate new products for our customers. It is shifting, with or without our engagement, the customers’ expectations of how we should engage with them and on what level of intimacy.
In our case, digital transformation is about customer and coworker engagement. It is about operational optimization and the expansion of channels and products. We are lucky that we have an engaged and informed stakeholder community at Rent-A- Center that has supported my team acting quickly to design new channels that engage customers in ways that are nontraditional for our space. As digital transformation relates to operational optimization, in a few short months we have stabilized our technology estate. We have cloud enabled many of our key tech components while shoring up the design of our critical business systems and data environments. One notable example is the point of sale system. We completed this stabilization in one quarter through intensive redesign and cloud adoption. We also changed the way we manage privatization across all of our business activities; not only those of the technology component. Ultimately, Rent-A-Center is going to run like a software company where desired outcomes are linked to required capabilities, which in turn are managed and prioritized in epics and sprints across the board. This allows us to quickly adjust to the continuing changing customer expectations and emerging market opportunities.
High: Clearly, you have both an internal and external perspective on digital transformation. For pure IT leaders that are working to get past that divide, to have more actual customer engagement, how should they think about the divide? Especially as it relates to digital and implications on the end customer versus implications on the enterprise?
Yochem: That is an excellent point. As CIOs, we sometimes become so focused on meeting the needs of our colleagues and of our partners that we forget to think about what the end customer needs or how they want to engage with us, or we fail to consider how we can change our priorities to better serve the end customer in order to affect the way that they think about our company, about our company’s services, and about our company’s products. That is a real miss. It reminds me of the famous quote attributed to Henry Ford that says, “If I asked my customers what they needed, they would tell me they wanted faster horses.” CIOs get caught up in this if we spend too much time listening to our colleagues who may not have the necessary perspective required to understand what is possible given the rapidity of technology advances. Technologists and leaders in the technology space have an obligation to their companies and to their shareholders to actively engage in finding ways to better serve their end customers — and ultimately benefit everyone involved.
High: It strikes me from meetings with peers of yours that, like you, have leadership and IT responsibilities, that the digital topic is something that needs to draw inferences and insights from every part of the organization; among other reasons, because it is both internally and externally focused. How do you think about collaboration and engagement to ensure that you are pulling from all of the relevant parties across a complex world?
