Gregor Bailar, World Class IT Principle One, People, eSeminar with Gregor Bailar, Former CIO of Capital One

Episode Overview

This interview is the first in a special series of five eSeminars covering the Five Principles of World Class IT. The five interviews will be broadcast in sequential weeks, and in this conversation on P1-People, Gregor Bailar discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy

• How Gregor and his colleagues at Capital One turned the traditional thought process on office space and the working environment on its head in order to facilitate collaboration and innovation among other benefits
• Gregor’s approach to workforce planning, succession planning, and grooming the leaders of the future, especially as several of his former lieutenants are now IT executives
• The process Gregor has used to facilitate cultural change in the organizations that he has led
• Gregor’s thoughts on how the so-called millennials’ innate comfort with and knowledge of technology impact IT departments and corporations more generally speaking
• Other people-centric trends that he believes will be critical for current CIOs and IT executives to be mindful of

Follow this link to download the eSeminar presentation

Next up in the series will be Mark Settle, CIO of BMC Software, discussing Principle Two, Infrastructure. The broadcast date will be November 29, 2010. Following Mark will be

• Principle Three, Project and Portfolio Management: Randy Spratt, CIO of McKesson
• Principle Four, IT-Business Partnerships: John Boushy, former CEO of Ameristar Casinos and CIO of Harrahs Entertainment
• Principle Five, External Partnerships: Bob Willett, CEO of Al Futtaim Group and former CIO of Best Buy and CEO of Best Buy International

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Gregor Bailar’s Biography

Gregor retired as CIO from Capital One in late 2007 where he led an industry-recognized technology team that was pivotal to Capital One’s diversification and innovation strategies. The company transformed itself from a mono-line credit card supplier to one of the top 10 diversified banks in the United States – re-inventing nearly all of its processes along the way.

Together with his teams, Gregor has been recognized through dozens of awards, including multiple CIO 100 awards, several years in Computerworld’s “Best places to work in IT,” and the top rank in the InformationWeek 500. Gregor himself was named one of the “Most Influential persons in Information Technology” by eWeek, “One of the Hottest CIOs in Financial Services” by Future Banker, and one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Financial IT Executives” by the CIO Forum. In 2007, Gregor was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame by CIO Magazine.

Prior to Capital One, Gregor headed up Operations and Technology at the NASDAQ Stock Market during both the dot.com boom and 9/11. He worked at Citibank before that as Chief Technology Architect for the Corporate Banking division and Managing Director in the Advanced Development division. He also served in key strategic and management positions at Perot Systems, NeXT Computer, and Hewlett-Packard.

Gregor is an active environmentalist and was the founding executive sponsor of Capital One’s Environmental Council. He is a director for the Corporate Executive Board and for the National Wildlife Federation. He is currently working on several projects to create more sustainable solutions combating global warming and poverty.

About the book

Chosen as third among “The Best IT Business Books of 2009” by CIO Insight

“What’s unique about this book is that it’s not only a must-read for the CIO (and everyone else in an IT department); it’s for anyone associated with the technology industry. If you are a manufacturer, seller, or service provider of technology, you will gain insight into what makes an IT department world class.” – CIO Digest

“The new book World Class IT (Jossey-Bass, 2009), by consultant Peter A. High, provides solid, timeless advice for CIOs trying to manage IT for business success.” – Mitch Betts, Computerworld Book Review

“Technology is all around us. It is so pervasive in our daily lives that we may not even recognize when we interact with it. Despite this fact, many companies have yet to leverage information technology as a strategic weapon.

What then is an information technology executive to do in order to raise the prominence of his or her department? In World Class IT, recognized expert in IT strategy Peter High reveals the essential principles IT executives must follow and the order in which they should follow them whether they are at the helm of a high-performing department or one in need of great improvement.

Principle 1: Recruit, train, and retain World Class IT people
Principle 2: Build and maintain a robust IT infrastructure
Principle 3: Manage projects and portfolios effectively
Principle 4: Ensure partnerships within the IT department and with the business
Principle 5: Develop a collaborative relationship with external partners

The principles and associated subprinciples and metrics introduced in World Class IT have been used by IT and business executives alike at many Global 1000 companies to monitor and improve IT’s performance. Those principles pertain as much to the leaders of IT as they do to those striving to emulate them.”

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