The company now known as Cox Enterprises was founded nearly 120 years ago by James Cox, a man who would become the Governor of Ohio. It began with his first media property, the Dayton Daily News, and developed into a media conglomerate covering many cities. It is now a $20 billion private, family-owned company with 55,000 employees. Cox Enterprises operates across three business categories: Communications, which includes Cox Cable; Automotive, which includes Manheim Auctions, Kelley Blue Book, and Autotrader; and media, which dates back to the company’s founding. Much of the media business was divested in 2020, though the company still owns the Dayton Daily News and a few other properties. Much of that part of the company was divested in 2020, though the company still owns the Dayton Daily News along with a few other properties.
The company’s chief information officer is Richard Cox (no relation to the founder). He joined the company in 2013 as part of the Autotrader.com team and took on the CIO role in October 2019. However in 2018, he took a break from his ascent in Cox Enterprises to join the City of Atlanta as Chief Operations Officer, which proved to be a seminal experience for him. The current mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was early in her administration and called upon Cox to help her set things up. “We went to high school together,” recalled Cox. “I hadn’t talked to her in 30 years, so it was just this really interesting opportunity. Cox [Enterprises] allowed me to go help her at the City of Atlanta for about a year and a half. I was an executive on loan.”
During his first week in that role, Atlanta experienced the largest ransomware attack in its history. This was a few months before Atlanta was to host the Super Bowl, making the situation all the more impactful and stressful. In retrospect, Cox sees it as a blessing in disguise. “I am absolutely convinced if we had not gone through that, that Super Bowl would have been [all the more] challenging,” remembered Cox. “We were on high alert during the Super Bowl. We were being scammed on a regular basis, but because we were really prepared [due to the earlier cybersecurity attack] it was seamless. We didn’t have any security issues at all, and the city now is in a good posture.”
Cox says his time in government accelerated his progress as a leader. “During those times, you can’t pretend to be a leader, you have to prove it,” he noted. He brought back much of what he learned in taking on the CIO role at his old employer. Cox encouraged open dialogue across the team to understand how the company could improve. That led to a group called Action Speak, which increased Cox Enterprise’s focus on diversity and inclusion. “Now we have paid time off for people to vote,” Cox said by way of example. “Regardless of what your political views may be, you will be supported to vote. We’re being more intentional in terms of making sure that we look across all levels in how people of color are represented across not just our front lines, but (also) middle management and the executive ranks.”
Cox has also focused his team’s attention on reducing the complexity of the company’s diverse set of businesses. “We have worked on making sure we take a step back and build a strategy that is holistic,” he said. “In the past, we just had this tendency to work in silos.”. An early way in which he accomplished this was by conducting numerous interviews and surveys to understand how customers viewed technology. By doing more together, Cox reasoned, the customer’s experience would improve.
This approach extended to the technology that the customer might not immediately notice. For example, Cox focused on creating a comprehensive cloud strategy and incorporating better data and analytics capabilities. These priorities have improved reliability and resiliency and helped Cox identify new ways to improve customer experience.
These priorities were part of a three- to five-year plan that accelerated dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. For Cox, the pandemic was a chance to improve. “In these times of crisis, you can take a step back and regret what you didn’t do along the way, or you can look at it as an opportunity,” he said. “We have looked at this as an opportunity for sure.”
Communication is the essential element to pursue during these times of great change, Cox said. “What’s non-negotiable: you have to communicate. You have to be proactive, and you have to communicate relentlessly.” There are several formats that have worked best. With groups of 10 to 15 at a time, he met with every member of his team to communicate plans and listen, noting their concerns, hopes, and the like. Additionally, town hall meetings and more impromptu “ask leadership” sessions have added to the frequent opportunity for conversations and learning.
With each challenge and crisis he has faced, Cox has gained lessons and confidence for the next one. Though he hopes he won’t be tested again, Cox knows he and his team have what it takes to guide Cox Enterprises through turbulent times.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written two bestselling books, and his third, Getting to Nimble, was recently released. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
John Hinshaw has held executive positions in technology and operations at a diverse array of companies, from HPE to Boeing to Verizon Wireless. Thus, he has been at high level positions in business-to-consumer, business-to-business and business-to-government companies. He has worked in New Jersey, Chicago, and most recently in Silicon Valley. It was Hinshaw’s last stop at HP, then HPE after the split of the founding company of Silicon Valley, that broadened Hinshaw’s technology ecosystem most dramatically.
In late 2019, Hinshaw added another industry to his resume, as he took on the role of Group Chief Operating Officer and Group Managing Director of HSBC, a global bank with operations in roughly 65 countries and over $500 trillion in payments processed in 2020. Hinshaw had experience in financial services by virtue of his more than five years on the board of BNY Mellon, but he had never been an operator at a bank before. The bank viewed his outsider status as a tremendous asset and Hinshaw notes that collaborating with seasoned colleagues while bringing his own fresh perspective has been a recipe for innovation.
“You certainly need great leaders in key roles who have [deep] financial services experience,” noted Hinshaw. “One of the things I have enjoyed doing is [building bridges with] folks who have 25, 30 years of experience with fresh eyes to look at some of the challenges [the bank faces].” He notes that many of the fintech companies that have emerged as new leaders elsewhere in the financial services industry often are founded by outsiders.
Like those fintech entrepreneurs, Hinshaw is passionate about technology and the ability to enhance customers’ and employees’ experiences digitally with HSBC. In fact, he was convinced to take the role when Mark Tucker and Noel Quinn, HSBC’s Chairman and CEO, respectively, indicated that his mandate was to drive true digital transformation across the company. That means “transforming the bank from where we are today to a digitized bank that is easy to do business with for customers and that our colleagues can have a better experience with,” said Hinshaw. “That would leapfrog a lot of our traditional competition in banking, but [HSBC would] also be able to fend off some of the fintechs that are getting into banking.”
Hinshaw oversees 50,000 technologists and has a budget of over $6 billion. But he has also developed partnerships with fintechs and other startups around the world, which can provide HSBC with new technologies while gaining access to the bank’s platforms, customers, and history “A lot of the new innovative technology is cloud-based, it comes out of Silicon Valley, it comes out of the fintech community,” Hinshaw said. “Bridging those two worlds is really, really important. That is one of the strengths I bring to HSBC, having lived and breathed Silicon Valley for a decade.”
In recent months, Hinshaw helped broker a partnership between HSBC and Google to help detect and prevent money laundering and financial crime using better analytics. “We process trillions of financial transactions per day and figure out which of those might be criminal or fraudulent in nature,” Hinshaw said. “That takes a lot of computing horsepower, it takes a lot of data and analytics.” By partnering with Google Cloud, the company can remove many of the false positives that naturally occur when analyzing trillions of transactions. “We are doing something that no other bank has ever done in looking at that financial crime challenge, and only really Silicon Valley and the way they think, the way Google thinks and technologists think, can help us bridge that gap,” noted Hinshaw.
Hinshaw has pushed the bank to invest in startups as early as in the angel and series A rounds of investment. That way HSBC can influence the evolution of products to a greater extent, which forms a virtuous cycle of sorts. “If we like a technology, we trial it,” he said. “It works well for us, we make an investment so [the startup] can expand.” HSBC can then test the startup’s technology at scale and help it grow, and usually takes on a board or advisory role to do so. “It just builds on itself. They get the advantage of a working product in one of the biggest banks in the world; we get the advantage of helping to guide and direct their capability, and if we make money on the investment, all the better. We will reinvest it in another opportunity.”
Like others, Hinshaw sees the pandemic and quarantine as an extraordinary accelerator to digital transformation. With customers not having a choice but to operate digitally, it led to massive adoption of the company’s digital capabilities. “It really did change the way we look at the digital adoption curve,” he said. “I think we probably leapfrogged three to five years in the digital curve, and it is not going back. Nobody wants to use paper.”
Another learning for Hinshaw is the effectiveness of virtual work. At a time when financial services companies on the whole have been more conservative in their approach to hybrid work in the future, he sees things differently. He noted that the pandemic proved that people could be much more effective and efficient at times working from home. Time in the office, he believes, needs to be purposeful.
“The only reason to come into a headquarters office should be for collaboration, innovation, co-development with your colleagues, socialization with your colleagues, to get to know them because we have not spent time with them. Connecting with customers, connecting live with suppliers [should also be done in person].”
Hinshaw notes that this has been the most interesting among the many executive posts he has held, as it draws upon all of his past experiences in profound ways.
10/08/2018
By Peter High. Published on Forbes
Kimberly Johnson joined Fannie Mae in 2006. As such, she was with the company when it went through its most trying time in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis. She was part of the team that led the company back from the brink in roles of increasing responsibility from Vice President of Capital Markets to Senior Vice President of the company’s Multifamily business unit to Chief Credit Officer to Chief Risk Officer.
In March of this year, she ascended to the role of Chief Operating Officer of Fannie Mae in March of this year. In that role, she is responsible for leading technology, data, enterprise models, operations, the enterprise program management office, and resiliency. Her varied and diverse experiences have aided her rise, and now that she has such a broad set of responsibilities, she has a broad ability to impact innovation within the company. She describes her journey and the path to innovation in this interview.
(To listen to an unabridged podcast version of this interview, please click this link. To read future articles like this one, please follow me on Twitter @PeterAHigh.)
Peter High: Could you talk about your role as the Chief Operating Officer of Fannie Mae and the responsibilities the position entails?
Kimberly Johnson: The COO role that Tim Mayopoulos put together for me includes an interesting combination of responsibilities, such as overseeing Fannie Mae’s technology, operations, innovation, data, and strategic execution. This mix serves as a nice way to string together the full array of the functionality that we need to enable the business.
High: Was there a predecessor with this same job description, or were these a set of responsibilities that was brought together for the first time in the role created for you?
To read the full article, please visit Forbes
9/12/2018
Global interconnection and data center company, Equinix, Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Charles Meyers to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Meyers will also join Equinix’s Board of Directors. He succeeds Peter Van Camp, who has served as interim CEO since January 2018. Van Camp will resume his role as Executive Chairman of the Equinix Board of Directors.
Regarding Meyers’ new role, Van Camp noted, “Charles is an outstanding leader who has been a major contributor to Equinix’s success over the past eight years, playing critical roles in the company as we have quadrupled in size, growing from $1.2 billion in revenue to the $5 billion plus we expect to generate this year. Charles brings that rare combination of a world-class operator combined with a passion and drive for strategic innovation. These characteristics, and his proven track record of delivering value for our customers and our shareholders, make him an excellent choice to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.”
To read the full article, please visit Forbes.
Peter High
1-20-2016
Excerpt from the Article:
Dan Fallon’s journey from CIO to board member to president and COO has been an interesting one. Fallon, who now serves as the president and COO of GFMI Metalcrafters, credits his strong tech background for understanding how many moving parts work together (and very often, don’t). GFMI (Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters Inc.) was founded in 1979. An Argentinian father and his sons brought to the U.S. their passion for crafting custom cars. The Metalcrafters division helps engineer and those who create custom vehicles for the auto, aero and rail industries primarily. These can be prototypes to full functioning vehicles, including driverless. The Aerospace division creates glass, carbon fiber and other composite parts for the aerospace, auto and rail industries. Additionally, the Camera Ready Parts division prepares cars for photo shoots and commercials, including logistics management.
After 22 years at Accenture, the CTO role at Navistar and CIO role at Rewards Network, among other IT leadership roles, Dan Fallon was looking for a change that would offer more operational experience. He was convinced to join GFMI Metalcrafters as president and COO in September of 2014. In this interview with CIO Insight contributor Peter High, he highlights the reason for this move.
CIO Insight: How did you become affiliated with it as President and COO?
Dan Fallon: I have known GFMI (Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters Inc.) for more than 20 years. My father-in-law, Mike Alexander, had worked with the Gaffoglio family for many years. Mike and his brother, Larry, were the Alexander Brothers; ground-breaking, Detroit custom car guys from the late 1950s and Mike, later in his career, worked with GFMI on select projects. Mike’s son, Mike Jr., wound up working at GFMI. In 2014, Mike asked if I’d consider joining the company to help significantly grow revenue. To run a company while growing it was where I wanted to be next. After 22 years at Accenture, and five years in IT leadership positions at a couple Fortune500 companies, I wanted to get completely immersed in business operations. Running a smaller company seemed to be the ideal—yet humbling—way for me to do so. Wow, have I learned a lot and enjoyed it. And I’m very grateful for my IT background.
CIO Insight: In recent years, you had been CTO at Navistar and CIO at Rewards Network. What did your time as a technology executive do for you in preparing for your current role as COO?
Fallon: Like Finance and HR, IT gets to “see” a very broad swath of the business, yet I believe at an even deeper level. Successful IT leaders have to understand business execution (processes, schedules and results) and where information and automation can change and accelerate execution. OK, we’ve heard that before—and it’s really hard, especially given ever-increasing competitive demands, legacy systems hangovers and the crazy challenges of changing tires on moving cars. So, as an IT guy—both ex-Accenture consultant and Fortune 500 executive—I got to see how all these moving parts work together—and very often, not. It’s like a mosaic in which some elements of the picture are clear and others are really mottled. As a result, I have this deep, innate appreciation for integration. It’s just a sense I have developed—where are the disconnects in data sharing, process performance and automated systems. So now, on yet another side of the table, COO, I can sense these disconnects; yet even more acutely because I am now directly responsible for getting it done. My time in IT helped me hone and deepen that sense which I think as a COO enables me to quickly zero in on those mottled mosaic pieces and more quickly figure out how to unblur them.
To read the full article, please visit CIO Insight
9-17-2015
Allianz Global Assistance is a leader in assistance services, travel insurance and medical health insurance for travelers or ex-patriots. “Assistance” refers to roadside assistance, but it also refers to repatriation services for people who have issues while they are traveling. As Chief Operating Officer of the Americas, Jay Levine notes in this interview with CIO Insight contributor, Peter High, how the assistance label is so meaningful to the company’s mission.
Levine has been a CIO several times over, and joined Allianz Global Assistance as CIO of the Americas before rising to his current role. Levine reflects on his journey and the lessons it might provide on those who might follow in his footsteps.
CIO Insight: Can you talk a bit about your responsibility as COO? What is under your purview, Jay?
Jay Levine: I am the Chief Operations Officer for the Americas zone, which includes Canada, Mexico, the U.S., and I share responsibility for Brazil. These zones all have standalone business units serving the products I just described. There are a number of areas of interest starting with organizational management, serving as a PMO. We are responsible for the claims area, the assistance area and travel services, which includes the call center. We also have a financial services group where we do TPA services for specialty products that we provide on behalf of a credit card company. Finally, I oversee administrative services to do staff planning, reporting analytics and budgeting across the business units for which I am accountable.
CIO Insight: Talk about the process transitioning from CIO to COO, especially how the opportunity presented itself to you and what it is about your experiences as CIO that made you ready for this set of responsibilities.
Levine: I certainly aspired to move beyond the CIO role over the last 10 years. I came up through the software ranks as you mentioned as CTO. The more mature I got into my career, the more involvement with the business beyond the technology became more interesting to me. So it was an aspiration of mine and I was unsure whether I would fulfill it as I moved into the last third of my career.
One of my colleagues, the COO, moved out of the company to a great opportunity, at a time when I was fulfilling both the zone CIO role and overseeing a business transformation in Paris. The former COO and I shared the same boss, so when this happened, I threw my hat into the ring. Obviously my boss felt I was qualified and I had attributes he wanted to see more of in the operations area. It is such a technology-driven operation that he was looking for someone with a technology background. I knew the infrastructure, the domain from a business point of view and I had a burning desire to be closer to customers.
To read the remainder of the article, please visit CIO Insight
07-20-2015
CIO Insight: Is it your assumption that at businesses that are going through similar technological transformations, CIOs who are appropriately equipped and have the ambition to do so might follow in your footsteps?
