CIO Talk Radio

Guest: Susan Cramm Title: President Valuedance and Former CIO, Taco Bell Corporation Guest: Thomas J. DeLong Title: Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Management Practice, Harvard There’s lots of talk about IT leadership skills, but the personal energy capacity a leader needs to do it all is equally important. Even a champion marathon runner takes breaks. How can an IT leader, under the gun 24/7, maintain his/her “energy” at peak performance level? Where does he/she find the personal reserves to successfully handle stress and promote the maximum productivity of those around him/her as a successful IT leader should? What strategies can he/she use to boost energy levels and avoid becoming so exhausted as to be disorganized, burnt out, or simply inattentive?

Guest: Gary McAlum Title: Vice President, Chief Security Officer at United Services Automobile Association (USAA) Guest: J. Stephen Fletcher Title: Chief Information Officer and Executive Director of the Department of Technology Services, State of Utah, and President of NASCIO 2010 saw increased fraud: Payment card and check fraud was #1 & 2, phishing/vishing #3, and ACH/wire fraud #4. Financial Services, Retailers, Government & Law Enforcement IT, as well as Healthcare IT and eCommerce all face these threats. However, security efforts are often focused on the traditional types of fraud that concern regulators while the newer digital threats often get less attention than they merit. Can IT help diversify and improve its organization’s overall detection and prevention capability, for both digital as well as traditional fraud?

Guest: Keith Fricke Title: CISO, Catholic Health Partners Guest: Matt Eversole Title: SVP and CTO at Catholic Health Partners Guest: Roy Mellinger Title: VP and CISO, Wellpoint Healthcare organizations of all types, pharmacies, healthcare vendors, healthcare providers, and health insurance companies are all under pressure to go digital sooner rather than later. At each organization, the IT leader will have to assess the pros and cons of various services and cloud options, each of which comes with its own security concerns. Additionally, these IT leaders will have to implement compliant data security governance. Additionally IT will have to implement security on various mobile devices in various settings (for example, what about a tablet/pad with instructions from a doctor, in an ambulance?). How can we leverage IT to create a new roadmap to effective, nimble and secure healthcare, quickly?

Guest: Alma R. Cole Title: Director, DHS Security Operations Center (SOC), US CBP Guest: Robert Dick Title: Director General, National Cyber Security Directorate, Public Safety Canada The sheer power of “hactivism” to disrupt eCommerce and perpetrate cybertheft, is attracting technically savvy groups with more ambitious agendas then activism or crime. Not just sensitive data of governments is at risk, but infrastructure, utilities, transportation, emergency, eCommerce and other critical networks are also at risk to cyberterrorist groups’ hacking. What is the current state of collaboration among various governments in sharing information and ideas on how to protect all these critical support networks and territorial borders secure for the world? Can virtual and territorial borders ever be “safe enough?”

Guest: Lionel Lamy Title: Research Director, European Software and Services, IDC Guest: Pieter Schoehuijs Title: Chief Information Officer, AKZO Nobel N.V. With the increasing strategic importance of IT, it would seem logical for IT leaders to focus attention on top line growth related initiatives. Meanwhile, workplace IT is a good candidate for outsourcing since doing so would free IT from the need to deal with provisioning, support calls, updates, and hardware refreshes. Certainly companies are ready to make this move. However, unaddressed questions such as “How much?”, “By whom?”, and “When?” may prevent companies from realizing the benefits. What can we learn from others who have done this successfully? With the advancement of technology, how far is this decision from becoming a no-brainer?

Guest: Steve Phillips Title: Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer Avnet, Inc. Guest: William (Bill) Martorelli Title: Principal Analyst, Forrester Research Enterprises everywhere are finding themselves in a position where they must accommodate workplace consumerization. The next logical step would be to go all the way and institute a BYOC policy. But, how does an IT leader go about instituting these new workplace computing paradigms? What is a right balance? How far should we take it? Are there any limits?

Guest: George Surdu Title: Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Comerica Guest: Philip Russom Title: TDWI Research Director for Data Management BI is a business principle and an ongoing process. As the business changes, so too does BI. There also needs to be a governance framework stating guiding principles, decision-making bodies, decision areas, and oversight mechanisms, all aligned to the company’s unique needs and culture. How do you define these? How do you align BI with corporate strategy and diverse, non-static business and IT requirements? How successful have organizations been in building such a framework? What changes does the new “Normal” require of older governance frameworks? Who should own or run BI governance and also, put it in place?

Guest: Dave Stodder Title: Director of TDWI Research for Business Intelligence Guest: Howard Dresner Title: Former Gartner Research Fellow, Accomplished BI SME and Author As extended mobile business applications for business intelligence (mobile BI) are gaining momentum, most BI tool vendors are offering a mobile extension to the native BI suite itself. But is mobile BI really just a mobile version of traditional BI?  Is implementing mobile BI the same as in traditional BI projects? Is mobile BI secure since now that sensitive data will be provided on a remote device  over which an enterprise has little control? Would mobile BI be easier to adopt vs. traditional BI? Is mobile BI a good solution for every kind of data? What about ROI…is it expected to be significant in order to justify related investment?

Guest: David Judson Title: Sr Director, Business Intelligence and Enterprise Applications, The Scott's Miracle-Gro Company Today’s BI is reactive, strategic, casual, whenever, and reliable. With the introduction of Social Media and mobile business tools, the old walls between BI users and IT will disappear. Already BI decisions are becoming collaborative, made increasingly while on the move, making BI Actionable and agile.  Future BI will be proactive, operational, extreme, timely, and will demand accountability. How can IT help today’s BI make the shift and be ready for BI of the future? What risks are involved? What advantages will the new BI offer over the old BI?

Guest: Pablo G. Molina Title: CIO, AVP of IT and Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Guest: Tom Grahek Title: Vice President of IT, Fair Isaac corporation (Fico) Today, IT people must wear multiple hats and be able to switch roles quickly! And managers need real time visibility on who, where, and when as well as the ability to configure, dissolve, and reconfigure teams as needed, without delays or loss of creativity. While a governance structure may help project team members cope with the usual stressors (e.g., time deadlines, ambiguous power/authority relationships, etc.), how do you develop an IT organization whose people can be engaged or disengaged on demand, like Velcro? What are the challenges and how should they be addressed?

Guest: Chris K. McGlothlin Title: Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Domino's Pizza Guest: Stewart H. McCutcheon Title: Chief Information Office, Nalco Often there is an implicit disconnect between the expectations and incentives set for business lines and those set for their IT counterparts. For example, business Line managers are expected to quickly spot new customer needs and adapt the processes needed to meet those needs. Meanwhile, the IT organization (and its CIO) is often assessed on efficiency metrics that may be internal to IT, including infrastructure spending and portfolio consolidation. As a result, Business Line managers may question the reasons behind any IT investments that don’t help them. Would it be a good idea to let Business managers collaborate and drive IT investments and budgets? Wouldn’t this result in better alignment and fewer headaches for both business and IT?

Guest: Jon Walton Title: Chief Information Officer, County of San Mateo, CA If IT is increasingly more important as a partner to all aspects of business, doesn't apportioning most of one's IT budget to ordinary enablement and overhead, prevent IT from engaging in those things that IT excels at, like  innovating and improving business? Could a more generous allocation of funds actually reduce costs and increase income by accelerating processes, reducing wait times and facilitating increased productivity? Perhaps it is time to rethink the old 80-20 budget rule!

Guest: Steve Hanna Title: VP and Chief Information Officer, Kennametal Guest: Todd Coombes Title: Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer, CNO Financial Group, Inc. Guest: Vittorio Cretella Title: VP – CTO of Mars IS A Bean Counter prides him/herself on efficiency and predictability. He/she expends steady but sure progress at reaching goals.  An Investor takes calculated risks. Risk of failure comes with the possibility of job lost, but success could pay off well beyond expectations. The two mindsets seem mutually exclusive. Are they? Which mindset would work best for a CIO, and under what circumstances?

Guest: David S. Kaufman Title: Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, ARAMARK Guest: Nicholas R. Colisto Title: Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Hovnanian Enterprises Business models are changing, customer expectations are rising, complexity is increasing, and it’s all occurring at an accelerating pace! The old, "tried and true" leadership/management styles may not continue to work. If businesses are to successfully confront these painful realities and thrive, they will need to improve decision making, rethink what’s possible, and empower execution. This will require a new kind of CIO who embraces ambiguity, leverages complexity, and invites risks while working shoulder to shoulder with business leadership. Do current CIOs have the mettle to change? And, are they willing and ready?

Guest: Larry Bonfante Title: Chief Information Officer, the United States Tennis Association, Author Guest: Marc Brown Title: SVP Corporate Service Center and CIO at Del Monte Foods IT can no longer remain just an enabler! Since Business success depends on the enterprise's agility and its ability to respond as quickly as possible to economic and competitive threats, the need to find ways to reduce time to market, accelerate deliveries to customers, reduce days-of-inventory turns, cut customer wait times, shorten the order-to-cash cycle, etc., has never been greater. Now, given that IT is best situated to affect the whole spectrum of end-to-end processes across the whole organization, doesn't IT have the mandate to morph into a business accelerator?