CIO Talk Radio

Guest: Frank Wander Title: Author, Former CIO and Founder of The IT Excellence Institute Guest: Joseph D. Sniado Title: Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Standard & Poor’s In an organization’s attempt to cut costs and meet business demands, there’s a perceived notion that IT leaders are creating a ruthless environment in which workers are treated as cogs in a larger machine. But this culture, whether a myth or a tough reality, can ultimately undermine performance. How do we reduce the damage to our most precious human resources and still deliver profitability and shareholder value?

Guest: Ravi Pradhan Title: Vice President of Technology, Siemens Smart Grid The smart grid infrastructure will inevitably produce an explosion of data, and utility may need to have a comprehensive information management ability to handle it. While many organizations are still struggling to modernize their legacy infrastructure, isn't going digital too big a leap? What’s the strategy to meet smart grid challenges and reach the end goal? Do they have the internal capability to manage this disruptive transformation?

Guest: Dennis Gribble Title: VP and CIO, Idaho Power Guest: Gary Foster Title: CTO of Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), Boston, MA Guest: Harriet Tregoning Title: Director, Washington DC Office of Planning Building a smart city will take real effort by businesses to meet rising populations and industries with escalating needs. Utilities, IT and telecommunications need to collaborate to provide smart solutions for the community, anything from transportation, water, waste management and building systems to address new demands. How will so many elements related to technology, sustainability and even citizen well-being be integrated into our infrastructure? How will the private sector work together with local governments to find creative solutions, and who’s going to pay for it all?

Guest: Dale Potter Title: SVP Strategy and Transformation, The Ottawa Hospital Guest: Valerie Gamache-O'Leary Title: CIO, The Ottawa Hospital Caring for a sick patient in a hospital is a long, delicate process. Physicians need to be informed of a patient’s status such that they can make decisions about their care and provide steps to recovery. The Ottawa Hospital realized that this lifecycle needed to be less cumbersome and more focused on the patient. Introducing mobility to the hospital in targeted sectors was a way to provide patient care with more efficiency and quality. But a few tablets didn’t solve all their problems. What was their journey in leveraging mobility to deliver the next level of patient care, and what lessons can they provide to other hospitals looking to make mobility a priority?

Guest: Claire Bailey Title: Director of the Arkansas Department of Information Systems (DIS), Arkansas Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Guest: Sen. Shane Broadway Title: Interim Director, Arkansas Department of Higher Education The Arkansas government recognized that students in their state were not finding easy ways to receive financial aid. The Department of Higher Education saw a public need and business value to boost engagement in their community. How did they use mobility to streamline the application process and make it more accessible and easier all around? Why is Arkansas' YOUniversal app transparent and useful in a way that other states have struggled? What lessons can they provide to make mobility a priority for states looking to connect more deeply with the public?

Guest: Bob Kantor Title: Leadership Mentor, CIO Coach What makes a leader “authentic”? It’s a person who is understanding of the surrounding world, has true character, makes a difference, leads by example, sees the forest through the trees and inspires others to follow suit. This may be obvious to many business executives, but not everyone is seeing groundbreaking results. How do we know we’re doing what we preach?

Guest: Mark P. McDonald Title: Group VP Executive Programs, Gartner, Inc. Guest: Michael Hugos Title: Author, Speaker and Principal at Center for Systems Innovation It is not uncommon to see enterprise transformations fail due to a lack of enthusiasm from your employees. But now imagine a strategy inspired by video games, one that uses technologies and techniques designed to motivate enterprise staff through feedback, measured achievements and incentives. It’s called Gamification, and its claim to fame is that Gamification can not only improve workplace engagement and productivity but also increase the success rate of enterprise transformations. Is this just another management fad or are there some winning ideas to this game?

Guest: Venkatram Ramaswamy Title: Professor of Marketing and Computer and Information Systems, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor What are the hot topics in business today: Big Data, Cloud Computing, Social Media, CRM? These are all game changing technology innovations, and yet in increasing numbers of businesses, the adoption of this next wave of thinking is being pushed by the Marketing department, not IT. CIOs have a seat at the table, but have they been able to demonstrate the value of these technologies in the way that CMOs have? On the other hand, Marketing has been driving the ideas, but don’t they need IT’s support to fully deliver what they promise? Who then is winning the race in value creation? Is this even a race?

Guest: Dr. Kathe Fox, Ph.D. Title: Head of Informatics, Aetna Financial Guest: Dr. Kevin Kramer, Ph.D. Title: Head of Sales Analytics and Optimization at Aetna Metric identification, data collection, comparing and contrasting, focused action and sustained improvement...  these are the elements needed for the sales function to be more effective and help individuals and organizations to make their sales numbers!  Obviously, Sales can no longer depend solely on transactional data, since there is more to understanding how, why, and when people buy.  Could Big Data help in this endeavor?

Guest: Bill Oates Title: Chief Information Officer, City of Boston, Massachusetts Guest: Raymond J. Oral Title: SVP & Chief Information Officer, CNA Financial Guest: Roger Seshadri Title: SVP & CIO of Melco Crown Entertainment, Hong Kong Increasingly, businesses are finding it necessary to challenge the status quo and explore new directions -- not only for competitive advantage -- but to stay relevant and prosperous! How can IT and business unite to be innovative and get new ideas to market first, embrace continuous change? …step away from past successes and focus on new ones? How can businesses create an environment where creativity is allowed to flourish without pressure?

Guest: John David Thompson Title: EVP & CIO at Western Union Guest: Peter Cook Title: Chief Information Officer Europe, Global Shared Services, Wolters Kluwer N.V. Even the most successful global organizations struggle at effectively coordinating and controlling their operations. To do this, they need common processes across geographical regions to promote efficiency while also customizing products and services that match the needs of their local business units and functions. This also requires tailoring of their global IT in parallel, to accomodate their localized operations. How are Global business operations and IT executives addressing these challenges?

Guest: Daniel Traynor Title: SVP and CIO, Tennesee Valley Authority (TVA) Guest: Dr. Rodger Dean Duncan Title: Speaker, Executive Coach and Author Guest: Sanjeev "Sonny" Bhagowalia Title: CIO, the State of Hawaii Despite the best intentions of an IT leader and his/her organization, efforts at change usually fail. A big announcement with lots of fanfare and a catchy slogan doesn’t guarantee success... Rather, effective organizational change requires active, engaged participation by everyone affected. So, how does a leader go about enlisting the heads, hearts, and hopes of his/her people, in order to implement effective and lasting change?

Guest: Ralph Loura Title: Chief Information Officer, Clorox We start each new year with new hopes and new resolutions. While personally we may consider weight loss or losing some habit, what about making resolutions as an IT leader, to take positive proactive steps to improve at doing our job? i.e., Making changes that will help one develop oneself as an IT leader? ...With business, technology trends, and IT changing around us, what traits, habits, and approaches should a CIO consider changing or strengthening to improve him or herself?

Guest: Peter Ransom Title: CIO, OXFAM This holiday, many of us are busy chasing profitability, luxury lifestyles, or the hottest toy... but right next to us, there is a parallel world where people are struggling for survival and dependent on local/global "giving" and contributions. Those organizations involved in trying to make the suffering parallel world better are also experiencing challenges. In this new era of global convergence where pockets of deprivation still need help and contributions, how are such organizations leveraging IT to meet the end goal?

Guest: Pieter Schoehuijs Title: Chief Information Officer, AKZO Nobel N.V. Guest: Vittorio Cretella Title: VP – CTO of Mars IS How could the prospect of 2013 get more exciting for today's CIO? With new disruptive technologies such as mobility, social media, big data, and cloud, IT is being repositioned as the driver of business value and top line growth! With so much fast paced change, how are Business IT leaders strategically preparing for success in the coming year? What are their key wants and spending plans? What do they plan on doing differently to take advantage of all the new opportunities on the horizon?