The IT profession by Jim Nobel CIO, Altria Group Inc

Success in your career:

In business there is no one to help you. you are on your own. You need to drive yourself to success in business. Jim suggests a simple process. Marry the chairmans daughter/son (pun intended.. but it does happen)

Jim's definition of success -> power, wealth and happiness. In this session he wants to talk abt how to become powerful and wealthy. Go after your goal before the age of 40. Set yourself a goal and go achieve it.

Nicholas Carr says IT managers are terrible with managing projects. Only 9% of IT projects succeeded in big companies.

RFID: will be the next generation of internet of things. In the next generation of the internet the customer would be able to decide the content.

Success in IT

What does good look like?

Value Creation

• IT totally alighed to the business
• Helping the top line as well as the bottom line

Managing Perception

• meeting expectations
• speaking the language of business

Adapting to survive

Delivering Value - the Primary misson

• Reduce IT costs
• Reduce Business costs
• Increase sales
• Increase shareholder value

Improving the bottom line and the top line

A journey with an uncertain destination

• Technical work
• Technical management
• Task management
• Team building
• Team leading
• Delivering business results

Interms of career progression what matters is how you are perceived by the few who are deciding your career future.

The Choices one needs to make for success:

Choose the right sector (Information Intensity)
Pick a relevant business for technology. Companies can be classified as technology:

• Irrelevant
  
• Automation
• Enables
• Competitive Advantage
• fundamental
  

Interms of your career choose where you want to be.

Choose the business (Core & Context):

• Core business , customers and context all connected to the CIO.
• There are companies such as walmart where IT is core to the business.
• But there also companies like GM that do not believe the IT is core to the business.

Choose the issues (Hot Spots):
Every company has its core focus... find what your business issue focus is on such as:

• Reduce IT costs
• Reduce business costs
• Increase sales
• Increase shareholder value

Think about the big picture of the company.

Choose the right sourcing strategy:

Created the concept of Best-Shore managed service. Dont get in to an aspect of the business cos the technology costs are really high in the US. Choose the profession that are done in the US.

Managing perception by balanced metrics:
Use the management scorecard.

• Financial effectiveness
• Customer satisfaction
• Audit/Risk
• Application Portfilio wuality
• PRoject performance
• Application performance
• Development characteristics
• Staffing/Skills
• Outcomes (how did you achieve the results)
  

Future-Proof IT skills

• Strategy & Policy
• Architecture (tech & application)
• Portfilio manangement
• Vendor management
• Project management
• Change management
• Compliance management
• Raising awareness of the realm of the possible

Be a CISO (chief information strategy offiicer), not CIO. Be the thought leader.

Final Learning - Survival

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change. - Charles Darwin