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Is it an either-or situation? Can your enterprise do without a CIO or CFO?
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Tr ac k Te c h n o lo gy B u i ld B u s i n e s s s hap e s e lf
Volume 01 | Issue 07
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Volume 01
Issue 07
July 201250
Tech for Governance
Why Open Source is Not Always the Best Bet Pg 64
Best of Breed
China to be on Par With US as Tech Leaders Pg 44
viewpoint
Cloudy Nerdy Pg 68
cio
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CIO orCFO?
Is It an eIther-or sItuatIon? Can your enterprIse do wIthout a CIo or a CFo? page 34
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1July 2012
editorialyashvendra singh | [email protected]
Team Work It is not, and will never be,
an either-or situation for the CIO-CFO roles
down negotiating maintenance fees prices with vendors.
On their part, CFOs have to realise is that IT is implanted in every department of the organi-sation. Therefore, it needs to be measured differently than other budget lines.
As for the reporting structure, there even if CIOs do report to their CFOs, we don’t see a reason to be overly concerned. At the end of the day, success is measured by how you get things done and not by who you report to.
It is not, and will never be, an either-or situation for the CIO/CFO roles. Long live the CIO. Long live the CFO!
The CIO is dead! Long live the CFO! Time and again
this discussion around the CIO's role becoming extinct comes up. Alarm bells are sounded as new technologies and technology models emerge that promise to drastically reduce intervention from a CIO.
Meanwhile, CFOs are increas-ingly getting involved in IT raising fears of their taking over the role of CIOs also. To con-trol costs, CFO's want IT to be consigned to a bucket so that it can be measured easily. Reports have conclusively shown that there are more CIOs reporting
about how IT can propel busi-ness forward. After all, it will be the CIO who will give shape to new marketing ideas from a technology standpoint.
To put it in simple words: Between the CIO and the CFO, neither has an in-depth knowl-edge of each others’ domain to replace the other. Being in the driver’s seat and control-ling spending on technology is simply not enough. The real act lies in implementing it right. Once the right implementation brings the right value to the organisation, the CIO would have all the right in the world to demand capex from his CFO!
Going forward, as more and more CFOs get involved in IT, it will turn out to be a win-win situation for both the camps. While the CFO can take informed decisions, based on inputs provided by the CIO, the latter can focus on providing a strategic direction to the enter-prise instead of getting bogged
to CFOs than to their CEOs.All in all, it seems CIOs'
position is slowly getting over-shadowed by that of the CFO. These developments stand to make enterprise technology leaders edgy. On the contrary, they seem to be actually upbeat about the situation.
For most CIOs, the fear of cloud replacing them is too far fetched. By leveraging cloud, CIOs feel they would instead have more time on their hands to focus on information and not just information technology. They feel that would be able to spend more time on thinking
editors pick34
CIO or CFO?Is it an either-or situation? Can your enterprise do without a CIO or a CFO?
2 July 2012
july 2012
Cover Story 34 | CIO or CFO?Is it an either-or situation? Can your enterprise do without a CIO or a CFO?
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Cover Design by shokeen saifi
Tr ac k Te c h n o lo gy B u i ld B u s i n e s s s hap e s e lf
Volume 01 | Issue 07
Re
me
mb
eR
ing
nik
ol
a T
es
la
| Fiv
e ‘n
o R
eg
Re
T’ m
ov
es
Volume 01
Issue 07
July 201250
Tech for Governance
Why Open Source is Not Always the Best Bet Pg 64
Best of Breed
China to be on Par With US as Tech Leaders Pg 44
viewpoint
Cloudy Nerdy Pg 68
s p i n e
cio
& l
ea
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r.c
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07
CIO orCFO?
Is It an eIther-or sItuatIon? Can your enterprIse do wIthout a CIo or a CFo? page 34
34
CIO orCFO?
3July 2012
xx
19 | top Down tAking A HAnDS-on ApproACH Vilakshan Jakhu, CIO, BPTP believes a hands-on approach has helped him align technology with business
27 | tHe beSt ADviCe i ever got“ACCept A perSon AS He/SHe iS”Nobody is perfect, be it peers, friends or parents. But you have to respect the other person as a human being
30 | opinion view A toDie For: How Cognitive biASeS CAuSe DiSASter on Mt evereSt India Inc would do well to pick up lessons from these experiences
22 | leADing eDgetHe exeCutive’S guiDe to better liSteningStrong listening skills can make a critical difference in the performance of senior executives
32 | SHelF liFe MAke every Step Count on your leADerSHip Ellis notes that authentic leadership flows from inside out
My Story20 | Unleashing Woman PotentialMarian N ruderman, senior fellow, Centre for Creative Leadership talks to yashvendra Singh on different aspects of leadership
SpeCiAl leADerSHip SeCtion pAge 18A to 32
28 | Me & My Mentee HoneSty AnD truSt Are keyS to SuCCeSS Strong rapport helped this mentor-mentee duo achieve great heights
4 July 2012 4thectoforum.com 07 MONTH 2010 cto forum
A QueStion oF AnSwerS12 | INNOvAtION IN gOverNMeNt Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI explains how documenting the existence of every resident will change the country
Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj SinhaPrinter & Publisher: Anuradha Das Mathur
EditorialExecutive Editor: Yashvendra SinghConsulting Editor: Atanu Kumar Das
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Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul Sr Photographer: Jiten Gandhi
advisory PanElAnil Garg, CIO, Dabur
David Briskman, CIO, RanbaxyMani Mulki, VP-IT, ICICI Bank
Manish Gupta, Director, Enterprise Solutions AMEA, PepsiCo India Foods & Beverages, PepsiCo
Raghu Raman, CEO, National Intelligence Grid, Govt. of IndiaS R Mallela, Former CTO, AFL
Santrupt Misra, Director, Aditya Birla GroupSushil Prakash, Sr Consultant, NMEICT (National Mission on
Education through Information and Communication Technology)Vijay Sethi, CIO, Hero MotoCorpVishal Salvi, CISO, HDFC Bank
Deepak B Phatak, Subharao M Nilekani Chair Professor and Head, KReSIT, IIT - Bombay
nEXt100 advisory PanElManish Pal, Deputy Vice President, Information Security Group
(ISG), HDFC Bank Shiju George, Sr Manager (IT Infrastructure), Shoppers Stop Farhan Khan, Associate Vice President – IT, Radico Khaitan
Berjes Eric Shroff, Senior Manager – IT, Tata ServicesSharat M Airani, Chief – IT (Systems & Security), Forbes Marshall
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advertisers’ index
Iomega IFCHP – PSG 5, BCRicoh 8-AIBM 9Schneider 10, 11Fujitsu 15Gartner 17Riverbed IBC
This index is provided as an additional service.The publisher does not assume any liabilities for errors or omissions.
64 | tEch for govErnancE: Why Open SOurce iS nOt AlWAyS the BeSt Bet Few pointers you should look at before taking the leap
12
44 | BEst of BrEEd: chinA tO Be On pAr With uS AS tech leAder Silicon Valley’s position as technology innovation centre may face challenge
57 | nExt horizons: enterpriSe SOciAl MediA Firms are modifying their business models to get social media savvy
6 July 2012
story InsIde
Cloud, analytics to drive data
centre growth Pg 10
SMARTPHONES GROWTH IN INDIA Source: IDC
HP Launches Comprehensive Cloud Services HP to offer enterprises a complete lifecycle experience in cloud HP Has announced a full-fledged services play into
the burgeoning cloud computing market in India. Making the announcement, Laxminarayan Rao, National Manager – Cloud Consulting Services, HP India, said that because of the multiple ways in which enterprises are embracing cloud, a homogenous control layer is needed to manage the heterogene-ity of cloud environments. Today, companies are considering one or multiple ways of cloud deploy-ment, including private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, managed hosted cloud, etc. According to Rao, the majority of CIOs are now considering or in the
process of deploying cloud computing technologies for their organisations. Taking its play of the recently announced converged cloud infrastructure further, HP will offer a range of HP Engineering Cloud Transformation Services to enterprises. The services include: engineering cloud experience workshop, which is designed to reduce risk and expedite deci-sion making with best practices for product develop-ment and engineering transformation programmes. engineering cloud rapid investment analysis, which will help instil client confidence that a transformation can generate a rapid return on investment.
295%data BrIefIng
ENTERPRISEROuND-uP
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E N T E R P R I S E R O u N D - u P
7July 2012
“Time may be right for another wave of economic reforms to make India more competitive in the global economy”
Pacific North West cybercrime trio have been sentenced for $3m hacking spree. the three men, Joshuah allen Witt, 35, John earl griffin, 36, and Brad eugene Lowe, 39, have all now been given stiff prison terms. Lowe was sentenced for six-and-a-half years, whilst Witt and griffin were sent down for nearly eight years each
QUICK Byte on HaCKIng
Yahoo! Sets up Grid Computing Lab at IIT Madras Lab to facilitate research on big data and cloud yaHoo! India R&D in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT- Madras) today announced the launch of Yahoo! Grid Computing Lab at the IIT- Madras campus. This cluster of high-end servers at the lab will allow researchers to access web-scale data and conduct research on big data and cloud computing systems.
Cloud services empower companies to dramatically improve agility and inno-vation at web scale. As more companies are moving their services to the cloud, it has emerged as an important area of research to explore new approaches in the field. The partnership will support researchers at IIT- Madras to process and analyze huge volumes of structured and unstructured data which, to date, has been limited due to significant cost barriers in getting large computing systems operational.
Hari Vasudev, Vice President, Connections, Yahoo! Inc. said, “At Yahoo! we believe that open and collaborative research is the best way towards building the next generation of the Web. By partnering with premier institutes like IIT-Madras, we hope to spur research in big data problems in areas such as search, personalization and digital advertising.”
In an interview to PTI, Obama was careful not to be directly critical of the negative investment climate in India but cited the concerns of the American business community to make his points.
TheY SaId IT
BaRaCK OBaMa
—Barack Obama,
US President
E N T E R P R I S E R O u N D - u P
8 July 2012
Cloud, Analytics to Drive DC Growth aPaC will account for 25% of dC investment of $152 bn by 2016data center transformation is one of the three key trends driving IT growth in 2012, according to analyst firm Canalys (the oth-ers being consumerisation of IT and enter-prise mobility). Its latest forecasts reveal that the market for data center IT infrastruc-ture globally, including servers, storage, networking, security and virtualisation, will reach $128 billion this year, up six percent from $120 billion last year. Total invest-
ment will grow five percent on average per annum to reach $152 billion in 2016.
Large data centers will lead this expan-sion, posting an average annual increase of 8% over the same period. Much of this infrastructure will be used to form the back-bone of cloud services for both consumer and commercial customers.
‘On the consumer side, everything from social networking platforms to online
80 percent of respondents in developing markets stated Internet as important for end-to-end shopping
banking services will require resilient infra-structure on which to run,’ said Alex Smith, Senior Analyst at Canalys. ‘This is par-ticularly evident in the Asia Pacific region, where businesses in China and India are investing heavily in infrastructure to pro-vide online services to their customers. The size of the populations in these markets presents a huge potential demand for data center infrastructure.’ Cloud computing has been a hot topic in the enterprise space in recent years and will continue to dis-rupt established patterns of IT purchasing behavior. The management of hardware and software traditionally conducted in-house will increasingly be transferred to third-party providers, with resources charged for on an on-demand, metered basis. This transition is already well underway in many public sector organizations, particularly in Europe where government spending is being re-shaped by the ongoing economic challenges. These trends are helping to con-centrate investment into fewer, but larger, data centers, as opposed to being distributed across many smaller facilities.
Analytics is another driver of large data center investment. ‘Different organizations, with different interests spanning com-merce, the environment and a spectrum of scientific disciplines will require large data warehouses and the ability to analyse vast quantities of information,’ Smith added. ‘The need to routinely process exabytes of data will become common.’
Canalys predicts Asia Pacific will be the fastest growing region over the next five years and will account for a quarter of worldwide data center infrastructure spend by 2016. ‘IT infrastructure expansion is critical to support the high-growth econo-mies and rising online populations in this region,’ said Matthew Ball, Canalys Direc-tor of Enterprise Services. ‘The leading US vendors must focus resources on expanding their channel coverage in key Asia Pacific markets in order to capitalize on these growth opportunities. And they should not underestimate the challenge presented by local vendors, such as Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hua-wei and NEC.’ Canalys forecasts that North America will remain the biggest data center infrastructure market, though its share of total worldwide investment will fall from 43 percent in 2011 to 41 percent in 2016.
gLoBaL traCKer
Internet Shopping
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E N T E R P R I S E R O u N D - u P
8B July 2012
Worldwide IT Spending to Surpass $3.6 Trillion in 2012 Three percent increase from 2011
DOCuSIGN
electronic signature firm
docusign has secured
$47.5 million in funding from
premier investors, public funds,
and strategic tech-industry
leaders. Kleiner perkins cau-
field & byers led the funding.
accel partners and a large,
global institutional investor
joined in the funding round.
comcast ventures and sap
ventures provided additional
investment joining existing tech
industry partners salesforce.
com and the national associa-
tion of realtors. the company
will use the funds to accelerate
growth of the docusign global
network via increased cus-
tomer-focused r&d, deeper
vertical industry solutions, and
faster international expansion.
the company also announced
that Kleiner’s mary meeker, a
noted internet-industry expert,
has joined its board of direc-
tors. “this financing demon-
strates the value the market
places on technologies that
drive fundamental business
transformation – particularly
those with immediate roi, viral
adoption, and nearly unlimited
application,” said Keith Krach,
chairman and ceo, docusign.
“docusign empowers anyone
to sign anything, anywhere,
anytime.” “docusign has
created a compelling growing
business by re-imagining an
age-old basic service – sign-
ing documents,” said mary
meeker, general partner,
Kleiner perkins.
WorldWide it spending is
on pace to reach $3.6 trillion in
2012, a 3 percent increase from
2011 spending of $3.5 trillion,
according to the latest outlook
by gartner inc. gartner's 2012
it spending outlook has been
revised up slightly from the 2.5
percent projection last quarter.
gartner's global it spending
Kronos inc. has extended its reach in the Indian market through a strategic alliance with Qimpro, a leader in quality consulting in India.
The alliance will leverage the synergies of Qimpro’s leadership in quality consulting and Kronos workforce management solutions to drive workforce transformation for Indian businesses through workforce cost optimisation, process effectiveness, and performance excellence.
The two organisations will focus on key indus-tries such as manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.
New Center of excellence for Workforce Solutions Kronos, Qimpro plan tieup
faCt tICKer
forecast is relied upon by more
than 75 percent of the global 500
companies in their key technology
decisions. the market segments
are analyzed by more than 200
gartner business and technology
analysts who are located in all
regions of the world.
"While the challenges facing
global economic growth persist
— the eurozone crisis, weaker
u.s. recovery, a slowdown in
china — the outlook has at least
stabilised," said richard gordon,
research vice president at gart-
ner. "there has been little change
in either business confidence
or consumer sentiment in the
past quarter, so the short-term
outlook is for continued caution in
it spending. however, there are
some bright spots for it provid-
ers. gartner expects enterprise
spending on public cloud services
to grow from $91 billion in 2011 to
$109 billion in 2012.
A Center of Excellence (CoE) will be jointly established by Kronos and Qimpro to showcase the solutions and establish innovative ways to address the challenges of controlling labor costs, minimizing compliance risk, and improving workforce productivity in India.
While the CoE will provide the joint go-to-mar-ket strategies for the relationship, it will also focus on leveraging best practices, benchmarks, and standards that the alliance brings to joint Kronos/Qimpro customers.
Commenting on the tie-up, James Thomas, country manager, Kronos India, said, “It’s an opportune time to storm the Indian business community with a quality revolution in workforce performance excellence hinging on cost optimiza-tion and process effectiveness, and through this strategic relationship, we look forward to accom-plishing just that.”
According to Suresh Lulla, founder and managing director, Qimpro Consultants, “Kronos workforce management solutions will significantly strengthen Qimpro’s Process Management services. This rela-tionship will enable us to confidently explore hid-den opportunities for cost of poor quality within the third dimension of variability – the workforce.”
Qimpro offers professional services that range from assessment to transformation management, and from training to coaching and facilitation. Qim-pro has over the years, distinguished itself in plan-ning and implementing the recognition process at the national level. Since inception in 1987, Qimpro has provided services that have helped over 300 cli-ents conduct over 6,000 projects and saved over Rs 16,000 crores; and has developed and copyrighted the BestPrax Barometer, a tool to measure the qual-ity of business practices for good governance.
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10 July 2012
story roi
once servers and
storage devices become
fault tolerant throughout
the data center, it will
change the way it failure
is defined
Modular DCPi can
be sized to align with the
data center’s present it
requirements, and grow
as requirements dictate
Fault tolerant DCPi
equipment allows con-
tinued operation of power
or cooling when a DCPi
component fails.
Modularity not only delivers more obvious and easily understood benefits but also the most subtle, least understood, and profound reliability benefit: fault tolerance.
Modularity is an established technique for organizing and simplifying a complex system. From elementary (flashlight bat-teries) to complex (the cells of an organ-
ism), modularity has a record of success that is hard to challenge. Nonetheless, in man-made systems on the brink of the evolutionary transition from mono-lithic to modular design, there can be skepticism and slow starts until modularity settles in and begins to deliver its time-tested benefits.
Data center physical infrastructure (DCPI) of data centers is in this transition phase. While the physi-cally evident attributes of building-block architecture – scalability, flexibility, simplicity, portability – are easily understood and not in serious dispute, one aspect of modular design in this industry has become a subject for debate: reliability. Modularity not only delivers more obvious and easily understood benefits but also the most subtle, least understood, and pro-found reliability benefit: fault tolerance. The inherent fault tolerance of modular design provides a powerful new defense against failure, introducing into complex
systems a strategy for reliability that is not only ade-quate, but also superior. It is imperitive to understand that fault tolerance has profound significance. Once servers and storage devices become fault tolerant throughout the data center, it will change the way IT failure is defined.
Consider two different failure scenarios in a data center (See Figure 1). On the right is a failure of all
The Evolution of Reliability
Figure 1: Two failure scenarios for a data center (overhead view, four rows of eight racks)
One rack fails All racks fail
DATA CENTER CORNERMODularITy
11July 2012
As fault tolerant architectures become more widespread, data centers will be able to tolerate more unit failures
%The modular advantage for DCPI Why will modular DCPI replace conventional DCPI? •Abilitytoscaleandgrow. Modular DCPI can be
sized to align with the data center’s present IT requirements, and grow as required. This advan-tage has importance to DCPI, where the traditional method has been one-time deployment of power and cooling to support maximum IT requirements, resulting in waste in capital and OpEx.
•Simplerprocessofduplication. Modular design means manufacturing a large number of small units, instead of a small number of large units. Greater production volume means fewer defects; smaller, simpler design means more automation and less manual work during manufacture, which means fewer defects.
•Abilitytospecialisethefunctionofmodules. Power-protection and cooling units can be manu-factured in a variety of configurations to target the particular availability and cooling requirements of different parts of the data center.
•Rapidadaptationtotheenvironment. With new equipment being added and IT equipment changing every 2 to 3 years, the contents of data centers are under constant revision.
•Faulttolerance. Just as fault tolerant IT equipment allows continued data center operation when an IT component fails, fault tolerant DCPI equipment allows continued operation of power when a DCPI component fails. Fault tolerance can be accom-plished by redundancy of DCPI units – for example, by having extra power modules in a uPS.The advantages of modular DCPI over the con-
ventional one is quite evident, considering the vari-ous new mechanisms it enables an enterprise to perform. Today, organisations need to adopt this innovative solutions to enhance their efficiency and productivity and stay ahead of competition.
25Faster
deploy-ments with
modular data center
compared to traditional data center
designs
the racks, as would happen if a single large uPS protecting the entire data center failed and dropped the load. On the left is a failure of one rack. In con-ventional data centers, these two scenarios would be viewed by IT managers as the same failure, because – in a one-rack failure – interdependencies among servers, disk arrays, switches, and routers would likely cause cascading effects that bring down the entire data center.
as the new array-style modular designs for com-puting and storage take hold, the failure on the left – one rack – is beginning to be viewed by IT manag-ers as a “better” failure, because redundancy of resources now offers the possibility of data center survival even when individual units fail. as fault tol-erant architectures become more widespread, data centers will be able to tolerate a greater number of unit failures without total system failure. When blade servers fulfill their early promise of seamless fault tolerance, the failure of one, two, three, or even more racks will be a survivable event.
Implications for DCPIThis new paradigm for failure management has impli-cations for how the new IT architecture should be pro-tected by its data center physical infrastructure.
For example, as data centers become more fault tolerant in their IT layer, power protection by a single, large uPS will become less optimal since failure of that uPS brings down the whole system – an unnec-essary outcome in a fault-tolerant data center capable of surviving the loss of a rack. If uPSs are distributed throughout the data center, one uPS for every rack, then failure of any single uPS will fail only one rack, not the whole system. Even though there are more uPSs, which increases the likelihood of individual uPS failure, such a failure can be tolerated by the system. If it takes failure of three racks to fail the entire system, then three of those uPSs would have to fail simultaneously to bring down the system, an extremely unlikely event – much less likely than failure of a single large uPS. So, reliability theory strongly favours modular distributed power and cooling archi-tecture as systems become more fault tolerant.
DaTa CENTEr cornerC U S T O M P U B L I S H I N G
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
NaNdaN NilekaNi | Chairman, UiDai
An interview with McKinsey’s Eric Braverman and Mary Kuntz, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India explains how documenting the existence of every living resident will change the country
Enrollment in the ID program began in September 2010,
and today more than 200 million Indians are in it. Why have so many people enrolled?Well, identity rights are very impor-tant for participation in the formal economy. Having a document that proves your identity is the basis for owning property. It’s the basis for get-ting basic entitlements or pensions or scholarships. It’s the basis for travel. India is becoming more of a migrant society—people are moving from vil-lages to cities, from north to south, from central to coastal India. And when they move, they have to prove to the local establishments who they are, or else they can’t open a bank account, buy a mobile connection, or get a job.
The West has fairly well-developed ID systems. In India, we have 25 mil-lion births a year, but no system for
giving out birth certificates or Social Security numbers, like in the United States. Many Indians don’t have any document that proves their existence. That’s the basic problem we’re try-ing to solve. But the game-changing dimension of our ID platform is that it’s digital.
What impact has the program had on India’s government?
It will have a huge impact on public-service delivery and, in turn, on residents’ satisfaction with the way government works. The platform we created is an open API,1 so other entities—say, banks and telecom com-panies—can embed our APIs to verify someone’s identity before that person withdraws money or buys a SIM card for a mobile phone. So, for example, if a person is entitled to a pension, all the government has to do is say, “Send
this amount to this ID number.” That ID number translates into a bank account, and the money gets cred-ited to the account. The government doesn’t even have to know where the bank account is. Residents will be empowered because they’ll be able to access public services from anywhere. We can authenticate a person online, so services can be delivered online, via mobile phones, or at physical service-delivery locations.
Bringing banks and telcos into such a consortium has raised
concerns about privacy and civil liberties. How are you addressing those concerns?We used a lot of design principles to make the ID system as privacy enabled as possible. For example, the information we collect from indi-viduals is very simple: just the name,
InnovatIon InGovErnmEnt
12 July 2012
Unique identification: Setting a goal to have
half a billion people in the system by 2014
N a N d a N N i l e k a N i | a Q u e s t i o N o f a N s w e r s
address, date of birth, and gender, with e-mail addresses and phone numbers optional. We also have bio-metric data, but we use this only to prevent duplication (to make sure a person gets only one unique ID num-ber) and also for authentication. We don’t share people’s data with banks; the banks’ data aren’t shared with the ID system. So whether a person is withdrawing 100 rupees or 1,000 rupees is known only to the bank. You can think of it as a federated architec-ture, where each player knows only his or her part of the activity.
What does it take for a feder-ated architecture such as this
to work?There are two big components to our system: the enrollment system and the authentication system. The enrollment system is a distribut-able, scalable architecture; we have our technology platform running in about 27,000 locations. The enrollment data are encrypted and then sent to our database for issu-ing unique ID numbers, so that requires massive back-end comput-ing facilities. The authentication system, however, is cloud based. An authentication request—from a bank, for instance—would come over the mobile network. We verify that person’s identity, and we send the answer back.
It sounds like “big data” plays a role in making
this work.You can’t manage 27,000 enroll-ment stations, around 50,000 opera-tors, and a million enrollments a day without big data. At any given point, we can say how many people enrolled, where they enrolled, how long each biometric capture took, how many retries the operator had to do per enrollee. We have that level of granularity in our performance data analytics so we can distinguish good operators from bad operators—which is important because we pay them based on how many people
2014, which will make this one of the world’s largest online ID infrastruc-tures. That’s one metric of success.
A second measure of success is to have two or three major applications of this ID infrastructure. The govern-ment can use it for electronic benefits transfer—that is, to pay out entitle-ments, pensions, and other benefits. The government can also use the system for subsidy transfers. Half of the $60 billion the Indian government spends on benefits and entitlements is for subsidies on food, fuel, and fer-tiliser. The government is looking into converting those subsidies into cash transfers—at least in the case of fertil-izer and fuel—as opposed to offering the products at lower prices.
You mentioned your old job. What are some lessons for
making major change happen that you have drawn from your experi-ence as an entrepreneur?One is the need for speed in imple-
they enroll. Big data is crucial to per-formance management.
Also, we intend to publish our enrollment data after it has been made anonymous. If somebody wants to analyse enrollments by state, gen-der, or age, they can just download our data, which is machine readable. You can find out, for example, that a particular region is underserved, because the number of authentication requests from there is low. As the sys-tem matures, there’ll be more of this type of analysis. And again, it’s a bal-ance between enabling such analysis and protecting privacy.
How will you measure the progress of the ID program? In
two years, what will you be looking for to declare it a success?You’re asking me to make forward-looking statements, something I avoided at my old job. But I’ll make one now—our goal is to have at least half a billion people on the system by
There are two
big components
to our system: the
enrollment and
authentication
system
Our goal is to
have half a billion
people in the
system by 2014
What we
would like to
accompolish is to
create a thriving
application
ecosystem
things i Believe in
“We want to create a virtuous cycle between applications and enrollment. We also want to make sure that there’s a sustainable organisation that can continue to deliver on the promise of this transformational project”
14 July 2012
a Q u e s t i o N o f a N s w e r s | N a N d a N N i l e k a N i
mentation—the bias for action. Another is the ability, which is crucial in business, to recognise gaps and niches in the market.
But one area where the public sector is very different from the private sector is the amount of time you have to spend on con-sensus building and stakeholder navigation. In the private sector, you’re answerable to your management, your board, investors, maybe financial analysts. In the public sec-tor, the number of stakeholders is much larger—the federal government, state and city governments, the media, activists, the public—and they often have different agen-das and ideologies. Navigating all this, while preserving the integrity of your approach, requires a lot of negotiation.
You’ve encountered opposition from certain interests. How have you dealt
with that?Obviously, a transformational change like this will meet resistance from certain groups. To overcome barriers, what we try to do is, first of all, to make the people our champi-ons. The people who enroll in the system become the voice of the system. Part of our
strategy is to link the ID to benefits because, fundamentally, the ID is optional. So we’re taking a benefits-oriented approach—for example, if there’s an immunisation pro-gramme that requires an ID, then all the children required will get the ID. Another part of our strategy has to do with speed of execution. We launched the platform in 14 months, and as you mentioned we’ve already enrolled 200 million people. A third thing is that we’ve tried to create a “coalition of the positive.” A lot of people now have a stake in the success of this project. Banks and telcos, for example, have an interest in helping us make it work.
other countries are experimenting with digital-ID programmes and are
trying to scale them. What advice can you give these countries?They should have a scalable architecture right from the beginning. We could scale to 27,000 enrollment stations in one year because we built an entire ecosystem—there was a software platform, a hardware plat-form, a training platform for operators. We had many partners so that the load would get
shared. We did a lot of things architecturally to drive scale.
But what’s equally important is that we expect to see a lot more innovation because of the platform’s open API. That’s the best way to do this: the government builds the platform but makes it open so that individual creativity and entrepreneurship can build more solutions.
Ultimately, what we’d like to accomplish in this role is to create a thriving application ecosystem around the platform. Over the next few years, we’d like to see more apps developed by both the public and private sectors—and the fact that so many people are enrolled in the system will, we hope, spur more developers to build applications. We want to create a virtuous cycle between applications and enrollment. We also want to make sure that there’s a sustainable organisa-tion that can continue to deliver on the prom-ise of this transformational project. —Creating a ‘coalition of the positive’ in India: An
interview with Nandan Nilekani
Eric Braverman is a principal in McKinsey’s
Washington, DC, office; Mary Kuntz is an external
contributing editor for McKinsey.
advts.indd 56 12/22/2009 3:02:47 PM
a Q u e s t i o N o f a N s w e r s | N a N d a N N i l e k a N i
“When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find
the means to carry it out.”
—NapoleoN BoNaparte
18AJuly 2012
SpecIAl
leAderShIp SectIon
18B July 2012
CIO&LEADER This special section on leadership has been designed keeping in mind the evolving role of CIOs. The objective is to provide an eclectic mix of leadership articles and opinions from top consultants and gurus as well as create a platform for peer learning. Here is a brief description of each sub-section that will give you an idea of what to expect each month from CIO&Leader:
An opinion piece on leadership penned by leadership gurus. Plus, an insightful article from a leading consulting firm
The article/interview will track the leadership journey of a CIO/CXO to the top. It will also provide insights into how top leaders think about leadership
This feature focusses on how CIOs run IT organisations in their company as if they were CEOs. It will comment on whether IT should have a separate P&L, expectation management of different LoB heads, HR policies within IT, operational issues, etc. This section will provide insights into the challenges of putting a price on IT services, issues of changing user mindset, squeezing more value out of IT, justifying RoI on IT, attracting and retaining talent, and competing against external vendors
Cross leveraging our strong traction in the IT Manager community, this section will have interviews/features about IT Managers and CIOs talking about their expectations, working styles and aspirations. In this section, a Mentor and a Mentee will identify each other’s strengths and weaknesses, opine on each other’s style of functioning, discuss the biggest lessons learnt from each other, talk about memorable projects and shared interests
Featuring a top CIO/Technology Company Head and the best guidance/recommendation he received with respect to his personal or professional growth. The advice could relate to dealing with people, managing personal finance, and balancing work and life
A one-page review of a book on leadership
top doWn Me & MY Mentee
MY StorYleAdIng edge 2220
19 2827
32
the BeSt AdvIce I ever got
ShelF lIFe
I n t r o d u c t I o n
Taking a Hands-On Approach Vilakshan Jakhu, CIO, BPTP believes a hands-on approach has helped him align technology with business
“For one month, I was listening to every single call received at the customer service desk to get a hang of what the customer is asking for, what kind of lan-guage was being used, and the problems they encountered.” says Jakhu.
Jakhu believes that unless a CIO involves himself in the business part of this exercise, he will not be able to design the desired CRM system.
He also teamed up with the customer service head to understand the area of customer service and instill a culture of responding to customer calls swiftly and rightly within set timeframes.
“This mindset is absent in the realty industry and we are in the process of being a first mover in this case.” says Jakhu.
BPTP is now working on another feature in the CRM that would co-ordinate with customers to have them registered with the respective authority after get-ting the possession of the flat. The CRM project is currently in the user accep-tance testing phase. The sales and marketing components are live. The customer servcie part is almost in place. Jakhu's hands-on approach was also visible when BPTP's data centre was beign constructed at Gurgaon.Jakhu was on the ground having a first hand look of datacentre construction.
— As told to Abhishek Rawal
Vilakshan Jakhu, CIO- BPTP is a good example of how a CIO can lead his department from the front and deliver what the business expects from it.
At the young age of 33, Jakhu collaborates with the top management and takes important decisions that impact the company's growth. For instance, he is presently in the midst of implementing a CRM solution in BPTP.
Jakhu decided on the implementation with the objec-tive of providing the element of customer delight when working with BPTP, right from the first interaction until the customer gets the possession of the property.
“Rather than having point solutions, we wanted to have an integrated communication strategy with the customer wherein he can contact us through email, chat, phone call, letter, log in online.” he says. The implementation will be over by the end of July, 2012.
Adopting a hands-on approach, Jakhu wanted to know about the issues first and then build a system around it.
Top DownVilakshan JakhuCio, BpTp
19July 2012
Marian N Ruderman, senior fellow, Centre for Creative Leadership talks to Yashvendra Singh on different as-pects of women leadership
Marian N. Ruderman is a senior fellow and director of Americas and Europe-Middle East-Africa research at the Center for Creative Leadership, a top-ranked, global provider of leadership education
As more and more women achieve leadership status, what are some of the challenges they
typically face?As the numbers of managerial and executive women continue to grow throughout the world, many organisa-tions have generally done little to understand women's careers. Women are now making it clear to organisa-tions that they lead different lives than men and that the companies they work for, both large and small, need to pay closer attention to their concerns. As women achieve greater successes in the executive world, we are seeing both a change and an expansion of the kinds of struggles they typically face. Previously, gender-related hurdles such as harassment, isolation and proving oneself were their primary obstacles. Now the emphasis is on the choices and tradeoffs, the forces that influ-ence their decisions, and strategies for constructing meaningful and fulfilling careers. In an effort to better understand the realities facing women executives, the Center for Creative Leadership studied the experiences of dozens of high-achieving women who attended CCL’s Women’s Leadership Programme. The women were mid- to senior-level managers, the majority of whom worked for Fortune 500 companies. This work resulted in a number of key findings.
So what were the key findings of the study?When viewed from an organisational perspective,
the basic issue is that high-achieving women feel they
must make significant compromises in order to survive in organisations in which careers are patterned after the stereotypical male experience. A particularly important outcome of ignoring the gendered nature of organisa-tions is that many companies are experiencing a high level of turnover among women managers and execu-tives. This is a disturbing trend for many reasons.
According to the Center for Creative Leadership, what are the key themes for
today’s managerial women?There are five major themes identified in CCL’s research as key to managerial women as they evolve as leaders. These are authenticity, wholeness, agency, connected-ness and self-understanding. Organisations should help women cultivate these five themes.
But what should organisations do to help women evolve as leaders?
Given the increasing demands for leadership talent today, organisations can't afford to misunderstand or underestimate the developmental issues facing women in leadership roles. CCL’s research has uncovered sev-eral steps they can take:1. Increase the opportunities for women to learn from one another informally: Encourage the development of employee associations or networks for women. These homogeneous groups help managers share common experiences and concerns and form developmental
Unleashing Woman Potential
My sTory Marian n. ruDerMan
20 July 2012
M a r i a n n . r u D e r M a n | i n T e r V i e w
relationships with each other. Such relation-ships provide women support as well as opportunities for informal feedback about their strengths and weaknesses as leaders.2. Encourage women to take advantage of opportunities for formal developmental assessment: Structured assessment and feedback, such as that offered through 360-degree instruments, can be part of a larger development programme. One industry association CCL works with has
arranged for large numbers of its manageri-al women to take part in feedback-intensive programmes.
The association sponsors a program for women executives from different organi-zations in the industry so they can get sup-port from each other and feedback at the same time.3. Help decision makers understand how to develop and create challenging assignments for women: Such assignments should take
into account the extra challenges experi-enced by women managers.
Too little challenge results in too little growth; too much challenge overwhelms the learning process. A female executive, for example, who needs to broaden her understanding of the business might be given an assignment exposing her to new regions, lines of business, or functions. With proper support, she can learn to flourish in this role.
1 Women are making it
clear to the organisations
that they lead different lives
than men
2 Organisations have
done little to understand
women's career
3 Organisations can't
afford to misunderstand the
developmental issues facing
women in leadership roles
4 Encourage the
development of employee
associations or networks
for women
5 Encourage women
to take advantage of
opportunities for formal
developmental assessment
5poinTs
21July 2012
a senior executiVe of a large consumer goods company had spotted a bold partnership opportunity in an important developing market and wanted to pull the trigger quickly to stay ahead of competi-tors. In meetings on the topic with the leadership team, the CEO noted that this trusted colleague was animated, ada-mant, and very persuasive about the move’s game-changing potential for the company. The facts behind the deal were solid.
The CEO also observed something troubling, however: his colleague wasn’t listening. During conversations about the pros and cons of the deal and its strategic rationale, for example, the senior executive wasn’t open to avenues of conversation
that challenged the move or entertained other possibilities. What’s more, the tenor of these conversations appeared to make some colleagues uncomfortable. The senior executive’s poor listening skills were short-circuiting what should have been a healthy strategic debate.
Eventually, the CEO was able to use a combination of diplomacy, tactful private conversation, and the bureaucratic rigor of the company’s strategic-planning pro-cesses to convince the executive of the need to listen more closely to his peers and engage with them more productively about the proposal.
The resulting conversations determined that the original deal was sound but that a
much better one was available—a partner-ship in the same country. The new partner-ship presented slightly less risk to the com-pany than the original deal but had an upside potential exceeding it by a factor of ten.
The situation facing the CEO will be familiar to many senior executives. Listen-ing is the front end of decision making. It’s the surest, most efficient route to inform-ing the judgments we need to make, yet many of us have heard, at one point or other in our careers, that we could be bet-ter listeners.
Indeed, many executives take listening skills for granted and focus instead on learning how to articulate and present their own views more effectively.
The Executive’s Guide to Better Listening
Strong listening skills can make a critical difference in the performance of senior executives. Here’s how By Bernard t. Ferrari
leaDing eDge BernarD T. Ferrari
22 July 2012
This approach is misguided. Good listen-ing—the active and disciplined activity of probing and challenging the information garnered from others to improve its quality and quantity—is the key to building a base of knowledge that generates fresh insights and ideas.
Put more strongly, good listening, in my experience, can often mean the difference between success and failure in business ventures (and hence between a longer career and a shorter one). Listening is a valuable skill that most executives spend little time cultivating. (For more about one executive’s desire to be a better listener, see “Why I’m a listener: Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer.”)
The many great listeners I’ve encoun-tered throughout my career as a surgeon, a corporate executive, and a business consul-tant have exhibited three kinds of behavior I’ll highlight in this article.
By recognising—and practicing— them, you can begin improving your own listening skills and even those of your organization.
1. show respectOne of the best listeners I have ever observed was the chief operating officer (COO) of a large medical institution. He once told me that he couldn’t run an operation as complex as a hospital without seeking input from people at all levels of
the staff—from the chief of surgery to the custodial crew. Part of what made him so effective, and so appealing as a manager, was that he let everyone around him know he believed each of them had something unique to contribute. The respect he showed them was recipro-cated, and it helped fuel an environment where good ideas routinely came from throughout the institution.
The COO recognised something that many executives miss: our conversation partners often have the know-how to develop good solutions, and part of being a good listener is simply helping them to draw out critical information and put it in a new light.
To harness the power of those ideas, senior executives must fight the urge to “help” more junior colleagues by providing immediate solutions. Leaders should also respect a colleague’s potential to provide insights in areas far afield from his or her job description.
Here’s an example: I recall a meeting between a group of engineers and the chief marketing officer (CMO) at a large indus-trial company. She was concerned about a new product introduction that had fallen flat. The engineers were puzzled as well; the company was traditionally dominated by engineers with strong product-develop-ment skills, and this group had them too. As the CMO and I discussed the techno-logical aspects of the product with the engi-neers, I was struck by their passion and genuine excitement about the new device, which did appear to be unique.
Although we had to stop them sev-eral times to get explanations for various technical terms, they soon conveyed the reasons for their attitude—the product seemed to be not only more efficient than comparable ones on the market but also easier to install, use, and maintain.
After a few minutes, the CMO, who had been listening intently, prompted the engineers with a respectful leading question: “But we haven’t sold as many as you thought we would in the first three months, right?”
“Well, actually, we haven’t sold any!” the team leader said. “We think this product is a game changer, but it hasn’t been selling. And we’re not sure why.”
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goal is ensuring the free and open flow of information and ideas.
I was amused when John McLaughlin, the former deputy director of the US Cen-tral Intelligence Agency, told me that when he had to make tough decisions he often ended his conversations with colleagues by asking, “Is there anything left that you haven’t told me . . . because I don’t want you to leave this room and go down the hall to your buddy’s office and tell him that I just didn’t get it.”
With that question, McLaughlin commu-nicated the expectation that his colleagues should be prepared; he demanded that everything come out on the table; and he signaled genuine respect for what his col-leagues had to say.
2. keep quietI have developed my own variation on the 80/20 rule as it relates to listening. My guideline is that a conversation partner should be speaking 80 percent of the time, while I speak only 20 percent of the time. Moreover, I seek to make my speaking time count by spending as much of it as pos-sible posing questions rather than trying to have my own say.
That’s easier said than done, of course—most executives are naturally inclined to speak their minds. Still, you can’t really listen if you’re too busy talking.
Besides, we’ve all spent time with bad listeners who treat conversations as oppor-tunities to broadcast their own status or ideas, or who spend more time formulat-ing their next response than listening to their conversation partners.
Indeed, bad listening habits such as these are ubiquitous (see sidebar, “A field guide to identifying bad listeners”).
I should know because I’ve fallen into these traps myself. One experience in particular made me realise how counter-productive it is to focus on your own ideas during a conversation.
It was early in my career as a consultant and I was meeting with an important cli-ent whom I was eager to impress. My cli-ent was a no-nonsense, granite block of a man from the American heartland, and he scrutinized me over the top of his reading glasses before laying out the problem: “The budget for next year just doesn’t work, and we are asking our employees to make some tough changes.”
All I heard was his concern about the budget. Without missing a beat, I respond-ed to my client and his number-two man, who was seated alongside him: “There are several ways to address your cost problem.” I immediately began reeling off what I thought were excellent suggestions for streamlining his business.
My speech gained momentum as I bar-reled ahead with my ideas. The executive listened silently—and attentively, or so it seemed. Yet he didn’t even move, except to cock his head from time to time.
When he reached for a pen, I kept up my oration but watched with some annoyance as he wrote on a small notepad, tore off the sheet of paper, and handed it to his associ-
After a pause to make sure the engineer was finished, the CMO said, “Well, you guys sure seem certain that this is a great product. And you’ve convinced the two of us pretty well. It seems that customers should be tripping over themselves to place orders. So assuming it’s not the product’s quality that’s off, what else are your cus-tomers telling you about the product?”
“We haven’t spoken to any customers,” the engineer replied.
The CMO blanched. As the conversation continued, we learned that the product had been developed under close wraps and that the engineers had assumed its
l e a D i n g e D g e | B e r n a r D T . F e r r a r i
“Some people can intuitively grasp where to draw the line between input and interruption, but the rest of us have to work at it”—Bernard t. Ferrari
virtues would speak for themselves. “But maybe not,” said the team leader. “Maybe we ought to push it a little more. I guess its good traits aren’t so obvious if you don’t know a lot about it.”
That engineer had hit the nail on the head. The device was fine. Customers were wary about switching to something untest-ed, and they hadn’t been convinced by the specs the company’s sales team touted.
As soon as the engineers began phoning their counterparts in the customers’ orga-nizations (an idea suggested by the engi-neers themselves), the company started receiving orders.
Had the CMO looked at the problem by herself, she might have suspected a short-coming with the product. But after some
good listening and targeted follow-up questions, she helped to extract a much better solution from the engineers them-selves. She didn’t cut the conversation short by lecturing them on good marketing techniques or belittling their approach; she listened and asked pointed questions in a respectful manner. The product ulti-mately ended up being a game changer for the company.
Being respectful, it’s important to note, didn’t mean that the CMO avoided asking tough questions—good listeners routinely ask them to uncover the information they need to help make better decisions. The
25July 2012
ate. A smile flitted almost imperceptibly across that man’s face as he read the note.
I was already becoming a bit peeved that the executive had displayed no reaction to my ideas, but this little note, passed as though between two schoolboys, was too much. I stopped talking and asked what was written on the paper.
The executive nodded to his associate. “Show him.”
The man leaned across the table and handed me the note. My client had written, “What the hell is this guy talking about?”
Fortunately, I was able to see the humor in the situation and to recognise that I had been a fool. My ego had gotten in the way of listening.
Had I paid closer attention and probed more deeply, I would have learned that the executive’s real concern was finding ways to keep his staff motivated while his com-pany was shrinking.
I had failed to listen and compounded the error by failing to keep quiet. Luckily for me, I was able to get a second meeting with him.
It’s not easy to stifle your impulse to speak, but with patience and practice you can learn to control the urge and improve the quality and effectiveness of your conversations by weighing in at the right time.
Some people can intuitively grasp where to draw the line between input and interruption, but the rest of us have to work at it. John McLaughlin advises managers to think consciously about when to interrupt and to be as neutral and emo-tionless as possible when listening, always delaying the rebuttal and withholding the interruption. Still, he acknowledges that interrupting with a question can be neces-sary from time to time to speed up or redi-rect the conversation.
He advises managers not to be in a hurry, though—if a matter gets to your level, he says, it is probably worth spending some of your time on it.
As you improve your ability to stay quiet, you’ll probably begin to use silence more effectively. The CEO of an industrial company, for example, used thoughtful moments of silence during a meeting with his sales team as an invitation for its junior members to speak up and talk through
details of a new incentive program that the team’s leader was proposing.
As the junior teammates filled in these moments with new information, the ensuing rich discussion helped the group (including the team leader) to real-ize that the programme needed significant retooling. The CEO’s silence encouraged a more meritocratic—and ultimately supe-rior—solution.
When we remain silent, we also improve the odds that we’ll spot nonverbal cues we might have missed otherwise. The medical institution’s COO, who was such a respect-ful listener, had a particular knack for this. I remember watching him in a conversa-tion with a nurse manager, who was nor-mally articulate but on this occasion kept doubling back and repeating herself.
The COO realised from these cues that something unusual was going on. During a pause, he surprised her by asking gently, “You don’t quite agree with me on this one, do you? Why is that?” She sighed in relief and explained what had actually been bug-ging her.
3. challenge assumptionsGood listeners seek to understand—and challenge—the assumptions that lie below the surface of every conversation. This point was driven home to me the sum-mer before I went to college, when I had the opportunity to hang out with my best friend at a baseball park.
He had landed a job in the clubhouse of the Rochester Red Wings, then a
minor-league farm team for the Baltimore Orioles. That meant I got to observe Red Wings manager Earl Weaver, who soon thereafter was promoted to Baltimore, where he enjoyed legendary success, including 15 consecutive winning seasons, four American League championships, and one World Series victory.
Weaver was considered fiery and cantan-kerous, but also a baseball genius. To my 18-year-old eyes, he was nothing short of terrifying—the meanest and most profane man I’d ever met.
Weaver wasn’t really a listener; he seemed more of a screamer in a perpetual state of rage. When a young player made an error, Weaver would take him aside and demand an explanation.
“Why did you throw to second base when the runner was on his way to third?” He’d wait to hear the player’s reasoning for the sole purpose of savagely tearing it apart, usually in the foulest language imaginable and at the top of his lungs.
But now and then, Weaver would be brought up short; he’d hear something in the player’s explanation that made him stop and reconsider.
“I’ve seen that guy take a big wide turn several times but then come back to the bag. I thought maybe if I got the ball to second really fast, we could catch him.” Weaver knew that the move the player described was the wrong one. But as ornery as he was, he apparently could absorb new information that tempo-rarily upended his assumptions. And,
B e r n a r D T . F e r r a r i | l e a D i n g e D g e
“I have developed my own variation on the 80/20 rule as it relates to listening. my guideline is that a conversation partner should be speaking 80 percent of the time, while I speak only 20 percent of the time”
26 July 2012
in doing so, the vociferous Weaver became a listener.
Weaver called his autobiography It’s What You Learn After You Know It All That Counts. That Zen-like philosophy may clash with the Weaver people thought they knew. But the title stuck with me because it perfectly states one of the cor-nerstones of good listening: to get what we need from our conversations, we must be prepared to challenge long-held and cher-ished assumptions.
Many executives struggle as listeners because they never think to relax their assumptions and open themselves to the possibilities that can be drawn from con-versations with others.
As we’ve seen, entering conversations with respect for your discussion partner boosts the odds of productive dialogue. But many executives will have to undergo a deeper mind-set shift—toward an embrace of ambiguity and a quest to uncover “what we both need to get from this interaction so that we can come out smarter.” Too many good executives, even exceptional ones who are highly respectful of their colleagues, inadvertently act as if they know it all, or at least what’s most important, and subsequently remain closed to anything that undermines their beliefs.
Such tendencies are, of course, deeply rooted in human behavior.2 So it takes real effort for executives to become better listeners by forcing themselves to lay bare their assumptions for scrutiny
Bernard Ferrari is an alumnus
of McKinsey’s Los Angeles and
New York offices, where he was a
director; he is currently the chairman
of Ferrari Consultancy. Elements of this article
were adapted from his upcoming book,
Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical
Business Skill of All (Penguin, March 2012)
and to shake up their thinking with an eye to reevaluating what they know, don’t know, and—an important point— can’t know.
Arne Duncan, the US Secretary of Education, is one such listener. He believes that his listening improves when he has strong, tough people around him who will challenge his thinking and question his reasoning. If he’s in a meeting, he makes sure that everyone speaks, and he doesn’t accept silence or complacency from anyone. Arne explained to me that as a leader, he tries to make it clear to his col-leagues that they are not trying to reach a common viewpoint.
The goal is common action, not common
thinking, and he expects the people on his team to stand up to him whenever they dis-agree with his ideas.
Duncan uses a technique I find helpful in certain situations: he will deliberately alter a single fact or assumption to see how that changes his team’s approach to a problem.
This technique can help senior execu-tives of all stripes step back and refresh their thinking. In a planning session, for example, you might ask, “We’re assuming a 10 percent attrition rate in our customer base. What if that rate was 20 percent? How would our strategy change? What if it was 50 percent?” Once it’s understood that the discussion has moved into the realm of the hypothetical, where people can chal-lenge any underlying assumptions without risk, the creative juices really begin to flow.
This technique proved useful during dis-cussions with executives at a company that was planning to ramp up its M&A activity. The company had a lot of cash on hand and no shortage of opportunities to spend it, but its M&A capabilities appeared to have gone rusty (it had not done any deals in quite some time). During a meet-ing with the M&A team and the head of business development, I asked, “Listen, I know this is going to be a little bit shocking to the system, but let’s entertain the idea that your team doesn’t exist. What kind of M&A function would we build for this corporation now? What would be the skills and the strategy?”
The question shook up the team a bit initially. You have to be respectful of the emotions you can trigger with this kind of speculation.
Nonetheless, the experiment started a discussion that ultimately produced notable results. They included the addition of talented new team members who could provide additional skills that the group would need as it went on to complete a set of multibillion-dollar deals over the ensuing year.
Throughout my career, I’ve observed that good listeners tend to make better decisions, based on better-informed judg-ments, than ordinary or poor listeners do—and hence tend to be better leaders.
By showing respect to our conversation partners, remaining quiet so they can speak, and actively opening ourselves up to facts that undermine our beliefs, we can all better cultivate this valuable skill.
—This article is printed with prior permission
from McKinsey Quarterly.
“many executives struggle as listeners because they never think to relax their assumptions and open themselves to the possibilities that can be drawn from conversations with others”
l e a D i n g e D g e | B e r n a r D T . F e r r a r i
“try to accept a person as he/she is" is one of the best advices I ever got. Nobody is perfect, be it peers, friends or parents. But you have to respect the other person as a human being. You should respect his/her knowledge and when as a leader you propose any solution, always let the other person participate in it. One has to under-stand that by respecting the other person, one ensures that you also get the same kind of respect. Respect is something which can only be received if you give the same to the other person. I have always learned to be compassionate towards others and in this process it evolves me as a person because I feel better to be associated with people.
We should always remember that one can only be a successful leader by not only set-ting examples for others to follow but also by helping them participate in the process and be a part of the journey. Once a person gets involved in a process, his/her involve-ment increases tremendously and I have witnessed that team work takes a different shape when everybody is putting in his thoughts and ideas. So I believe that the best advice for me has always been the thought of respecting others and making them par-ticipate in decision making process.
Also another very important thing that I learned when I was working with Apparel Export Promotion Council is that we should keep on trying to find solutions till the problem is solved. This was inculcated in me by my then boss Anurag Mathur. He
ically ensures that I have a team which is self-motivated and can progress on their own. I feel that even if I am not physically in office, my team has the ability to solve any problem that comes their way. The solution may be a temporary one, but they will definitely have a solution to the problem.
As a leader, we should always lead in a way where our subordinates not only learn to grow but also take some values with them which they would be able to share with the next generation. We all at some point or the other hear a lot of advices, but it is for us individuals to work upon them and make them a part of our life in a way which becomes productive to the mankind. —As told to Atanu Kumar Das
would tell me that I should not come to him with problems but approach his cabin only when I have couple of solutions to a par-ticular problem. I think this has helped me immensely in my professional career and I today try and put the same to my subordi-nates. Once a person learns to solve prob-lems, he/she grows as a person and his/her confidence level also increases by leaps and bounds. It not only helps him grow profes-sionally, but also helps the him personally as now he is prepared to take on any prob-lem that might come his way.
As a CIO, we should always try and nur-ture talent, and both the advice which I have mentioned helps me immensely in doing the same. When I follow these advice, it automat-
nanDkishor DhoMneCio, Manipal hospiTals
“Accept a person as he/she is”
The BesT aDViCe i eVer goT
27July 2012
MenTorperTisTh MankoTiaheaD–iT, sheela FoaM (sleepwell)
MenTee
Charu BhargaVaassT. gM–iT, sheela FoaM (sleepwell)
What's your technique of mentoring?mankotia While undertaking new initiatives, I
invite equal participation from my subordinates and ask for their suggestions.
Even if I know the best way, I would rather not reveal it outright. Instead, I would invite ideas from my sub-ordinates and complement their ideas with mine. As a result, they feel a sense of contribution to the project. This results in the colleague/mentee taking ownership of the project. The mentee should proactively own the project and have a sense of belonging to it.
How do you instill that belongingness? It comes by passing on the credit. Even if my mentee/team member didn't fair well, I try and give them the credit to boost their confidence for the next project. When things go wrong, I will not pass on the blame but take it on myself because the employee was deputed by me. These behav-iourial traits build relationships.
I welcome all kinds of communication from my co-workers--personal and official. The mentor should also enhance personal relationship with employees by attending to marriage invitations and offering help dur-ing a medical situation.
Comparing work of two colleagues in the same func-tion is not my way. I only pick the good points. Normally a CIO keeps all the authority to himself. If the manag-ing director (MD) wants any information, it should be routed through the CIO. However I choose to encourage my mentee to personally meet the top management.
The MD thus feels that apart from the CIO there are other competitive people in the organisation.
Which are the top two qualities you like about Mankotia?
BhargaVa Clear Intentions: Clear intention should be a part of your working style. If you are clear from your heart the end results will fall in line. It may take longer to take people into confidence but they will ultimately buy your viewpoint.Positive Attitude: Sometimes when you become negative about a situation, the end results also become negative. He always suggests to keep a positive approach about a situation, otherwise no matter how positive the situation might be, you will make it negative with your attitude.
He is the kind of person who has the habit of pass-ing the credit to his juniors and disowns credit for his achievements. Pertisth has never stopped any of the team members from interacting with the top management.
In fact he encourages them to pay them a visit. He always encourages me to meet Gautam (Rahul Gautam, MD, Sheela Foam) and recommend me to represent IT for meetings with top management, give presentation etc.
What's your strategy to get the best out of your mentee?
mankotia I gain the confidence of my mentee and that to my mind is the key to mentoring. Confidence builds
Honesty and Trust Are Keys to Success
Me & My MenTee
28 July 2012
a rapport and relationship among co-workers and with the CIO. But how do you build confidence? The key lies in giving complete free-dom but at the same time also keeping her rest assured that he will stand by her side in case if situation goes out of control.
Along side, you have to make things interesting because the mentee should feel motivated. Pay hikes, monetary incentives doesn't gain confidence. They are event-based things and have a short-term effect.
The CIO should establish himself not by designation but skillsets, point taken that he might not be good at everything but to be con-ceptually right is an imperative.
More than anything else, honest and trust plays a huge role in mentor-mentee relationship.
Words and action of the mentor should be consistent. A sense of consistency has to be maintained by the mentor in terms of what he/she thinks, says and finally implements. These are the key pillars of building a relationship with the mentee.
How has Mankotia been a catalyst in bringing the best out of you?
BhargaVa I appreciate his readiness to always stand by his col-leagues to infuse confidence. For e.g. I was visiting Australia to roll out out 'Greenplus', Sleepwell's homegrown ERP. Five cities had to be covered. Mankotia personally paid a visit to Australia to make sure the 'ERP Go Live' is smooth and without any hassles. Never before have I handled a project independantly thus I was ner-vous. His visit assured me that he would take care in case of any last minute issues.
In the second instance of implementing the system for our dealer network at 20 locations, the first impression of the distributor was that we are trying to peep into their business. A 20-member team from our side was implementing the solution. To pacify the dealers, Mankotia called them on a daily basis to discuss the details of the roll out. He would also solve the queries from the distributors. This exercise was aimed towards making sure the dealers have no doubts about data security. I learned a lot from that experience.
Which learnings from Mankotia have you passed on to your juniors?
BhargaVa Similar to Mankotia, I have given ample flexibility and freedom to my juniors. In the last five years, I haven't taken up jobs which were regular for me then. They are all being delegated. So if I have confidence that they can do it with the kind of accuracy and output I need, my team is matching expectations.
I have been very flexible, needless to say with the set time lines but how do they meet those deadlines is upon them. I don't interfere with their way of working on a day to day basis.
An atmospehere of flexibility has been created for me by Manko-tia, so I would like to replicate that for my juniors. I have also cre-ated a level of trust in my juniors.
The names of the employees who might have unknowingly com-mitted certain mistakes are restricted between me and them. I would not let them face any problem. I will have my neck on the block if something goes wrong, rather than my team members.
—As told to Abhishek Raval
29July 2012
p e r T i s T h M a n k o T i a & C h a r u B h a r g a V a | M e & M y M e n -
“even if my mentee didn't fair well, I try and give him the credit to
boost his confidence”
“I appreciate mankotia's readiness to always stand by his colleagues to infuse confidence”
DaViD liMopinion
the author Ernest Hemingway once said that there are only three true sports in the world, the rest being merely games; and these sports were motor racing, bullfighting and mountaineering.
Where Everest is concerned, India has not been a slacker, especially when it was one of the first nations to lead a team up to the top. This was in 1965, 12 years after one of it’s own nationals Tenzing Norgay, stoop on top of the world on Everest’s first ascent.
But each year, like a part of a tick-list of driven people, Everest has hundreds of climbers swarming its flanks, almost all of them attempting to scale it from either its standard routes from the south in Nepal or the North, from Tibet. I still applaud anyone who wishes to take on the personal challenge of the peak, as it is still not an easy accomplishment. In it’s purest form, the sport of mountaineering is about freedom of expression. It’s about self-determination, route finding, working as a team, and challenging yourself in a pristine, harsh and remote arena. And yet, climbing Everest has lost most of the elements that make mountaineering what it is. For Everest at least, the aim of the game is summiting, and sometimes at all costs. Ask those this season who were asked to turn around, but did not; and then died on their descent, largely from exhaustion and mistakes made in a hypoxic state.
Veteran mountain guide, Dave Hahn, told me more than a decade ago on my second Everest expedition,
View a Todie For: How Cognitive Biases Cause Disaster on Mt Everest Cognitive biases have led to costly errors for mountaneers. India Inc would do well to pick up lessons from these experiences
aBouT The auThorDavid lim, Founder, everest motivation Team, is a leadership and negotiation coach, best-selling author and two-time mt everest expedition leader. he can be reached at his blog http://theasiannegotiator. wordpress.com, or [email protected]
30 July 2012
31July 2012
D a V i D l i M | o p i n i o n
“There is the sport of mountaineering, and then there is this thing called Everesting”. Dave Hahn should know. He’s climbed Everest an amazing 14 times.
In ‘Everesting’ it seems, more and more people want to get to the top, at the expense of investing in a long, often rewarding apprenticeship of, and love of moun-taineering. Even as recently as 1998, when I led the first Singapore Mount Everest Expedition, our aim was to climb the mountain with more than the minimal expe-rience, clocking up significant time in the mountains prior to tackling the peak. That year, from the standard route from Nepal, 45 people summitted. This spring season on Everest, nearly 400 people have done so. None, in Nepal, died in that spring season in 1998. Ten died during this spring season.
Leaving aside the classic and more recent mountain-eering risks like overcrowding, a key factor is cognitive biases at work. These are tendencies to make mental shortcuts in a decision-making process where normally, you will get it right, most of the times.
The most common ones are: ‘Sunk cost’—the most wannabe Everest climbers have saved up the US$40,000-65,000 to have their once-in-a-lifetime shot, and are loathe to turn back even when wisdom dictates that they do so. More experienced climbers are invested in their sport and lives—and often make the better deci-
in ‘everesting’ it seems, more and more people want to get to the top, at the expense of investing in a long, often rewarding apprenticeship of, and love of mountaineering
ImA
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BY
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sions. Another, which can affect anyone, is ‘confirma-tion bias’.
The well-reported 1996 tragedy happened when two major teams’ expedition leaders looked at the weather reports and chose to interpret the facts to merely con-firm what they wanted to do—go for the summit on a specific date, when that date was just far too close to a change for the worse in the weather. Eight climbers died in this single incident. Three members of the Indo-Tibetan Police Border Police force also died on the north side of the peak in that storm. But their deaths were due largely to an expectation that the weather would not turn
as vicious as it did.Another cognitive bias at work was the ‘anchoring
effect’. One of the principle teams involved in the trag-edy was led by a very successful expedition leader who had previously summitted with his clients three times in previous years on May 10th. His belief that May 10th would still work out that year may have been influenced by the anchoring effect the date had with him—even if the weather reports clearly stated that weather would start to deteriorate slowly from May 8th, until a full blown storm on the 11th. By compartmentalising weather (which does not behave this way), he assumed the 10th was a workable summit day, and he could get his team down before the 11th. In reality, the first part of the storm arrived by the afternoon of the 10th, creat-ing havoc amongst the teams that day. In the business world, what kind of cognitive biases are at work, and how can we spot them? British Petroleum’s collective leadership, for example, may have been lulled into a ‘belief bias’ that things would not be too disastrous in the early stages of the 2010 Gulf oil spill as there had been thousands of drill sites in that area without a single major disaster. Look at some of your own beliefs, and constructs and check if you are being affected by any of these cognitive biases that colour your decision making adversely. For those on Everest, these mistakes truly make the peak one with a view to die for.
DAVID LIM IS A LEADERSHIP AND NEGOTIATION
COACH AND CAN BE FOUND ON HIS BLOG http://
theasiannegotiator.wordpress.com, OR subscribe to his free
e-newsletter at [email protected]
32 July 2012
Make Every Step Count on Your Leadership Journey
Ellis notes that authentic leadership flows from inside out
how DiD American Military leaders in the brutal POW camps of North
Vietnam inspire their followers for six, seven, or eight years to remain committed to the mission, resist a cruel enemy, and return home with honor? What leadership principles engendered such extreme devotion, perseverance, and teamwork?
In this powerful and practical book, Lee Ellis, a former Air Force pilot, candidly talks about his five and a half years of captivity and the fourteen key leadership principles behind this amazing story. As a successful execu-tive coach and corporate consultant, he helps leaders of Fortune 500 com-panies, healthcare executives, small business owners, and entrepreneurs utilize these same pressure-tested principles to increase their personal and organisational success. Rarely can a leadership book—usually stark and cold in tone, written with business school savvy—be called moving, but former Air Force pilot and leadership consultant Ellis culls lessons from his experiences as a POW in the infa-mous Hoa Loa Prison (the “Hanoi Hilton”) in North Vietnam and juxta-poses them with suggested strategies.
Some of the things that Leading with Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton focuses on include:
- Courageous lessons from POW leaders facing torture in the crucible of captivity.
- How successful teams are apply-ing these same lessons and principles.
- How to implement these lessons using the Coaching sessions provided in each chapter.
Two books in one, Ellis shares his recollections from this harrow-ing time, and at the end of each chapter, presents the lessons he’s learned —often extensive, but never trite. Detailed descriptions of the personalities that make and destroy leaders (including fellow POW John McCain), as well as the physical and emotional torture he endured, give the book much added depth and show leadership as a quality of char-acter. Though many of the leadership lessons are interpersonal, dominant among them is the idea of self-reflection. As Ellis writes: “Authentic leaders consistently live in harmony with their values, even when no one is looking. Their walk matches their talk.” Much more than a leadership
text, Ellis offers an inspiring story that will engage readers.
Ellis notes that authentic leadership flows from the inside out. You will be most successful and fulfilled when you clarify who you uniquely are in terms of purpose, passion, and per-sonality, and then lead authentically from that core. He opines, “Critical moments can be catalysts for con-structive change, but I urge you not to wait for a life-and-death situation or another type of crisis before you begin to think about who you are and where you’re going. Take the time now to ensure that your personal and career choices are aligned with your purpose, passion, and personal-ity.” In the book’s Foreword, Senator John McCain states, “In Leading with Honor, Lee draws from the POW experience, including some of his own personal story, to illustrate the crucial impact of leadership on the success of any organisation. He high-lights lessons and principles that can be applied to every leadership situa-tion.” This book is ideal for individual or group study as a personal develop-ment, coaching, or executive training resource.
aBouT The auThorLee ellis is founder and president of Leadership Freedom LLc. he is a leadership consultant and keynote speaker in the areas of teambuilding, executive development, and assessment. early in his career, Lee served as an Air Force fighter pilot flying fifty-three combat missions over North vietnam
“Near-death experiences are no fun, but they do at least cause you to stop and examine your life’s priorities” — lee ellis
shelF liFe
advts.indd 58 3/23/2010 2:32:15 PM
CIO orCFO?
Is It an eIther-or sItuatIon? Can your enterprIse do wIthout a CIo or a CFo?
34 July 2012
C o V e r s t o r y | C I o o r C F o ?
CIos and CFos are two key positions in any organisation. off late there have been speculations that the role of a CIo is diminishing. as organisations move towards outsourcing their information technology needs, there are serious questions asked about the need for a CIo. we, at CIo&Leader, spoke to some of the leading CIos and CFos to find out what they feel about this burning issue.By atanu Kumar das design By shokeen saifi
35July 2012
120+ CONTEMPORARIES FROM INDIA AND
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JOIN INCELEBRATING DIVERSITY
REASON #1
One crucial question that has been doing the rounds for the last couple of years is how relevant will be a CIOs role in the coming years considering that a lot of information technology can now be
outsourced by any enterprise. There are also suggestions that a CFO can very well do the job of a CIO. With changing business needs, the job of a CIO is less of technology deployment and more of business growth in the company. Some analysts have also pointed out that a CIO who has a sound knowledge in finance can also do the job of a CFO. So, the important question is, can any organisation run without a CIO or a CFO? Can a CIO do the job of both the CIO and CFO or can a CFO do the job of both the CFO and a CIO? Here we will try to find the answer to this complex question, and also highlight the other critical changes that are happening in the CIO and CFO domain.
How relevant is a CIO today?Many organisations are outsourcing their IT needs, but does this mean that they can do without a CIO. CIOs and CFOs across different verticals think that with the dominance of IT in everybody's life, the life of a CIO is far from over. Rather his/her job becomes far more criti-cal for the organisation.
According to Rajeev Batra, CIO, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, “If we talk about an organisation outsourc-ing the work of its technology department, then also someone in the company has to take the responsi-bility of owning the job. Someone has to interact with the outsourced company to get the work done in the proper manner.
According to me, CIO's job will never be redundant. I remember reading an article in Gartner five years ago that CIOs will become redundant, but they still exists and their job has become more dynamic then what it was before. A CIO should ensure that that his organisation should be ahead of the technology curve and be cost-effective in whatever project that he/she implements.”
Sathya Kalyanasundaram, Director Finance & Operations, Texas Instruments, feels that technological requirements can now be outsourced in an extremely efficient and cost effective manner. But that doesn't mean that an organisation can run without a CIO.
“I do believe the need for a thought leader such as a CIO is important in organisations that are looking to create long-term sustainable value to their sharehold-ers, employees and the consumers in general. The value that a thought leader in IT can bring from imbibing the culture, strategy and vision of the organisa-
Both the CIo and CFo are equaLLy Important For an enterprIse to aChIeVe the desIgnated goaLs set For an organIsatIon By atanu Kumar das
CIO & CFO:Two Facesof a Coin
C o V e r s t o r y | C I o o r C F o ?
36 July 2012
tion, and helping achieve these objectives by imple-menting effective technological solutions, cannot be measured.”
According to Giri Giridhar, President Finance, Wockhardt Global, “I don't think that the job of the CIO is getting redundant. On the contrary, it is going up. Technology is reshaping the business and operating models and the role of the CIO is up there in enabling the companies to keep up in order to be competitive.”
One of the important thing that comes out of this is the fact that a CIO today needs to upgrade his skill-sets and be aware of finance and business dynamics to ensure that his position in the company is viewed with equal importance like that of a CFO.
On the other hand, a CFO also needs to get close to the CIO and understand technology so that they both can work together and implement the best possible solutions in their organisations.
Upgrading the skill-setsGone are the days when a CIO needs to have only technical skill-sets. Today, a CIO is much better off if he possesses finance background. It not only helps him to understand the business better but also ensures that his interaction with the CFO becomes much more enthralling and understanding.
According to GG Rao, CIO, HCL Infosystems, “Today, a CIO is also the finance guy. I have done my Masters in Technology and then after 10 years of my job, I did MBA from IIM Calcutta where
“It is imperative for a CIO and CFO to work together and bring the best of each other to the company's plate”–Anup Vikal, CFO & CIO, Interglobe
I got to learn a lot of things starting from opera-tional excellence, human resource behaiviour and all this helped me a lot in my job as a CIO. After I did my MBA it helped me understand the busi-ness benefits much better. For example, when I am implementing SAP in HCL, then I realise that I can appreciate it much better than someone who has only technical background.”
He adds, “I also believe that today, business man-agers must have a MBA degree or some finance background. Whenever, there are candidates who come for interview I ensure that I interview those people who have some business background because in the long-run, this is going to help them grow in the company.”
Batra feels that transformation from technologi-cal to business side is crucial for a CIO and some CIOs can do it on the job without getting a finance degree, but have a finance background is definitely an added advantage.
“My transformation as a CIO started around 10 to 12 years ago when I did the first outsourcing job for the company and this project allowed me to understand the business dynamics of the organi-sation. Having a finance background definitely helps because you understand what are pros and cons of doing a particular project in money terms,” said Batra.
This transformation holds true even for the CFOs as they are also making efforts to understand tech-nology and be close associates of the CIO in most of the projects implemented.
37July 2012
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According to Kalyanasundaram, “As the CFO, I believe it is essential to understand the technological and opera-tional expertise that the IT organisation brings to the table. It is equally important for the IT organisation to be aware of the overall strategy of the organisation and how IT can help enable / drive the same. The cost mind-set is important but it is more important for the CFO to create a value mindset within the IT organisation. Driv-ing long-term sustainable value in operations will help
increase operating and financial effectiveness. Thus, technological solutions driven by the IT organisation will drive greatest performance when their expertise is lever-aged with a proper value mindset.”
Rao feels that he is lucky to have a CFO who is actively involved with IT projects because the latter is also responsible for part of the business within the organisa-tion. The CFO also actively participates in all the IT proj-ects that goes around in the organisation.
“I am lucky that I have for a CFO who understands tech-nology thoroughly and reviews every ongoing project. He also doesn't always look for return on investment (RoI) when sanctioning a project as he himself is working as a business head of a particular department. I believe that a CFO today has to be closely associated with technology if the organisation's future is assessed,” added Rao.
Striking the right balanceThe key to success for an organisation is when the CFO and the CIO strikes the right balance and working in tandem to achieve organisational goals. It is imperative that the CIO and CFO understand that at the end of the day, the objective is to achieve the set goals and not step on each others' shoes.
According to J.S. Puri, Former CIO, Fortis and Mentor, Strategic Management Solutions, “It is in the interest of an organisation to strike a fine balance between the roles of the CIO and the CFO. Meanwhile, for a CIO to hold his own, there is a need for him to take up additional respon-sibilities. He should not limit himself to the IT depart-ment and should instead handle additional roles. This would not only increase his stature within the organisa-
tion but also add value to his own profile.
Puri further adds, “A CIO should also grab whatever opportunity he gets to make his pres-ence felt within his organisation. This opportu-nity could be in a meeting with the top management. The CFO should realise the fact that he can’t work
without the sup-port of the CIO and
vice-versa. The two should collaborate if they have to take their company
to the next level of growth.” According to Anup Vikal, CFO and Head IT & Strategy
-- Interglobe Enterprises, “I have been handling both the portfolio of a CIO and a CFO in this organisation for the last two and a half years and one has to have immense knowledge of both the domain to do justice to the positions. I have worked with the organisations where the CIO and CFO are on the governing body because these two are key positions in an organisation. It is imperative for a CIO and CFO to work together and bring the best of each other to the company's plate. Both have to collectively work to enhance the growth of the organisation.”
Both the positions of CIO and CFO are equally impor-tant for an organisation.
The debate of whether CIOs position will be relevant in the future will solely depend of how CIOs strengthen their with skills apart from technology and become lead-ers in their organisations.
“A CIO should ensure that that his firm should be ahead of the technology curve and be cost-effective”–Rajeev Batra, CIO, Sistema Shyam
C o V e r s t o r y | C I o o r C F o ?
38 July 2012
It is imperative for any organisation to have a CFO and a CIO who can complement each other and generate business value that leads to continuous growth in an organisation. Most importantly, a CIO today needs to be
aware of the CFO's priorities so that he can align IT to the business objectives of the organisation. As the role of a CIO becomes more dynamic, his role or involvement in the overall business decisions of the organisation also becomes increasingly challenging. Some of the key things a CFO looks for in a CIO includes his knowledge about not only technology but also the commercial acumen he possesses. A CIO should be a person who can clearly grasp the organisation's overall strategies and align the IT objectives and goals.
According to Anup Vikal, CFO and Head IT & Strategy -- Interglobe Enterprises, “A CIO should always know the future of technology and its impact on the business that he/she handles. Today, a CIO should have the commercial acumen and should be able to perceive what is beneficial for the business. For me it is important that a CIO should understand the customers and the processes of the company and all these qualities are every essential to become a successful CIO.”
To add to this Sathya Kalyanasundaram, Direc-tor Finance & Operations, Texas Instruments, said, “An effective CIO is one who can clearly grasp the
It Is Very Important For a CIo to step Into the CFo's shoes and understand hIs BusIness prIorItIes In order to aChIeVe the goaLs that are set For an organIsatIon
By Atanu Kumar Das
organisation’s overall strategy and align the IT objec-tives and goals to the organisation’s strategy. The CIO should also have the ability to visualise and implement effective IT solutions that drive operating efficiency in all the business units and business sup-port entities.”
“The CIO can do so by building sustainable and successful working relationships with all the leaders to understand their needs and articulate solutions accordingly. In addition, the CIO should be able to nurture and grow a world class IT organisation that is capable of delivering cutting-edge business solu-tions to the company.”
For Giri Giridhar, President Finance, Wockhardt Global, a CIO's role is that of an enabler to the busi-ness. “Such enablement is at two levels - one at a process level where technology helps to increase efficiency and productivity and second at a business level - where work on areas such as for example - data analytics, can help to identify niches for maxi-mising revenue and profitability.”
Knowing what the CFO is thinkingCIOs feels that it is very important to know what a CFO is thinking and how he is planning the growth of the organisation. While it is important for a CIO to know about a CFO, it is equally important for a CFO to understand technology and in turn encourage the CIO to come up with innovative tech-
Things CIOsShould KnowAbout CFOs
By atanu Kumar das
C I o o r C F o ? | C o V e r s t o r y
39July 2012
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KNOWYOUR
“BATNA”
REASON #3
nological solutions that can transform the business within the organisation. According to Rajeev Batra, CIO, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, “The CFO is aligned to the finan-cial aspect of the company and CIO should ensure that he should understand what are the emerging business opportunities in the market. Most of the IT investment strategies are aligned to the CFOs thought process, so it is very important to know what the CFO is thinking and planning for the company.”
Batra adds. “There are couple of very important things which the CIO should ensure when communicating with the CFO. The CIO should be aware of the projects that the CFO has in mind and that can only happen if there is a constant communication between these two heads. The CFO in turn should always ensure that the budgetary requirement is defined properly so that the CIO can plan accordingly. At MTS, I have constructive arguments with my CFO and at the end of the day we take the decision keeping the company's benefit in mind.”
G.G. Rao, CIO, HCL Infosystems feels that it is impor-tant for a CIO to communicate in simple language to the CFO and use less technical terms. The CIO should define the goals of the project carefully and should be able to sell the concept to the CFO. He also makes sure that in sce-narios where bigger budget is required, he approaches the business heads of different verticals and sells the concept first to them and then approaches the CFO along with the business heads.
“When ever I communicate with my CFO, I ensure that I use very simple English without any jargons. A CIO should be clear about how a project will benefit the company and should be able to articulate the same to the CFO. Whenever I need bigger budgets for IT, I approach the business managers and come up propositions where I can clearly showcase how it will impact the business within our organisation. By doing this I am able to sell the concept to the CFO as other departments within the organisation vouch for the change that I plan to imple-ment,” said Rao.
Working together for a common goalThere have been many instances where the CIO doesn't get the desired bud-get he needs to make technological
changes in the organisation. This can either be because the CFO is not convinced about the project and he doesn't have enough IT budget in that organisation.
We are all aware that if IT is implemented in a inno-vative manner it can cut down cost dramatically in an organisation.
There is hardly any doubt that if the CIO and CFO work hand in hand to ensure productivity of the organi-sation, sky is the limit for them. Let us see some of the instances where the CFO and CIO have worked together to align technology with the business dynamics of the organisation.
Kalyanasundaram says that there are many collabora-tions with the CIO that he is personally proud of in Texas Instruments. “Over the last two to three years, the IT team has worked very closely with the larger finance and operations (F&O) team to rationalise and improve the efficiency of the external collaboration that Texas Instru-ments shares with its consulting partners. The external development / design centers (EDC) model has evolved into a structured process where the intended consulting partner works with the businesses and the entire F&O organisation to chart a roadmap and determine invest-ments in the collaboration model from both Texas Instru-ments and the EDC partner,” said Kalyanasundaram.
Secondly, the IT organisation at Texas Instruments has done an excellent job of keeping their operating cost flat to lower over a three-year period. This has been achieved by a three-step process:
a) A detailed analysis of the operating costs and the key contributors to the same.
b) Identification of opportunities to leverage savings in procurement across multiple layers such as storage, data centers, compute capacity, equipment, etc.
“A CIO's role is that of an enabler to the business at both the process level as well as business level”–Giri Giridhar, CFO, Wockhardt
C o V e r s t o r y | C I o o r C F o ?
40 July 2012
c) Driving a cost and forecasting discipline in determining what the operat-ing costs (over the various layers mentioned above) will be at over a period of one to three years, and work proactively with the businesses to help determine their needs to realise the best value for the proposed investments.
According to Giridhar, “Currently, in Wockhardt, I and the CIO are working on developing an integrated business planning process, which should help to re-look at the way we budget - by bringing in significant granularity and driver based development. We are expecting this work to help in far more sharper bud-geting in the organisation.”
“Recently, at MTS we incorporated the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for the organisa-tion and the CFO was fully involved in this exercise. We both have worked closely on this project and we have also deployed SAP for which we won the SAP ACE award and it was done in record time. The implementation has helped the company's produc-tivity immensely and this was a result of collabora-tion between the CFO and the CIO,” added Batra.
How important it is for a CFO to know about technology?For a CIO, one of the best things that can happen is to work in an organisation where the CFO knows and has a keen interest in understanding technology. According to Kalyanasundaram, “A CFO can be successful only if he/she can understand technol-ogy. In my conversations with my IT Director, I rely heavily on the expertise that the IT Director brings to the table. At Texas Instruments, we view IT as an enabler and driver of growth similar to the role of the larger F&O and that is the reason we invest heav-ily on IT deployments and I am involved with each and every decision that is taken.”
Agrees Vikal, “It is very important for a CFO to understand technology. I have been doing the role
of a CIO and CFO at Interglobe for the last two and a half years, and I am able to do this because of my knowledge on finance and technology. I believe that a CIO always wants a CFO to be open to new techno-logical changes and that can only happen if the CFO is willing to learn and administer innovative change within the organisation.”
In the last couple of years the role of the CIO as well as the CFO has changed dramatically. Whereas the CIO is perceived to be a person who will look beyond technology, a CFO is now looked upon a per-son who is a business partner in the organisation. He has to not only look at finance, but also make strategic technological changes that would help the organisation step ahead of the competition.
According to Vikal, “Today a CFO is the business partner apart from managing the finance of the company and in three to four years down the line, I believe a CFO's role is going to be of a value creator in the organisation. If we talk about the CIO, he is perceived to be an individual who is responsible for saving costs of the organisation.”
“Today, a CIO is looked at as a transformation guy and five years down the line a CIO should be an individual who will have an edge on customer ser-vice delivery.”
One thing that comes out clearly is that without proper communication and understanding, a CIO will not be able to achieve the desired result. A CIO's relationship with the CFO is key to the company's success and this in turn will ensure how effectively they administer technological deployments in the organisation.
“A CFO can be successful in the long run only if he/she can understand technology”–S. Kalyanasundaram, CFO, Texas Instruments
41July 2012
BE THE DRUMMER YOU
ASPIRED TO BE IN…
RHYTHM WITH
DRUMBERRIES!
REASON #4
The CFO is increasingly becoming a top technology investment decision maker — if not the leading decision maker — in many organisations,according to a joint study by Gartner, Inc, and
Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), the research affiliate of Financial Executives International (FEI). The study shows that the CFO's role in technology decision making has increased in the last year with 44 percent of CFOs stating that their influence over IT investment has increased since 2010, while 47 percent say that it has remained the same and just nine percent of those surveyed believe that their influence has decreased.
The survey of CFOs, which is in its fourth year, is designed to gather perceptions from financial executives
about the economic environment, the CFO's role in technology and their IT investment priorities. The sur-vey was conducted between October 2011 and February 2012, and it included 255 CFO respondents.
“The CFO and CIO are well-positioned to work together at generating business value from enterprise IT investments. However, this performance is often not achieved because of poor perceptions of IT, a parochial CFO or CIO perspective, or simply a failure to invest in the CFO-CIO relationship,” said John Van Decker, research vice president at Gartner. “This year’s results show that, in most organisations, the CFO and CIO work together to finance IT and provide information that supports enterprise processes. But there is also an opportunity for them to form a powerful alliance that generates more value for the enterprise.”
CFo and CIo worK together to FInanCe It and proVIde InFormatIon that supports enterprIse proCesses
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The survey results showed that there are
many ways that CFOs are involved in mak-
ing IT investment decisions. Forty one percent said that they were the actual lead-er of a group responsible for IT invest-ment, whereas another 41 percent were part of a group responsible for
IT decision mak-ing, 16 percent
provide advice and one percent said
they were the sole decision maker. Since
the large majority was involved in group decision
making about IT, engaging the CFO is clearly a critical issue.
“CFOs need to explain to CIOs the IT capabilities needed by the finance func-
tion,” said Bill Sinnett, director of research at FERF. “There is an opportunity for them to form a powerful alliance that generates more value for the enterprise. The CFO and CIO are well-positioned to work together at generating superior performance from enterprise IT investments. However, this performance is often not achieved because of poor perceptions of IT, a paro-chial CFO or CIO perspective, or simply a failure to invest in the CFO-CIO relationship.”
One reason CFOs are impor-tant stakeholders is that they control IT funding. Although CFOs don't strictly decide who receives the money, they are powerful influencers and strict enforcers of policies and decisions. CFOs often have greater access to, and involvement with, senior business governance groups, and usually have strong influ-ence and credibility with the CEO and board.
IT spending is currently very healthy from the responses in the study, and if there is a business improvement that can be made from increasing investments in IT spending, many CFOs will con-
sider approval. From an IT operating expense per-spective, 39 percent of CFOs see a similar expense budget for IT in 2012 from 2010, while 44 percent forecast an increase. For IT capital appropriations, 32 percent foresee status quo on spending, while 48 percent are expecting an increase. When asked how companies view spending in 2013 versus 2012, 51 percent see the same IT operating expense levels, and 41 percent forecast similar IT capital spending while 44 percent see an increase in capital spend-ing in 2013 over 2012.
When it comes to areas that CFOs would like to invest in, the study showed that business intel-ligence, analytics and performance management are at the top of the list. CFOs clearly recognise the need for improved technology support for these key business processes and identified the top business process area that needs technology investment as the ability to facilitate analysis and decision making (57 percent) closely followed by collaboration and knowledge management (52 percent).
In addition, the analysts identified four major technology trends that are on the CFO's radar and will drive technology planning, investment and usage in 2012 and beyond. These are the nexus of social, mobile, cloud and information. Enterprise organisations are being challenged to adapt as these technologies, and the data that result from their adoption and deployment internally to the enterprise and externally with customers, expands exponentially. With the exception of social media, which scored low in terms of technology initia-tives, mobile, cloud (including software as a service
[SaaS]) and information are priorities with CFOs.
“While CFOs certainly appre-ciate reduced cost through the more efficient delivery of IT, organisations need to under-stand that CFOs want technol-ogy investment that they can see business value from in the form of improved business processes. Therefore, their pri-orities are largely focused on
analytics and business applications,” said Sinnett.“CFOs are beginning to look at technologies
that can span BI and applications and deliver applications through mobile access and via SaaS,” said Van Decker. “While these nexus capabilities are a concern more in 2013, IT organisations must communicate how more effective business plat-forms can be leveraged to deliver better architec-tures for business applications that are top of mind to the CFO.”
4.5%Will be the increase in spending in enterprise application software in
the year 2012
C I o o r C F o ? | C o V e r s t o r y
43July 2012
STRATEGY AND TECHNOLOGY
COME TOGETHER TO ENHANCE
YOUR LEARNING CURVE...
MEETPROF. JEFF SAMPLER
REASON #5
44 July 2012
Best ofBreed
Remembering Nikola Tesla Pg 46
Why IT Stakeholder Management Fails Pg 48
Securing Mobile Devices Pg 49
FeaTuReS INSIDe
China to be on Par With US as Tech Leader
Silicon Valley’s position as technology innovation centre may face challenge
Asked to predict future disruptive technologies and the next epicenter for innova-tion, technology executives worldwide believe that China and the US will be at the forefront, with cloud enabling both the next indispensable consumer technology and business transformation for enterprises. Mobile technologies will continue to build on cloud, providing the tech breakthrough that will transform businesses, according
to the Global Technology Innovation survey by KPMG LLP (US), the audit, tax and advisory firm.
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45July 2012
Almost 30 percent of the 668 business executives in the Americas, Asia Pacific (ASPAC), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) said China and the US show the most promise for disruptive break-throughs with global impacts, while 13 percent cited India. Interestingly, only 39 percent of US respon-dents selected the US as most promising, while 71 percent in China selected China. In the March - May 2012 survey of 668 business executives globally whose organizations were focused on the technology space, thirty-four percent of the respondents were in the Americas, 42 percent in Asia Pacific, and 23 percent in Europe, Middle East and Africa. In regards to countries, 25 percent were from the United States, 14 percent from China and nine percent from Israel.
Interestingly in the last decade, India has made substantial and rapid strides on the path of inno-vation-based development and already managed to adapt and implement a number of measures to support this development. The government has invested significantly in technology. Communication technology like 3G has already made a mark in India and with the introduction of the 4G; technology will no longer play a support role in most businesses, it will become key enabler and business models will be driven by the technology. Cloud has also been leveraged and several e-Governance initiatives have been launched. While the Government is one of the primary pillars to drive innovation and cutting-edge technology, involvement of the private sector is also equally important for swift and effective enablement.
To identify disruptive technologies and the scope of change two to four years out, KPMG surveyed executives from techno-logy industry startups, mid-sized to large enterprises, venture capital firms and angel investors.
“The pace of technology innovations today is happening at unparalleled speed and China’s pro-jected rapid rise to prominence as a technology leader would be another example of this,” said Gary Matuszak, partner, global chair and US leader for KPMG’s Technology, Media and Telecommunica-tions practice. “China’s anticipated parity with the US tech sector shows the significant challenge fac-ing the US to retain its position as an innovation leader. Other countries will continue taking steps to boost technology innovation and to attract tech entrepreneurs.”
“These survey findings also demonstrate that Chi-na’s innovation investment has fostered an environ-ment for the development of disruptive technologies that is growing by leaps and bounds. The Chinese Government is encouraging significant investment in three key areas – (1) shared services and outsourc-
TRAIN THE TRAINER
SESSIONS TO GROOM THE TEACHER IN
YOU…
BECOME THE
“GUEST FACULTY”
REASON #6ing, (2) payments and cloud computing. The 12th Five-Year Plan is also driving innovation in these critical areas, in order to create a nationwide virtual environment,” said Egidio Zarrella, a partner with KPMG in China.
Asked what technology will have a major impact by 2015, 30 percent of the survey respondents globally said cloud software as a service (SaaS) will enable the next indispensable consumer technology. In regard to driving business transformation, 22 percent said cloud infrastructure as a service, followed closely by SaaS, will have the greatest impact. In the US, SaaS was the top selection in consumer and enterprise technologies.
“It is clear that technology leaders in countries where technology innovation is thriving believe that the Cloud represents a technology tidal shift. They are placing a huge bet on Cloud, as it has multiple capabilities and benefits for providers and users
such as generating revenue, improving operational efficiency, reducing costs and time to market, and enabling other disruptive technologies such as mobile and social applications,” said Matuszak. “The significant Cloud investment that is under way is likely to spur technologies that drive breakthroughs in business transformation.”
Mobile technologies also are seen as a significant beneficiary of Cloud, as almost 30 percent of global respondents expect that the next tech breakthrough in four years resulting in the greatest business trans-formation will come from smartphones, tablets and other mobile technologies.
Potential challenge to Silicon Valley’s position as tech innovation centerForty-four percent of global respondents said it was likely that what many consider the technology inno-vation center of the world would shift from Silicon Valley to another country in the next four years, while 23 percent of those surveyed said it is unlikely and 34 percent were undecided. Not surprisingly,
Interestingly in the last decade, India has made substantial and rapid strides on the path of innovation-based development
s u r v e y | B e s t o f B r e e d
46 July 2012
only 28 percent of the US respondents think the shift is likely, while more than half in ASPAC, and more than 40 percent in EMEA see the move as likely. Of those globally who believe the center will shift, most (44 per-cent) said it would move to China.
Apple viewed as top innovatorIn considering innovation drivers, visionar-ies and leaders, more business executives globally identified Apple, now led by Tim Cook, and former CEO Steve Jobs as tops in these three areas. As the top company driving disruptive innovation, Apple was followed by Google and Microsoft, accord-ing to the survey. Respondents also viewed Jobs as the top global innovation visionary, followed by Bill Gates. In China specifically, executives said Gates was the top visionary and Jack Ma the innovation leader. In India, Infosys was identified as the innovation leader, and in Israel, it was IBM.
At the same time, about one-third globally pointed to Google, Facebook and Amazon as emerging leaders in mobile commerce.
Innovation development, challenges, barriersThe survey uncovered differences in who or what function is responsible for driving innovation in companies. About three in 10 globally said the CEO has the responsibility to drive innovation in their company, while 20 percent, including half the respondents in China, said the Chief Innovation Officer. Fif-teen percent each cited the Chief Information Officer and research and development. Some 38 percent said that innovation is most often spotted and nurtured in the research and development department, followed by IT and strategic planning, while the majority of those surveyed use revenue growth as the metric to measure innovation value.
Asked whether their education system serves as an incubator for innovator think-ers, slightly more than half believed this was true. In China, close to 75 percent thought
this was true, while in the US, less than half thought so.
In regard to adopting future technolo-gies, cost/pricing models was pointed to by
survey respondents as the top challenge to adopting the next indispensable consumer tech-nologies, while security/privacy governance is the number one challenge to adopting future business transforming technol-ogies and also is the top barrier to commercialising disruptive innovation.
“The fact that security/privacy governance is a challenge is not news, yet it’s an ongoing reminder of their importance
as the business models continue to evolve,” said Matuszak. “The companies that devel-op a way to balance data-driven innovation with the appropriate transparency, privacy and information security frameworks to satisfy customers and regulators will have a competitive edge.”
It therefore seems especially fitting to mark Tesla's birthday by taking a few min-utes to reflect on his life and accomplish-ments. His life and experience hold lessons for all aspiring technologists who, just like Tesla, are eager to bring the benefits of tech-nology to a large community of people.
Lesson No. 1: BelieveThroughout his career, Tesla challenged established scientific wisdom and, because of his creative and independent thinking, was able to create technologies that others
Remembering Nikola TeslaTesla’s life and experience hold lessons for all aspiring technologists By Marc J. Schiller
Nikola Tesla was born 156 years ago on July 10.
It’s not a stretch to say that Tesla was (and maybe still is) the great-est electrical engineer the world
has ever known. Tesla’s contributions to the world of technology are vast, including the Tesla coil, modern radio, the induction motor, and most famously the alternating current (AC) electrical supply system that powers the world.
Tesla spent much of his life suffering for his brilliance and fighting for recognition.
thought impossible. Only Tesla had the grit to challenge the most famous inven-tor of his time, Thomas Edison, arguing for the use of his AC electricity delivery system in place of the DC system champi-oned by Edison. Only Tesla had the vision and inventiveness to harness Niagara Falls into powering a city. Even when Tesla’s financiers doubted him, he stuck to his guns and ended up proving everyone wrong.Remember Tesla when you’re being told that it can’t be done when you know it can.
19%will Be the growth of
cloud computiNg iN 2012 aNd will reach a figure of $109 BillioN
B e s t o f B r e e d | p e r s o N a l i t y
47July 2012
Lesson No. 2: QuitWhen Tesla first went to work for Edison as a new immigrant to the United States, Edison promised him $50,000 if he could improve the running of his direct current electrical plants. When Tesla suc-ceeded, Edison laughed and said that Tesla didn’t understand American humor, offering him a meager salary bump instead. Tesla promptly quit. His inven-tions for his own company and for other industry giants such as Westinghouse cost Edison a fortune in time and money. In fact, shortly before his death, Edison admitted that his greatest mistake in life was not adopting Tesla’s AC system earlier.
Remember Tesla when you are truly not being valued for your contributions, or when promises by stakeholders or clients are not being kept. Quitting a job can be very scary, but there are times when you’ve got to do it.
Lesson No. 3: Find the Critical Path Edison famously declared that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration; Tesla disagreed. Upon Edison’s death, Tesla was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “His method was inefficient in the extreme...just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 percent of the labor.” Tesla believed that a method of invention that involved careful planning and application of knowledge to problems before implementation was superior to Edison’s trial- and-error approach. Remember Tesla when you are being urged to development before the critical path is clear to you. Remember Tesla when trial and error is being held up as the great savior of slow technology implementation.
Lesson No. 4: Don’t Be Nikola TeslaAs much as I admire Tesla’s brilliance, courage, and accomplishments, it seems to me that his greatest lesson for the 21st century IT professional is the quiet warning his life offers when viewed as a whole and not just in the confines of his work. To be sure, Nikola Tesla is one of the most important inventors in history, his funeral was attended by heads of state -- he even has an automotive company and a planet named after him. But he also died in poverty, alone and living in a hotel, the victim of his poor career decisions.
Tesla famously tore up his contract with Westinghouse for the generous royalties he was owed on the Niagara Falls Power Project mentioned above, all because he was gratified that Westing-house believed in his idea when no one
else did and he wanted the budget-stricken project to succeed. Disputes with J.P. Morgan brought an end to his near open-ended financing from the banker who, like all stakeholders, needed proper management and attention. He never married or had children, believing a personal life would distract him from his calling as an inventor. He had a history of losing patents for his inventions, including losing the patent for the invention of radio to Marconi. And Edison and Marconi often get more credit for Tesla’s discoveries.
The takeaway?We’d all like to be as technically brilliant as Tesla, but that brilliance is no substitute for the business and social acumen you need to achieve the peace of mind, influence, and financial security that many of us would consider the most important result of all this hard work. Without the requisite resources
and influence, Tesla was unable to bring many of his greatest inventions to the world. What a shame to be stymied not by scientific impossibility but by busi-ness and social blundering. So, as we take note of the incredible genius and life of Nikola Tesla, take a moment to think about how you can be more like him—but not too much. —This opinion was first published in CIO
Insight. For more such stories please visit
www.cioinsight.com.
Tesla never married, believing a personal life would distract him from being an inventor
Ima
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A ROLE MODEL & EXEMPLARY LEADER, DR.
SANTPURT MISRA WILL
HELP YOU TO…
“UNDER-STAND
YOURSELF”
REASON #7p e r s o N a l i t y | B e s t o f B r e e d
48 July 2012
Why IT Stakeholder Management FailsThree conflicting mindsets are quietly sabotaging your stakeholder management activities By Marc J. Schiller
fact: You know how critical stakehold-er management is to your personal career success and to the overall suc-cess of your IT group.utes to reflect on his life and accomplishments.
His life and experience hold lessons for all aspiring technologists who, just like Tesla, are eager to bring the benefits of technology to a large community of people.fact: You spend a great deal of time coach-ing and reminding your people about the importance of stakeholder management.fact: You go home at night frustrated by the absence of critical stakeholder management activities that have cost you your reputation, your time and your political capital with your peers.
Where’s the problem?Ask around and the answers you typically
hear fall into one (or more) of the following categories:• Blame the staff: Stakeholder management
is mostly about communications and you know how it is with IT professionals, they’re just not good communicators.
• Blametheboss: IT leaders may be saying what to do but they aren’t really teaching their people how to do it. Besides, most of them are pretty bad communicators them-selves, so how are they supposed to teach their people?
• Blamethestakeholders: They think they know it all. They hate IT and never listen anyway. So it doesn’t really matter what IT does.
IT Stakeholder Management Fail: Conflicting MindsetsIt’s convenient to blame one or more of
the parties to the problem, but this doesn’t yield much progress. So, for today I’d like to suggest a different approach. Instead of blaming people, I’ll point out three funda-mentally conflicting mindsets (between IT and stakeholders) that are quietly sabotag-ing your stakeholder management activities. And, since each mindset is totally justified in its own right, it’s no surprise that stake-holder management is in such a sorry state. Of course once these mindset differentials are recognised, they can be addressed and overcome. More on that in a later column.
Mindset Conflict No. 1: IT wants to be “understood” (and appreciated).
Stakeholders couldn’t care less.In my line of work, I get to help IT execs at all levels prepare stakeholder management presentations. Without fail, the No. 1 most common approach used by IT managers (even experienced ones) is to explain to stakeholders what’s going on in hopes of educating them about the challenges of the project so that they understand.
To achieve this understanding, they provide great amounts of detailed information so their stakeholders can see for themselves what’s going on. For the vast majority of IT profes-sionals, the key goal of stakeholder manage-ment activities is to get stakeholders to see the complexity and appreciate the difficulty
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stakeholders couldn’t care less about “the process,” all they want to hear you say is that you will take responsibility for the results. But how can you? So many of the issues are out of your hands.
Mindset Conflict #3: When IT thinks a project is nearly finished, stakeholders are just getting startedYou made it through the project. Along the way you somehow managed to keep
stakeholders informed, aware, and engaged. The system goes live. No crashes. You breathe a sigh of relief. And then, as if out of nowhere, the complaints come streaming in.• “Thisisn’twhatweexpectedatall.”• “Howarewesupposedtoworkinthissystem,it’s
nothing like what we are used to.”• “Wehaveamajorproblemhere.”
“What???” you say. “But you and your team signed off on the designs months ago. Your people all went to training. Your people all signed off on the user acceptance test.” (I’ll spare you the rest of the con-versation. You’ve had it 100x already.) —This article is printed with prior permission from www.
infosecisland.com. For more features and opinions on
information security and risk management, please refer to
Infosec Island.
of what they are doing. In other words, to give stakeholders knowledge so they can appreciate how hard IT is work-ing. As a fundamental approach, this is flawed. That’s because your stakehold-ers are not in a learning mindset. They have little interest in learning about your problems. Their mindset is simply this: Why are you here? Is there a prob-lem? Do I really need to care? When’s it going to be fixed? Will it cost me time or money? Your stakeholders don’t have the time or ability to comprehend the complexity of what you want to tell them, let alone appreciate it. All they hear is that you are trying to make them under-stand something by burying them in details.
Mindset Conflict No. 2: IT thinks process. Stakeholders think results.Let’s say you’re the IT executive charged with managing a complex multi-vendor, multi-platform e-commerce project that is supposed to enable major revenue growth by driving an increase in direct-to-consumer sales of your company’s products. You spare your stakeholders the technical details yet all you hear is “I don’t care about what you have to do, just make it happen.”
All you can do as the IT guy (or gal) is take respon-sibility for managing the process correctly. Your
18%will Be the growth of BroadBaNd market iN iNdia iN the year 2012
[SP800-53]. Specific recommendations for securing mobile devices are presented in this publication and are intended to supplement the controls specified in SP 800-53.
This publication provides recommendations for securing particular types of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets. Laptops are specifically excluded from the scope of this publication because the security controls available for laptops today are quite different than those available for smart phones,
Securing Mobile DevicesMobile devices have to be secured against a variety of threats
mobile devices typically need to support multiple security objectives: confidential-ity, integrity, and availability.
To achieve these objectives, mobile devices should be secured against a vari-
ety of threats.General security recommendations for any IT
technology are provided in NIST Special Publica-tion (SP) 800-53, Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organisations
LEARN WITH HARVEY KOEPPEL ABOUT…
THEROLE OFTHE CIO
REASON #8m o B i l i t y | B e s t o f B r e e d
50 July 2012
tablets, and other mobile device types.Mobile devices with minimal comput-
ing capability, such as basic cell phones, are also out of scope because of the limited security options available and the limited threats they face. Centralised mobile device management technologies are a growing solution for controlling the use of both organisation-issued and personally-owned mobile devices by enterprise users.
In addition to managing the configuration and security of mobile devices, these tech-nologies offer other features, such as provid-ing secure access to enterprise computing resources. There are two basic approaches to centralized mobile device management: use a messaging server’s management capa-bilities (sometimes from the same vendor that makes a particular brand of phone), or use a product from a third party, which is designed to manage one or more brands of phone.
It is outside the scope of this article to provide any recommendations for one approach over the other; both approaches can provide the necessary centralised man-agement functionality.
Organisations should implement the fol-lowing guidelines to improve the security of their mobile devices:
Organisations should develop system threat models for mobile devices and the resources that are accessed through the mobile devicesMobile devices often need additional protection because their nature generally places them at higher exposure to threats than other client devices (for example, desk-top and laptop devices only used within the organisation’s facilities and on the organi-sation’s networks). Before designing and deploying mobile device solutions, organisa-tions should develop system threat models.
Threat modeling involves identifying resources of interest and the feasible threats, vulnerabilities, and security controls related to these resources, then quantifying the likelihood of successful attacks and their impacts, and finally analysing this informa-tion to determine where security controls need to be improved or added.
Threat modeling helps organisations to identify security requirements and to design the mobile device solution to incor-porate the controls needed to meet the secu-rity requirements.
Organisations deploying mobile devices should consider the merits of each provided security serviceMost organisations do not need all of the possible security services provided by mobile device solutions. Categories of ser-vices to be considered include the following:• Generalpolicy:enforcing enterprise secu-
rity policies on the mobile device, such as restricting access to hardware and soft-ware, managing wireless network inter-faces, and automatically monitoring and reporting when policy violations occur.
• Datacommunicationandstorage: sup-porting strongly encrypted data commu-nications and data storage, and remotely wiping the device if it is lost or stolen and is at risk of having its data recovered by an untrusted party.
• Useranddeviceauthentication: requiring authentication before accessing organisa-tion resources, resetting forgotten pass-words remotely, automatically locking idle devices, and remotely locking devices suspected of being left unlocked in an unsecured location.
• Applications: restricting which applica-tions may be installed (through whitelist-ing or blacklisting), installing and updat-ing applications, restricting the use of synchronisation services, digitally signing applications, distributing the organiza-tion’s applications from a dedicated mobile application store, and limiting or preventing access to the enterprise based on the mobile device’s operating system version or mobile device management software client version.
Organisations should have a mobile device security policy.A mobile device security policy should define which types of mobile devices are permit-ted to access the organization’s resources, the degree of access that various classes of mobile devices may have—for example, orga-nization-issued devices versus personally-owned (bring your own device) devices—and how provisioning should be handled.
Mobile device management technologies are solutions for controlling the use of both firm-issued and personally-owned mobile devices by enterprise users
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It should also cover how the organiza-tion's centralised mobile device manage-ment servers are administered and how policies in those servers are updated. The mobile device security policy should be documented in the system security plan.
Organisations should implement and test a prototype of their mobile device solution before putting the solution into productionAspects of the solution that should be evaluated for each type of mobile device include connectivity, protection, authentication, application functionality, solution management, logging, and performance. Another important consideration is the security of the mobile device implementation itself; at a minimum, all components should be updated with the latest patches and configured following sound security practices. Also, use of jailbroken or rooted phones should be automatically detected when
feasible. Finally, implementers should ensure that the mobile device solution does not unexpectedly “fall back” to default settings for interoperability or other reasons.
Organisations should fully secure each organisation-issued mobile device before allowing a user to access itThis ensures a basic level of trust in the device before it is exposed to threats.
For any already-deployed organisation-issued mobile device with an unknown security profile (e.g., unman-aged device), organisations should recover them, restore them to a known good state, and fully secure them before returning them to their users.
—This article is printed with prior permission from www.
infosecisland.com. For more features and opinions on
information security and risk management, please refer to
Infosec Island.
80%of the smartphoNe market gloBally is
domiNated By aNdroid aNd apple devices
Navigating the Minefieldunderstanding mobility can transform a minefield into a cake walk By Patrick Oliver Graf
every IT purchase decision compels an organisation to confront the diverse, often conflicting, needs of the various departments and
functions within it.When it comes to mobile and
remote technologies, this becomes even more complex as seem-ingly conflicting ideas — often anchored in control versus access — demand consideration.
With over 70 percent of compa-nies planning on hiring remote independent contractors in 2012, making purchasing decisions around this have become an inevi- Im
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table reality of today’s workplace.At the heart of such matters, is the seem-
ingly inescapable tug-of-war between finan-cial and technical considerations, complicat-ed by end-user demands and departmental politics. But does it have to be this way? Let’s play the old game of putting ourselves in the other’s shoes to under-stand, fully, what the trade-offs are for both sides and why there’s no right or wrong way to weigh these.
First, let’s start with the scenario of pur-chasing remote access technology for your company, looking first from the perspective of IT administrators, who typically want an easy-to-deploy, manageable solution — even if that means spending slightly more.
Why? With a remote access solution that requires a labor-intensive rollout, each device on the company network will probably need to be installed with proper software. This means it’s not just the cost of the solution that needs to be considered, but how much time and money will be spent on documentation. Keep in mind that in BYOD cultures, the rollout means that IT needs to first work with HR to develop a protocol for which personal devices can and cannot be used for work. Then, IT needs to set up time with each individual employee within every department, usually coordinated with department executives and HR, to both install the software and train employees on how to use it. And in many cases through-out this process, the IT administrators know they are arming colleagues with a double-edged sword, simultaneously giving them the power to work remotely and to compro-mise the security of the company through misuse.
Today nearly every proactive solution brought forth by IT gives other employees new ways to screw up. In fact, a recent Gart-ner report predicts that in a few years IT departments will not be able to keep up with the dif-ferent ways in which employees can compromise data security.
From finance’s perspective, costs go far beyond the upfront price of the solution. The actual cost of a device is not just the sticker price, but also employee training and documentation costs, to name a few. To rem-
edy this, finance might consider imposing limitations on the number of employees who can participate in remote access or mobile working. Then there’s the inevitable end-user consideration. When traveling or accessing the server from home, the last thing employees want to worry about is a complex sign-in and security process with their VPN. However complexity is often a primary safeguard for network security.
This dichotomy leads to two unfortunate results. The first is an increase in help-desk calls, frustrated employees inquiring how to use the service designed to make their lives easier. The second and more dangerous from a security perspective is the tendency for employees to turn to workarounds. Instead of taking the time to learn the new system, they might turn to free consumer-based remote desktop or file-sharing solu-tions, exposing the network to a plethora of potential vulnerabilities.
Security executives are going to attempt to implement restrictions right through the software itself. Internally, other IT colleagues will also look for workarounds in order to minimise the amount of time they need to spend on helpdesk calls and configuration. And, again in a vicious circle, there are the end-users themselves- employees from all other departments who will raise concerns
that remote dial-ins are too slow or complex, or that the solution is not flexible enough to meet their particular job needs.
Finally, there is the always looming issue of intra-office politics. Like other IT tools, most remote access solutions come with a certain number of centrally administered functions that allow IT to set protocols and permissions for
individual employees or departments. For example, sales teams are privy to
access the server remotely under some circumstances, whereas marketing is privy under a different set of circumstances. The difficult part about this is, it quickly becomes known throughout the office that IT is acting as a gatekeeper, barring some employees from certain information while allowing others greater access.
A sales representative might ask to be granted full remote access even before the solution is fully up and running in order to close a deal. Customer service might ques-tion why other departments are allowed to work remotely before they are.
In all organisations, there is a constant struggle between satisfying the technologi-cal needs of workers, while also maintaining an adherence to compliance and security. Remote access represents the next major iteration of this battle.
When selecting new solutions to help the office run more efficiently, the decision and deployment process should take into consideration these particular pain points. In today’s office, IT is not a medical kit or a gatekeeper. Instead, IT is a facilitator of the best working experience possible, which now includes whether or not the employee, or entire department, even needs an office at all. The end-user isn’t just a pas-sive recipient of technology and financial considerations exceed initial cost points. But this complexity also means there’s far more overlap between the pain points – and how to solve them – across an organisation. Sometimes it’s this understanding that can transform a minefield into a cake walk. —This article is printed with prior permission from
www.infosecisland.com. For more features and
opinions on information security and risk manage-
ment, please refer to Infosec Island.
When traveling or accessing the server from home, the last thing employees want to worry about is a complex sign-in and security process with their VPN
81 mngoogle aNdroid phoNes were sold iN q1 of 2012 with market share of
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Five ‘No Regret’ MovesWays to handle customer engagement in a better way By Tom French, Laura LaBerge, and Paul Magill
No organisation can avoid coming to grips with the rapidly evolving behavior of consumers and business customers. They check prices at a keystroke and are increasingly selective about which brands
share their lives. They form impressions from every encounter and post withering online reviews. These changes present significant organisational challenges, as well as opportunities. The biggest is that all of us have become marketers: the critical moments of interaction, or touch points, between companies and customers are increasingly spread across different parts of the organisa-tion, so customer engagement is now everyone’s responsibility.
In many companies, the marketing function is best placed to orchestrate customer engagement for the entire organisation. To do so, the function must be pervasive—able to influence touch points it doesn’t directly control. Over the past year, we’ve seen a wide range of companies try to address cus-tomer engagement in more integrated ways, but many executives have told us they simply don’t know where to begin. The spectrum of organisational choices is broader than ever, and companies are struggling to determine the appropriate role of marketing for their business.
What’s more, senior executives often view any internal effort by the marketing function as a “land grab.” Given the absence of solid return-on-invest-
ment data they may express skepticism about mar-keting’s place in the new environment.
Although these challenges are difficult to over-come, companies need not be frozen in place while they wait for a complete picture of the answer to emerge. The five “no regrets” moves described below help senior executives to move beyond their func-tion-by-function view of customer engagement and to improve the coordination of activities across the broad range of touch points they must care about. By widening the lens companies use to view custom-er-engagement needs, enabling more rapid respons-
es, and building internal lines of communication, these steps create nimbler organisations with more perva-sive marketing.
1. Hold a customer- engagement summitAlmost all companies have annual or semi-annual business-planning process-es that bring senior managers together from units and functions to discuss strategies and objectives. Yet few under-take a similar process to discuss how to
engage with the lifeblood of all companies: custom-ers. We recommend holding such a summit, with a participant list that starts right at the top and cuts across units and functions. At one US health insurer, for example, the CEO’s direct involvement sparked a company-wide dialogue about how dramatically cus-tomer behaviour had changed and the breadth and
33mapple iphoNes were
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ENDLESS LAUGHTER
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speed of the tactics required to keep up.The focus of such a summit is customer
engagement, which should not be confused with the customer experience; engagement goes beyond managing the experience at touch points to include all the ways com-panies motivate customers to invest in an ongoing relationship with a product or brand. The summit must address three things. First, line and staff managers have to align on thevision for engagement: what relationship do you want with your custom-ers? Examining their decision journey helps you to compare your level of engagement with what you believe it should be. After Starbucks investigated customer engage-ment in France and Italy, for example, it concluded that consumers in those coun-tries preferred traditional local café formats. As a result, it invested in distinctive store layouts and furnishings and adjusted its beverages and service techniques.
Second, the summit’s participants should coordinate the activities required to reach and engage customers across the full range of touch points. When one multichannel retailer held its summit, the company, like many others, discovered that recent trends had left it with an anachronism: a set of touch points that should be coordinated but were instead managed independently with-in functional silos. A customer-engagement summit allows the senior-management team to create a coordinated plan spanning them—so that, for example, the customer experience in a call center can be coordinat-ed with the behavior of frontline employees, or the online-registration experience with product development.
Finally, a company ought to agree on the elements of the customer-engagement eco-system that should be undertaken in-house and those that will involve outside partners. Internal resources probably won’t be able to deliver all of the requirements imposed by a world with many touch points: for instance, content and communications; data analytics and insights; product and service innova-tion; customer experience design and deliv-ery; and managing brand, reputation, and corporate citizenship. Senior leaders need to decide how to carry out these activities and design the mix of in-house capabilities and external partners that will deliver them. These customer-engagement planning ses-
sions, in addition to informing and moti-vating the organisation as a whole around customer engagement, can help avoid spreading scarce resources too thinly.
2. Create a customer- engagement councilOne of the first outcomes of a customer-engagement summit will probably be the realisation that an ongoing forum for focus-ing management’s attention on engage-ment is needed. This doesn’t have to be yet another marketing committee. In fact, your customer-engagement council may already exist under another name, such as the stra-tegic-planning or brand council. The pur-
pose is to bring together all primary forms of engagement— marketing, communica-tions, service, sales, product management, and so on—to coordinate tactics across touch points in a more timely manner.
This council, which should be an opera-tional and decision-making body, must translate the findings of the customer-engagement summit into specific actions at individual touch points. To accomplish this goal, the council’s membership needs to be large enough to ensure that all key players are represented but small enough to make decisions efficiently. One high-technology company, for example, included 17 people on the engagement council. Because it is
In many companies, the marketing function is best placed to orchestrate customer engagement
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difficult to make it function efficiently with more than a dozen or so members, decision making in practice rested with a core group comprising the chief marketing officer and the heads of the com-pany’s three primary divisions; subteams of the council coordinated its decisions with the company’s other entities when necessary. These councils are most effective when chaired by the same person who leads the customer-engagement summit, such as the CMO or the head of communications, strategy, sales, or service.
The second consideration is how regularly the council should meet. The customer-engagement council of one retail bank meets weekly, for example; a similar council at a social-services organisation, monthly. The frequency of such meetings gener-ally is based on what key engagement activities the group is driving and their cycle time. The third con-sideration involves inputs and support: the council must make fact-based decisions, so it needs informa-tion on everything from priority touch points to cus-tomer behavior and the moves of competitors.
Finally, such a council must have a customer-engagement charter. To reduce the risk of gaps, rework, and turf wars, everyone in the organisa-tion needs clarity about decision rights over touch points and the key processes that affect them. As we explained last year, it’s useful to allocate the design, build, operate, and renew rights for specific touch points explicitly to functional “owners.” Marketing, for example, might design and renew scripts for a call center, which sales or operations would build and operate. In addition, the process of developing a charter is useful to force a dialogue about who owns and does what. More specifically, what does market-ing do in customer engagement? What does it not do? When conceived, constructed, and operated correctly, these customer-engagement councils play a critical role in breaking the “silo” mind-set that diminishes the effectiveness of customer engage-ment in many organisations. Such a council often serves as a mediator and decision maker in conflicts between functions and business units and as a filter for what must be elevated to the level of the CEO or other senior leaders.
3. Appoint a ‘chief content officer’A decade ago, when the extent of the digital revolution—the massive pro-liferation of media and devices and the empowerment of consumers via social networks and other channels—became clear, many companies quickly appointed “digital officers” to oversee
these emerging touch points. It’s now evident that the challenge is not just understanding digital chan-nels but also coping with the volume, nature, and velocity of the content needed to use them effec-tively. Companies need to create a supply chain of increasingly sophisticated and interactive content to feed consumer demand for information and engage-ment, not to mention a mechanism for managing the content consumers themselves generate. The emergence of companies-as-publishers demands the appointment of a chief content officer (CCO).
Companies across industries—from luxury goods to retailing, financial services, automotive, and even professional sports—are creating versions of this role. All are adopting a journalistic approach to recognise hot issues and shaping emerging sentiment by delivering compelling content that forges stronger emotional bonds with consumers. The CCO role is designed to provide the on-brand, topical, and provocative content needed to engage customers. The CCO must develop and manage all aspects of the supply chain for content, ranging from deciding where and how it’s sourced to over-seeing the external agencies and in-house creative talent generating it. Companies shouldn’t forget that even with a CCO in place, designing and exe-cuting a content strategy still requires coordination with several key business areas. The group respon-sible for gathering and analysing customer insights, for example, may need a new mandate to support the CCO by providing research on what customers and segments require, as well as where, when, and
how that content can most effectively be delivered. The CCO may need help from human resources to find, attract, manage, motivate, and develop the in-house creative talent often required to fulfill a content vision. The CCO will have to work closely with the team responsible for shaping brand percep-tions to understand the company’s character deeply—its heritage, purpose, and values—and with areas such as corporate social responsibility, investor
929mis the NumBer of moBile suBscriBers iNdia has
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REASON #11The CCO role is designed to provide the on-brand, topical, and provocative content needed to engage customers
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relations, and government affairs to gain a full perspective on how the company inter-acts with external stakeholders.
4. Create a ‘listening center’Engagement is a conversation, yet compa-nies are increasingly excluded from many of the most important discussions. More social and other media are available to mobilise your fans and opponents than ever before, and any interaction between a customer and your company could be the match that starts a viral fire. In this environment, companies should establish listening centers that mon-itor what is being said about their organi-sations, products, and services on social media, blogs, and other online forums.
Such monitoring should be hardwired into the business to shorten response times during real and potential crises, comple-ment internal metrics and traditional track-ing research on brand performance, feed consumer feedback into the product-devel-opment process, and serve as a platform for testing customer reactions. We’re already seeing listening centers established across a broad swath of sectors from financial services to hospitality to consumer goods. A French telecommunications company not only monitors online activity but also has a tool kit of prepared responses. “I can’t pre-dict what crisis will hit,” a senior executive at the company said. “But depending on the magnitude of it, I know the people I need to get in the room and what to discuss.”
5. Challenge your total customer-engagement budgetMany companies struggle to figure out how they can afford all the new tactics, vehicles, and content types required to engage with customers effectively. We propose a differ-ent mind-set: recognising that there’s plenty of money, but in the wrong places. Companies can now communicate with custom-ers much more productively: digital and social channels, for example, are radically cheaper (and sometimes more effec-tive) than traditional media communications or face-to-face sales visits. When you make trade-offs across functions, you can free large amounts of
money to invest elsewhere; if the experience of customers is so positive that they volun-tarily serve as advocates for your brand, for example, can you reduce advertising expen-ditures? The moves your customer service center makes to resolve a crisis—say, a lost credit card on a honeymoon or a major machine failure on a critical production run—may build more lifetime loyalty than years of traditional loyalty campaigns.
What prevents many companies from realising these productivity gains and cross-function trade-offs is a failure to look at total spending on customer engagement. They don’t see the opportunities to make trade-offs across functions and optimise the impact of investments across the entire set of touch points. Most budget on a function-by-function basis, and measure impact the same way. When you look at these expenditures and investments that way, there is almost never enough money, because each function seeks increased fund-ing to improve the customer interactions for which it is accountable. That’s a losing game. Instead, add up what you spend on customer engagement—in areas such as sales, service, operations, and product management, as well as in marketing. Then identify all the radically cheaper approaches you could take and ask, for example, how
you would take them if your budget was 15 percent of its current size or how a com-petitor in an emerging market would approach this problem. Such exercises help to break the ingrained assumptions and conventional wisdom that creep into organisations and to high-light overlooked opportunities.
Finally, look at trade-offs across functions—for example,
among investments in store renovations, revamped e-commerce sites, higher ad spending, changes in your model of sales force coverage, or improved operations in customer service centers. Which of these should be prioritised and in what order? Such decisions should be made not just on the projected financial returns but also on a strategic assessment of how customer expectations are evolving, how competitors are changing their methods of customer engagement, and where your company may have distinctive capabilities that could help it win through superior cus-tomer engagement.
One major Asian retailer did exactly this. Faced with ever-rising costs, it looked at its entire customer-engagement budget and identified where it was underperform-ing or missing out on new approaches to engagement. With that baseline, it cut 25 percent off its traditional marketing budget, invested in customer service, and reallocated other marketing expenditures to focus on digital, social, and mobile chan-nels. By reducing in-store operations costs, the retailer financed new investments in a major loyalty program to improve its engagement with customers. As a result, 70 percent of the company’s sales now are to members of its loyalty program—about three times the rate of its competitors. Total costs are lower and margins higher, despite a challenging retail environment.
More customer interactions across more touch points are shaping the degree of engagement a customer feels with your company. The critical barrier to harnessing the potential value in this shift is organi-sational—companies that learn to design and execute effective customer-engagement strategies will have the advantage; the oth-ers will lose ground. We have no doubt that companies will one day evolve the full set of processes and structures needed to man-age customer engagement across the whole organisation. Until then, these five steps can get you moving in the right direction.
—Tom French is a director in McKinsey’s Boston
office; Laura LaBerge and Paul Magill are senior
experts in the Stamford office.
—This article is reprinted with prior permission
from McKinsey Quaterly.
185mis the NumBer of moBile
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may 2012
More customer interactions across more touch points are shaping the degree of engagement
B e s t o f B r e e d | m a N a g e m e N t
NEXTHORIZONS
Enterprise Social MediaFirms are modifying their business models to get networking savvy, but some have smarter business models than others
Scores of companies have been promoting themselves as players in the enterprise social networking space of late, but they are not all created equal, with varying business models, approaches to the market and in
some cases, a bit of a me-too eagerness. But amid the pretenders are serious contenders that bring a well-thought-out approach to the space and are attracting serious attention from major software ven-
dors. The $1.2 billion bid for Yammer by Microsoft, the nearly $700 million that Salesforce.com plans to pay for Buddy Media on top of the $326 million it paid for Radian 6, and Oracle's purchase of Vitrue are just some examples of the land grab by big soft-ware for enterprise social territory. The difference between the revenues these takeover targets gener-ated and the price their acquirers were willing to pay for them is huge, perhaps indicating a bubble, but
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also perhaps indicating the growth potential in the space. But analysts and other industry players say the most sought after companies do not just offer me-too marketing plans, but innovative technology to make enter-prise social networking work.
The whole point is to make a business more productive and profitable--not just social for the sake of social. Still, the mar-ket is fragmented, although it's generally dividing into two camps, one group that uses social media internally to enhance business productivity and another group using social media externally to better engage with customers. And because each of the smaller companies are niche players--offering unique technology or a specific algorithm--the acquirers have to snap up several companies in order to build a com-prehensive solution. Notably, it's enterprise software companies, rather than retailers or big advertising or marketing firms that are buying up enterprise social media firms, said Michael Mullarkey, CEO of Brickfish, which delivers social media programs to better engage companies with their retail customers. A sample Brickfish campaign for Redbox, the DVD rental by vending machine company, invited customers to "Share Your Love" by having a photo taken of them hug-
ging their neighborhood Redbox and posting it on the company's Facebook page. Silly, perhaps, but Redbox had 3 million "Likes" when they took on Brickfish and it now has 4.7 million. "Fortune 2000 companies rely on soft-ware companies like Salesforce, Oracle and SAP for enterprise applications and are trying to find ways to drive revenue," said Mul-larkey. "It's enterprise software companies that understand that social media are going to drive transaction volume in the years to come." And Mullarkey explains how the acquisition strategies of the enterprise software companies help them build their social media prowess. Redbox, he said, uses Buddy Media to build its presence on Face-book, while Radian 6 moderates customer comments on their Facebook page, and Brickfish delivers loyalty campaigns and other efforts to improve customer engage-ment. Buddy Media and Radian 6 are now part of Salesforce. "It's like anything else, it s a big space, there are lots of players out there," Mullarkey said. But some of them are less than they pretend to be. "The me-too mentality is so true and I think the real distinction is between social integration and
real social innovation," said Ashley Furness, a CRM market analyst at Software Advice, a lead-generation business for multiple software vendors including Oracle, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. It helps business customers trying to buy software determine their needs and, from that, refer them to the appropriate vendor. There are some vendors whose
solution allows a user to import contacts from Facebook or LinkedIn into their CRM system, or to push content from their CRM system onto social networks and calling that a social enterprise platform, Furness said. "Microsoft didn't spend $1.2 billion on Yammer just so you could have a social sharing button in your CRM system." The innovators in enterprise social networking have created social intelligence algorithms, similar to Facebook's, that are based on how people use the platform and will pick up on the kinds of information that they share with others on the platform.
— This opinion was first published in CIO
Insight. For more such stories please visit
www.cioinsight.com.
25%wIll bE THE dEcREaSE
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bETwEEN 2012 TO 2016
Best Practices for BYOD on a Budget BYOD problems are similar to those of VPN deployment: devices that connect to your network may spend time on other networks By Jim MacLeod
while the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) to work is a growing trend within the IT world, the main issue is that consumer-friendly technology is changing
the way people want to work. Smartphones have provided mobile email for a decade,
but the market has moved from business phones complete with corporate controls to consumer devices.
True mobile productivity is hereMore recently, tablets have enabled comfort-able Internet access anywhere, with sophis-
ticated applications that allow true mobile productivity. However, increasing reliance on mobile devices is creating increasing demands on IT to support and secure devices. Some businesses have embraced BYOD arguing that employee-owned equip-ment for business usage could save the
58 July 2012
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company money, but there is not a definitive answer on this yet. The savings on hardware may turn into increased IT costs; initially by creating BYOD-friend-ly infrastructure and supporting an ever expand-ing variety of hardware, OSes, and apps. There are also security concerns of non-corporate equipment accessing the company network and data. It easy to fall into the trap of approving a capital expense now on the uncertain promise of operational expense reduction. Pilot programmes don’t have to be expen-sive, and can help uncover the hidden costs.
Consumer devices are betterWhile there are undoubtedly security risks associ-ated with BYOD, this practice is inevitable given that consumer devices are sim-ply better, fast-er, and usually less expensive than business-grade. With the speed at which consumer tech-nology advance, businesses employing BYOD don’t have to wait three years for equipment to depreciate before it can be replaced. We are tran-sitioning into a mobilised and interconnected workplace where employees can and will bring the hottest gizmos and gadgets into the work environment even if current company security policy forbids it. So, with BYOD becoming an inescapable reality, how can businesses embrace it without having to completely overhaul their security system? What follows are several ways to start implementing BYOD securely onto a net-work without having to buy the next shiny business security tool. Telling employees not to bring their own devices, or enacting a complicated policy to dis-courage the practice, is a guaranteed way to encour-age employees to bypass restrictions. Don’t try to convolute the processes of allowing employees to bring their devices to work. Simplicity provides bet-ter voluntary compliance in the end. With BYOD, if there is an easy process for users to get online, they will typically agree to the additional conditions that make it easier for IT to manage these new devices. im
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BYOD problems are similar to those of VPN deployment: devices that connect to your network may spend time on other networks. For this reason, start addressing the BYOD problem by using a VPN. Create a new Wi-Fi SSID, or re-use a “guest” SSID, which will be a subnet in an outbound DMZ, the middle ground between an organisation’s trusted internal network and an untrusted, external network.
This will make access to the internal network only available via VPN, which leverages the security les-sons learned from VPN deployment, and monitors inbound VPN connections. That subnet should also have Internet access -- assuming that the corporate network does too -- so employees will be willing to use it rather than trying to bypass it.
This creates a single location where all of the BYOD devices will congregate, and where net-work security can be applied. By providing a BYOD SSID, the devices have access to your high-speed Internet connection, so employees are less likely to connect via cel-lular connection while at work. It also means that
their communication will pass through any network-level detection systems, increasing the chances of detecting virus or botnet behaviour without requiring an agent on the system. A BYOD network extends the protections of the corporate network to these devices, while simultaneously protecting the core net-work from them. Fortunately, email is one of the easi-est services to deploy securely. Microsoft Exchange provides Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), which most mobile devices support. Non-exchange networks can also provide remote email via encrypted POP or IMAP along with encrypted and authenticated SMTP. Another low-effort way to provide network access without significant additional risk is to use full-screen remote logins, like Remote Desktop (RDP) on Windows or VNC on all platforms. — This article has been reprinted with permission from CIO
Update. To see more articles regarding IT management best
practices, please visit www.cioupdate.com.
EVERYTHING AND MUCH
MORE….AT THE 13TH ANNUAL CIO&LEADER CONFERENCE, HYDERABAD –
11TH -13TH AUG
BETHERE!
REASON #13
Simplicity provides better voluntary compliance in the end
59July 2012
m a N a g E m E N T | N E X T H O R I Z O N S
62 July 2012
Think Tank Conference-DelhiThe second in a series of conferences, Think Tank Conference in New Delhi was a grand success
role of the Chief Infor-mation Security Officer (CISO) is changing but they still have to face all of the issues they had to face before and in addition address a number of new
problem areas. Colley opined that a CISO doesn’t only need to be a technologist but also act as a leader, a business man and in many situations, a Superman.
“Information security professionals need to shift their security mindsets. They need to concentrate on the ‘how to’ and not
Encouraged by the overwhelming feedback received during the CSO Summit in December 2011, CSO forum has decided to start a series of CSO Think Tank conferences
during the year. These are essentially regional conferences where the focus would be on various operational challenges that CSOs face and how others in the com-munity are addressing these.
The second CSO Think Tank Confer-ence took place on 22nd June 2012 at Mar-riot, Gurgaon. The conference saw highly enthusiastic participation from the CISO
community of New Delhi and NCR. The keynote address of the conference
was presented by John Colley, Managing Director, (ISC)² EMEA. Colley shared his vast experience of over 20 years with the audience and talked about old issues and new problems facing today’s CISO. The
Experts discussed various security issues facing the enterprises
Panelists talk about data protection challenges
Audience interacting with the panelists in a highly engaging discussion
EvEnT
63July 2012
C s o T h i n k T a n k | E v E n T R E P o R T
Anuradha Das Mathur, Director, 9.9 Media, chairing the session on cloud security
Delegates paying close attention during the keynote address by John Colley
Amitabh Misra, VP-Engineering, Snapdeal.com, sharing his views on DLP strategies
waste time on the ‘why not’. CISOs need to work out how to make business change happen securely and minimise the risk instead of acting as a barrier of change,” Colley said.
Cloud turned out to be another topic of interest at the conference where panel-ists such as KK Chaudhary, Group CISO, Lanco Infra; Shraddha Tickoo, Subject Matter Expert, Trend Micro tried to clear the air around the security challenges in cloud and how they can be carefully miti-gated using the right tools and processes. The discussion went beyond data security issues in public cloud and the panel talked about various security issues at the virtual machine level in a private cloud or even in a basic virtualisation deployment.
Need for data protection was discussed in a session with Jijy Oomen, CIO, Bajaj Capital and Sougat Ghosh, Sr. Solutions Strategist, CA Technologies. The session analysed the real drivers for data protec-tion. Some of the key questions addressed in the session were—why the current approach to protecting data in technol-ogy silos doesn't work? What steps can clients take to ensure that enterprise data is protected throughout its life cycle? What controls and tools are available to protect enterprise data in practice?
As an extension to the session on data protection, a session on data leakage pre-vention strategies talked about some of the best practices in the space and what organi-sations can do to build a robust DLP strat-egy. The session was addressed by Amitabh Misra, VP-Engineering, Snapdeal.com and Sameer Shelke, CTO, Aujas.
Unlike most other security technologies, DLP is never an out-of-the-box solution. Bringing together right processes, technol-ogy and people is perhaps more important in a DLP deployment than most other software deployments. Being a customer-centric organisation, Snapdeal.com has deployed some of the best mechanisms to prevent data leakage. Misra shared some of these DLP best practices and talked
about how the strategy has helped the company greatly prevent data leakage.
Arup Chatterjee, CISO, WNS shared his views on the increasing risks from distributed denial of services attacks. Every enterprise seems to live under the per-petual threat of a DDoS attack. Along with Jaydeep Nargund, Service Line Manager, Akamai on the panel, Chatterjee analysed a DDoS attack in depth, looked at steps enterprises can take to guard against one and also what can be done if an organisa-tion does come under a DDoS attack.
Another important area of discussion was SIEM. Security Information & Event
Management is the name of the approxi-mately 20-year-old technology sector whose solutions collect and analyse event logs that come from all types of devices and applications in a given IT infrastructure. SIEM solutions have taken various forms and different tools specialise in different aspects of log management, monitor-ing security, proving compliance and/or maximising IT operations. The session was moderated by Burgess Cooper, CISO, Vodafone India and members of the panel included Subramanya Gupta Boda, Group CISO, GMR and Kartik Shahani, Country Manager, RSA.
64 July 2012
TECH FORGOVERNANCE
Why Open Source is Not Always the Best BetIf you are using open source to reduce costs, here are a few pointers you should look at before taking the leap By DHANANJAY ROKDE
The amount Betaworks paid to acquire Diggs
$500kData BrIefIng
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us
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at
Ion
by
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ac
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ev
65July 2012
O p E N s O u R C E | T E C H F O R G O V E R N A N C E
TPOIntS5
most of the open
source software
relies on plug-ins
staff required to
manage open source
solutions are hard to
find and expensive
if you do not pay
for the product, no
one is indebted to
send you updates
in open source
you have to rely on
forums and bulletin
boards
security is a
concern while using
open source
This article is just an attempt to educate our readers that “open source shouldn’t be blindly used as an alternative for paid /commercial software”; it should in no way be perceived as mudslinging towards any open source software or community.
Alright, you’ve have managed to get yourself free soft-ware and an OS, Now what?
It is very typical for organisations to start using products like OpenOffice to take baby-steps into the open source arena. Ubuntu and its variants (Like Kubuntu & the Ubuntu Server edition) are popular choices of OS plat-forms. Other software such as Mozilla Firefox / Thunder-bird, Gimp, VLC Media Player etc. provide good replace-ments for the classic end user needs.
HELP!!! I need support.A colossal proportion of the IT world is used to and addicted to propitiatory office suites. This not only includes end users, but also system administrators and IT managers themselves. Users know basic opera-tions on the systems; administrators know how to troubleshoot; and managers know whom to contact in case of a problem. So when someone from Finance starts screaming that salaries won’t be credited on time as an automated macro to be run spreadsheets has failed, since OpenOffice is unable to execute it – What does an IT manager do? OpenOffice has fantastic basic functionality, but it cannot even come close to what proprietary office suites offer. Also the knowledgebase of such open software is often incomplete. You have to rely on forums and bulletin boards to help you break away from the problem and resume actual pro-ductive work.
Although I must admit that these forums are very helpful, however one must keep in mind that this is a NOT certified and competent support. The forum owner is NOT liable in case they provide incorrect assistance and actually increase your damage. Most of the open source software relies on plug-ins or extensions to pri-mary software package for added functionality and fea-tures. These extensions are NOT written by the author(s) of the primary package. Also there are no warranties that those extensions will work or the primary package will continue to support them after an upgrade or a major version change.
Be prepared for MUCH higher installation costsYes! More than often open source leads to much higher installation costs. It is no wonder that more than 95% of the end user laptops and desktops come with a prein-stalled copy of proprietary operating systems. This operat-ing system comes with effective recovery alternatives. You can easily avail the option of reinstalling the entire operat-ing system with losing any of your valuable data.
The same story holds true for slightly larger enterprise systems like web & database servers. Here are a few rea-sons why proprietary web and database servers work out cheaper in the long run:
Easily available man power to administer and manage the infrastructure
Low cost of expertise Instant technical support provided by the principal company The company takes full ownership of the technical solu-tions provided by them.
Quick solutions to complex environments (eg: one click clustering & virtualization)
Companies that provide such proprietary software have people who are actually on their payroll and dedicated to cause of technical support.On the other hand, staff required to manage and admin-
ister open source solutions are hard to find and expensive. Also these solutions don’t necessarily provide off-the-shelf advanced functionality like load-balancing, clustering etc… You need a lot of customisation to attain such func-tionality and there would still be no support for the same.
These customizations come at an extra-ordinary cost and still; there is no one who can certify or sign-off on these custom architectures to be guaranteed or reliable. Hence, in spite of this large investment you will still have a “crude hack” & NOT a solution. It is therefore your call to rely on that crude hack or not.
“?” A big question mark on reliabilityAlthough many technology conglomerates directly and indirectly support the cause of open source; they have
T E C H F O R G O V E R N A N C E | O p E N s O u R C E
extremely limited financial commitment in these ini-tiatives. Good examples of such angelic investments include, Oracle buying a stake in MySQL and IBM investing in the Apache foundation & Eclipse.
IBM’s venture to invest heavily into making their own open source database Cloudscape, (which is now absorbed into the Apache suite as Derby) has not been a success. In spite of being adopted by the Apache foundation the IT industry has still not shown much acceptance to it. These investments are only to set aside feelings of anti-monopoly and are clearly motivated by sentiments, than business. If these open source appli-cations were really so efficient and cost-effective then the IT world would have seen a major revolution. The fact that such a revolt is actually NOT happening, proves the case for proprietary software.
I am waiting for updates; what do I do? Always bear in mind, this simple principle – “If you are not paying for the product itself; no one is indebted to send you updates”. So if you are running open source systems, please set clear expectations with your business in terms updating and patching to meet newer requirements. Proprietary software companies on the other are con-tractually and legally bound to send you critical patches and updates as soon as flaws are detected. They will have their teams sweat it out as soon as a bug or missing functionality is detected.
Also stiff competition and the race for increasing market share, compels the proprietary software compa-nies to ensure that their products stand the test of time. Before you know it proprietary software has been at the lead of showing compatibility towards almost all emerg-ing trends like Web 2.0, Cloud capability, real time syn-chronization, seamless recovery etc …
But wait; someone told me that open source is more secureOpen source software always capitalises on the security failures of their proprietary alternatives. Since these
proprietary companies are constantly fighting their “anti – senti-ment”; the real flaws of open source never actually reach the users.With the freedom to access the source code at will, people who know what they are looking for can find the right stuff and way to exploit it. Open source does not have the liberty of incorporating several security mechanisms like code obfuscation & data masking. The confidentiality involved in making such proprietary software eventu-ally pays off. The people who write the open source software have other day jobs and lives. These open source projects are something that they do over their free time and clearly not for bread and butter.— This article is printed with prior permission from www.infosecisland.
com. For more features and opinions on information security and risk man-
agement, please refer to Infosec Island.
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68 July 2012
VIEWPOINT
Politi- movements have their anthems. Starbucks has its back-ground music brand. But I thought it might be fun to collate a playlist that specifically appeals to the techie/cloudy group.
So here goes. Some of these are pretty funny... others leave a bit to be desired. And if you know of more (or have favorites of your own) send them my way and I’ll add them...
Songs about CloudsGet Off Of My CloudThe Rolling StonesCloudsThe JayhawksCloudsDjango Reinhardt (awesome rendi-tion w/a Spanish guitar)CloudsThe Go-BetweensCloudsThe SubmarinesIn The CloudsThe Cult Death CloudCloud Control
Networking Tips – Don’tsSheryl Nicholson (a short Hip-Hop style interlude)Object-oriented Programming Song - #7from Design Minstrel (great lyrics, horrific delivery)The Computer ScientistCode Play (awesome indie creation. but delivery also leaves something to be desired)The Computer Error songA fun sampling/mashup... or listen to the remix. (Windows listeners only) Maybe this’ll be the V0geball psyche-up tune next year.The Day the Routers DiedHad to end with this one from RIPE 55 conference, 2007. Freakin’ brilliant tribute to IPv6. Not sure who sang, tho. But picture a room full of geeks singing the final stanza...
techy PoetryHorton Hears HadoopJoe OnisickHorton Hears a HadoopTom Keske(I need more here... ).
CloudyAverage White Band (not the greatest audio/video)
other (mostly funny) songs about itNerd LustSchaffer & The DarklordsShe Blinded Me With ScienceThomas DolbyNrrrd GrrrlMC Chris. Hi-grade lyrics. Low bud-get production.(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar The GuildThe SysAdmin SongWes Borg - A classic.IT Administration SongTo the tune of “A few of my favorite things”The Computer SongDare you to memorize all of these acronyms. And this was just 2007.Cookie Computer SongClassic Sesame Street. Primitive. 1974!Happy System Administrator Day(one of my fave Animes) Features “The SysAdmin Song” above
Cloudy Nerdy My Playlist for
techie group
kEN OEsTrEIch
About the Author: Ken Oestreich
is a marketing
and product
management
veteran in the
enterprise IT and
data centre space,
with a career
spanning start-ups
to established
vendors.
ph
ot
o b
y p
ho
to
s.c
om
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