"Success in IT comes from building an organization that has a mix of strong technical individuals as well as business-minded individuals that are leading in a way that helps the techies understand how they fit into the business and why what they do is important," says Smoley. "Simultaneously, [you have to help] the business-minded folks understand the technical strategies and road maps so they can leverage them and represent them to the business. It is a continuous challenge."
The Making of a Strategist
Are IT strategists made or born?
At Gallo, Kushar recruits about half of his strategic thinkers as ready-made hires from the outside world and develops the rest internally. "In part it's about allowing some people inside the organization to think differently," he says.
For Suzanne Best-Foster, vice president of enterprise infrastructure services at Jacobs Engineering and a Ones to Watch honoree, the key is "investing in more listening than talking and suspending the techie drive in me to provide solutions based on what I know and not what could be."
Her transformation to strategic thinker has been fueled by listening to others challenge her thinking or encourage her to broaden her vision. "I have grown immeasurably through the opportunities they have made for me to gain insight," she says.
Smoley says strategic thinking must be a core tenet of talent development. "I look for open-mindedness, a questioning mind-set, candor, critical thinking, [and] the ability to network confidently, internally and externally," Smoley explains. When he finds junior employees who have those traits, he matches them up with a senior mentor. "[It] helps to accelerate learning through more frequent conversations around what works and what doesn't--and why.
"Success as a strategist comes from a broad awareness of strategic options and what has and hasn't worked in the past and currently," Smoley says. "The technical world changes so fast that individuals have to be continuously assessing their assumptions and re-evaluating them."
Progress, Not Perfection
One thing Takai has learned is that you can't take an entire IT organization and make it all strategic. "They're used to doing things a certain way and it's hard to get people to go at it differently," she says. "It's better to pick two or three people at a time," she says.
And she's realistic about the changes she can--or can't--make when some of her employees have 30 years of tenure; they were there before she was appointed and will be there after she leaves. "They know people like me come and go, and my ability to get them to think differently is limited."
Sometimes the dual demands of the hybrid role are too much for one IT professional to handle. Or pairs of seemingly complementary workers don't mesh. "The toughest part is to try to find compatible people," says Kushar. "Either you try to put someone that's too technical in a role and they don't have the customer skills, or they're too customer-skilled and don't have the technical awareness. Those people fall flat."
Weeks has spent three years already on the path to creating an IT organization that boasts both business and technology expertise. His direct reports finally all get it. But "when you get down to their directs, some get it more than others," he says. "Each rung down the ladder, it's harder for them to see the big picture. It's not perfect. It never will be."
Yet these top-notch CIOs keep at it.
"You don't hire people that get it and all of a sudden everything's cured," Weeks says. "You have to give them time to understand the business. And then they have to hire people that get it, and give them time to understand the business. It takes time."
Meet the New Members of the CIO Hall of Fame for 2013
Kent Kushar
CIO
E&J Gallo Winery
CAREER His IT career spans nearly 50 years, from his first job as a tabulating equipment operator in 1963 to his current position as technology leader and visionary at the family-owned Gallo Winery. During his 17 years with Gallo, Kushar has developed a close and strategic relationship with the Gallo family and executives, while creating innovative, customer-facing applications that achieve competitive advantage and produce desired business outcomes.
JUDGE'S VIEW "He represents a model of a long-term CIO at one company. He has aligned IT very nicely with the business goals and management, which has driven the business to retain him over a long period--something that is not easy given the normal tenure of CIOs."
David Smoley
CIO
AstraZeneca
CAREER Smoley joined AstraZeneca as CIO last month after a lengthy stint at Flextronics International, where he oversaw the company's $250 million IT budget and 2,400 IT employees in 30 countries. In addition to adopting a "lean IT" approach that keeps costs low, he created a culture of innovation resulting in high-ROI projects, such as consolidating 80 HR systems into one global cloud-based tool.
JUDGE'S VIEW "Dave is a true thought leader in cloud/[software-as-a-service] applications and has been a champion and adviser to many CIOs."
Teri Takai
CIO
Department of Defense
CAREER After making a big impact as IT strategic planner at Ford Motor Co., she moved into the public sector as CIO for the state of Michigan and then California. Now Takai faces perhaps the biggest IT challenge of all: bringing the Pentagon and its $37 billion IT budget into the age of cloud and mobile computing.
JUDGE'S VIEW "Someone who knows technology and how to get things done in a very difficult environment. A long track record of success."
Hall of Fame Judges
Gregor Bailar, Former CIO, Capital One
Helen Cousins, CIO, Lincoln Trust Company
Charlie Feld, Founder, The Feld Group Institute
Tom Flanagan, VP & Senior Client Partner at IBM, Former CIO of Amgen
David Johns, CIO, Ascena Retail
Patty Morrison, EVP of Customer Care Shared Services & CIO, Cardinal Health
Tom Murphy, VP of IT & University CIO, University of Pennsylvania
Filippo Passerini, Group President of Global Business Services & CIO, Procter & Gamble
Andreas Resch, Managing Director, Modalis Management
Rebecca Rhoads, VP of Global Business Services & CIO, Raytheon
Ralph Szygenda, Former Group VP & CIO, GM
Tim Theriault, CIO, Walgreens
Carl Wilson, Former EVP & CIO, Marriott International
Ones to Watch Winners
Pete Corrigan
Senior Vice President of Technology and Operations
Allstate Insurance
Kevin Dana
Director of Application Management
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Chandra Dhandapani
Senior Vice President of IT & Divisional Information Officer
Capital One
Benedict Cabrera
Senior Director of Business Systems Delivery
Covanta Energy
Eric Keane
Senior Vice President & CIO of FedEx Express Solutions
FedEx Services
Raja Musunuru
CIO
The Steritech Group
Lt. Col. Bobby Saxon
Division Chief & Program Manager of Enterprise Management Decision Support
U.S. Army G-3/5/7
Brian Keinsley
Vice President of Applications Engineering
Humana
Karen Ryan
Manager of Application Administration
Newport News Shipbuilding division of Huntington Ingalls Industries
Eric Johnson
Vice President of Global Applications
Informatica
Bret (William) Wingert
Vice President of Business Transformation
Insight Enterprises
Karen Freeman
Deputy Associate CIO
Internal Revenue Service
Suzanne Best-Foster
Vice President of Enterprise Infrastructure Services
Jacobs Engineering
Deborah Morewitz
Director of IS Technology
Newport News Shipbuilding division of Huntington Ingalls Industries
Yang Lu
Vice President of eCommerce Systems
Scholastic
Cindy Kottler
Director of IT
St. Peter's Healthcare System
Richard Wall
Executive Director of IT-Software Engineering
Supermedia
Amita Dhawan
Vice President of IT Business Service Management
The Clorox Company
Todd Schroeder
Director of Business Systems Management
Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA
Alin D'Silva
Vice President of IT, Chief Administrative Office
Verizon
Ones to Watch Judges
Rex Althoff, CIO & President of Technology, Federated Services Co.
Tom Bartiromo, Senior Vice President, CTO and CIO, Barnabas Health
Lori Beer, EVP of Specialty Businesses and IT, WellPoint
Mark Berthiaume, Senior Vice President & CIO of Specialty and Commercial Insurance, Chubb Insurance
Bill Blausey, Senior VP & CIO, Eaton
Larry Bonfante, CIO, U.S. Tennis Association
Cora Carmody, Senior Vice President of IT, Jacobs
Sonya Christian, CIO, West Georgia Health System
Jay Crotts, CIO & VP, IT Services and Operations, Royal Dutch Shell
Raj Datt, Senior Vice President Global Operations & CIO, Aricent
Jeri Dunn, Former VP & CIO, Bacardi-Martin
John Edgar, VP of IT, US Postal Service
Robert Fecteau, CIO, SAIC
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Managing Director & CIO, Russell Reynolds Associates
Michael Gabriel, former Executive VP of IT & CIO, Home Box Office
Ken Grady, CIO, New England Biolabs
Steven R. Hanna, VP & CIO, Kennametal
Jeff Hutchinson, CIO, Maple Leaf Foods
Gerry McCartney, VP of IT, CIO, Inaugural Director of Innovation and Commercialization Center, & Olga Oesterle England Professor of IT, Purdue University
Rebecca McClendon, Former Senior Vice President, FedEx
Ken Piddington, CIO, Global Partners LP
Rebecca Rhoads, Global Business Services Group Leader, VP & CIO, Raytheon
Tina Rourk, Senior Vice President & CIO, Wyndham Vacation Ownership
Doug Rousso, Senior Vice President & CTO, CBS Corporation
Samir Saini, CIO, Atlanta Housing Authority
Hugh Scott, CIO, Energy Plus
Mike Skinner, EVP & CIO, EURPAC Service, Inc.
Jeff Steinhorn, CIO, Hess
Joseph Touey, Senior Vice President of North America Pharmaceuticals IT, GlaxoSmithKline
Robert Urwiler, CIO, Vail Resorts
Gordon Wishon, CIO, Arizona State University
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This story, "CIOs Struggle with the Great Talent Hunt" was originally published by CIO.