Published on the 08/06/2016 | Written by Clare Coulson
CIOs are perfectly placed to lead digital transformation and the CIO+ role being pioneered by Air New Zealand is an exciting development…
That’s according to Sandra Ng, Group VP for IDC in Asia Pacific. She was delivering the opening keynote speech at the annual CIO Summit in Auckland today where she spoke about the CIO’s leadership model to drive digital transformation to scale. She said that while anyone in the C-Suite could theoretically take the lead in the digital transformation (DX) economy, she firmly believes that the CIO is best placed to do so – and not just because she was speaking to a room full of CIOs she said. For her, the CIO role has become truly multidisciplinary and their inherent understanding of IT and their cross-disciplinary abilities makes them perfect for the job.
She offered, as an example, the “progressive” CIO of Schindler the world-renown lift-makers, who transformed the elevator industry by connecting the lift system to the collaboration platform of its building. Traditionally when a lift is empty for any stretch of time it returns to the ground floor because it is presumed that that is where users will first arrive. By connecting the lift system to the occupants’ calendars lifts were able to be sent automatically to the correct floor at the correct time – not a big deal in smaller buildings, but it amounts to significant time-savings for the occupants of skyscrapers.
She also said that all eyes are on the CDO role that has been created by Air New Zealand, which was recently filled by former Google executive, Avi Golan. She is calling it a CIO-plus role because the old CIO role will become part of its portfolio but Golan’s team will not only include the full IT team, but also parts of the existing sales, marketing and operations functions in order to grow Air New Zealand’s digital presence and improve customer experience in a digital world.
Ng said this type of role “is not proven in the marketplace but we are quite excited about it.”
In a separate keynote, Paul Keesing, GM of digital at insurance company IAG (which he described as being the industry that the internet forgot only five years ago), put the CDO role into greater context. While CIOs tend to err towards the more cautious approach to protect the company, CDOs focus on the customer experience, while managing risk.
“We want to get super-fast and customer obsessed,” he said of his digital team. “We had 225 separate initiatives and not the money to do them so we had to ruthlessly prioritise,” he added.
The result is that IAG is now on social media and has drones in its arsenal (for monitoring bush fires), to name just a few digital projects that it has launched. It’s open to conversations with its customers and regularly sends them advice on how to protect their belongings so that they won’t have to make a claim in the first place.
Keesing also highlighted the work of IAG CIO Kevin Angland who is moving to Mighty River Power and therefore chose not to present with Keesing. Keesing said that while he had been busy on the digital innovation front Angland, who won CIO of the Year in 2014, had integrated two big businesses (AMI and Lumley) into IAG which was no mean feat in and of itself.
The Summit, held over two days at the Sky City Convention Centre, attracted around 550 delegates. A record 1,100 attendees including speakers and sponsors went through the conference doors.
