Mark Samuels

The winter edition of CIO Connect magazine was printed and posted pre-Christmas; it’s probably hitting desks around now. The magazine includes an interview with BA CIO Paul Coby, keynote speaker at CIO Connect’s recent annual conference. There’s also a special report on sourcing, a feature on delivering change and an article on eating your own dog food – where CIOs of leading suppliers explain how they innovate for customers.

As ever, thanks to all the CIOs, business leaders and technology experts who contributed their time and opinions. Below is a full-list of featured participants:

• Paul Coby, CIO at British Airways
• David Cooper, CIO at TalkTalk
• Mark Brown, IT director at ISS UK
• Dave Allerton, IT director at RHWL Architects
• Fiona Capstick, vice president and geographic integration executive at IBM’s Office of the CIO
• John Johnson, vice president and former CIO at Intel
• Lorie Buckingham, CIO at Avaya
• Derek McManus, CTO at O2
• John Murphy, acting director of information systems services at Trinity College Dublin
• Andy Bellamy, IT Director at TDG
• Chris Evers, head of IT at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• David Bulman, CIO at Aegis Media
• Colin McLauchlan, head of IT at King & Shaxson
• Dharmesh Mistry, CTO at Edge IPK
• David Bason, IT director at Shoosmiths
• Peter Dew, CIO and group director of human resources at Ceva
• Robbert Kuppens, CIO at Cisco Europe
• Simon Hazlitt, co-founder of Majedie Assset Management
• Peter Rogers, senior project manager at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
• Paul Mendes, head of IT at Chesterton Humberts
• Dean Branton, group director of business transformation and infrastructure services at KCOM
• Ade McCormack, consultant at Auridian and columnist for the FT
• Gerry Cohen, chief executive at Information Builders
• Richard Bewley, chief marketing officer at Best of the Best
• Mark Ridley, IT director at Reed.co.uk
• Jim Boots, senior BPM advisor at Chevron
• Karl Deacon, CTO at Capgemini
• Martin Butler, founder of Martin Butler Research and former chairman at Butler Group
• David Head, director at La Fosse Associates
• Dominic Batchelor, senior associate at Ashurst LLP
• Danièle Tyler, solicitor at Ashurst LLP

The new edition of CIO Connect magazine is out and about, featuring the first profile interview with new Bupa CIO – and former FT operations and technology chief – Yasmin Jetha. There’s also a six-page special report on Agility, featuring the MD of BT Design JP Rangaswami and Darryl Salmons, IS director at the Financial Services Authority.

As ever, thanks to all the CIOs, business leaders and technology experts that contributed their time and opinions. Below is a full-list of featured participants:

• Yasmin Jetha, CIO at Bupa
• Mark Templeton, Citrix president and CEO
• Daniel Marion, ICT senior manager at UEFA Media Technologies
• Bob Tarzey, analyst and director at Quocrica
• Eric Brown, CTO at the Practical Law Company
• Phil Male, operations director at Cable & Wireless
• Andrew Tuson, head of computing at City University London
• David Butler, chief executive of TripleIC
• Nick Frost, senior research consultant at the Information Security Forum
• Steve Wright, senior manager at PWC’s information security practice
• Dominic Batchelor, senior associate at Ashurst LLP
• Inbali Iserles, professional development lawyer at Ashurst LLP
• JP Rangaswami, managing director at BT Design
• Darryl Salmons, IS director at the Financial Services Authority
• Karen Bridges, head of transformation development corporate business change at Birmingham City Council
• Sanjay Mirchandani, CIO at EMC
• Peter Cheese, managing partner for talent and organisation performance services at Accenture
• Peter O’Shea, CIO at ESB
• Gavin Dietz, CIO at Landis+Gyr
• Gary James, head of enterprise computing at The Co-operative Financial Services
• John Johnson, CIO at Intel
• Tony Eccleston, partner at Ernst & Young
• Alastair Sorbie, chief executive at IFS
• Tony McAlister, CTO at Betfair
• Stephen Pownall, CIO at NSG Group
• Graham Everson, head of information services and telecommunications at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust
• Derek McManus, CTO at O2
• Joop Janssen, chief executive of the broadcast systems division at the Vitec Group
• Ian Little, group finance director at Accounting Access
• Lisa Jobson, director of talent at Harvey Nash
• Laurent Allard, CIO at Logica
• Graham Benson, IT director at M and M Direct
• Christine Ashton, director of strategy and technology at Transport for London

I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from PRs that are pitching for what they believe to be forthcoming features in CIO Connect. The pitches are always welcome – but many of the suggested features have already been written and are about to be published.

Take the corporate social responsiblity (CSR) feature, which has received a lot of attention in the last week-or-so. Some nice ideas, too. The problem is that the feature is due to come out in July’s spring edition and was finished a long time in advance. I’m actually now working on content for the autumn edition, which goes to bed mid-summer.

One PR told me she’d got the details for forthcoming features from ‘Features Exec’. It’s a regularly repeated story – don’t believe everything you read on a database; better to get it from the horse’s mouth (in this case, me). Here’s what I’m currently working on for the autumn edition:

• Hyperconnectivity – How can collaborative technologies help CIOs to boost connectivity? Potential areas include mobile devices, next-generation web and the future office.
• Information management – How can CIOs control information management? Potential areas include content management, security, next-generation search and retrieval.
• Executive partnership – How can IT leaders create effective partnerships with other executives? The feature will draw on the significance of senior team relationships.
• Finally – and as ever – I’m also looking for interesting business people with an interesting story to tell. So, that might be CIOs, it might also be other c-suite executives, business gurus, leadership experts and futurologists.

There’s also the back page slot, which gives technology chiefs the chance to talk about out-of-work interests (we’ve recently had mountain climbing, round-the-world sailing and marathon running). Ta.

I was on holiday last week, during which time the sparkling spring edition of CIO Connect magazine hit the desks of the UK’s key IT leaders. In the lead-up to the release of the magazine, I’ve been busy modifying the content to include more forward-looking elements.

The changes are represented in ‘Foresight’, a new introductory section to the magazine that identifies the business and technology issues that will impact the work of CIOs in the next year-or-so. In short, change in business IT is so rapid that there is little point having a discussion about the here and now. CIO priorities are always about helping the business to work smarter and the ‘Foresight’ section will help IT leaders as they attempt to establish a competitive edge.

There are several other subtle changes in the spring edition, too – including more boxes and summary points in the main features. The aim is to give time-precious CIOs as much information as quickly as possible. As ever, the edition includes a series of exclusive features:

• Globalisation at Procter & Gamble – featuring Filippo Passerini, global CIO at Procter & Gamble, and Karen Winney, business services director for UK, Nordic and Ireland at Procter & Gamble
• Innovation and transformation at ITV – featuring Richard Cross, group technology director at ITV
• Equal opportunities in IT – featuring Intel CIO Diane Bryant, Scottish Government CIO Anne Moises and Christine Ashton, IM strategy and technology director at Transport for London

Finally, here are a list of the IT leaders and business experts that appear in the issue. As ever, thanks to all that contributed their time and thoughts:

• Richard Cross, group technology director at ITV
• Jon Inch, CIO at Christie’s
• John Suffolk, Government CIO
• Filippo Passerini, global CIO at Procter & Gamble
• Karen Winney, business services director for UK, Nordic and Ireland at Procter & Gamble
• Diane Bryant, CIO at Intel
• Anne Moises, Scottish Government CIO
• Christine Ashton, IM strategy and technology director at Transport for London
• Tania Howarth, CIO at Birds Eye Iglo Group
• Stephen Entwistle, financial director of McKeowns Solicitors
• John Thorp, chairman of the VAL IT Steering Committee at the IT Governance Institute
• David Woodgate, chief executive of the Institute of Financial Accountants
• Robin Dargue, CIO at Royal Mail
• Karl Deacon, CTO at Capgemini
• Neil McGowan, IT director at JD Williams
• Tim Mann, CIO at Skandia UK
• Olivier Uytterhoeven, director of IT at Starwood Hotels
• Nathan Marke, CTO at 2e2
• Tony Eccleston, partner at Ernst & Young
• Steve Pikett, head of IT at Rothschild
• Paul Mockapetris, domain name system (DNS) inventor and chairman of Nominum
• Martin Roesch, founder and CTO of Sourcefire
• Professor Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of business and technology at business school INSEAD
• Rob Spencer, senior research fellow at Pfizer
• Ray Johnston, group IT operations manager at Aspen Insurance UK Ltd
• Euan Semple, social media consultant and former BBC technology chief
• Richard Moross, chief executive and founder of online printing company Moo.com
• Peter Hinssen, programme director for Realising Business Performance Through IT at the London Business  School
• Dr Martin Clarke, director of general management programmes at the Cranfield School of Management
• Ian Cohen, former CIO at Associated News and managing director of SimplyGreatConsulting.com
• Ian Buchanan, former CIO at Alliance & Leicester
• Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, former director general of MI5

In this webtastic age of search optimisation, one answer is a lot of references to stuff that will get you a high Google ranking. The basic theory goes something like ‘never mind the quality of my story on service-oriented architecture, just check out how many times the headline mentions the recession, Angelina Jolie and Twitter’. Goal.

Or is that an own goal? Back in the world of ink, paper-based headlines are usually short. There’s often a pun involved, too. I worked with a sub who thought song titles by The Smiths made the best headlines. The theory works well to some extent, such as in the case of ‘How Soon is Now?’, ‘What Difference Does it Make?’ and ‘This Charming Man’. But ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ and ‘The Queen is Dead’ have a more limited applicability.

And of course, there’s the online problem. ‘This Charming Man’ is a nice title for a magazine article on a friendly CIO. But most paper-based articles end up on the web and would you click on the article if you weren’t a fan of The Smiths? More importantly, would you be able to find it?

The end result is that puntastic magazine headlines get rewritten for the age of webtastic search optimisation. In fact, stories start to exist simply because people know they will get hits, such as ‘Top 10 tips’ articles. As journalist Andy McCue said to me the other day: “I’ll go mad if I see another ‘Top 10 tips for beating the recession’ article.” Check out Google News, my friend – there are plenty to push you over the edge.

Still, the headline and the content are no guarantee of attention anyway. I heard a woman on the train say to her friend the other day: “So, what was that story about a plane landing on a river? I missed that.”

It is difficult to understand how she could have missed the story of the US Airways plane landing on the Hudson River. Well, unless she’d sold her TV, refused to read, smashed up her radio, disconnected the computer, refused to talk to another human being and moved to Venus.

Which, I assume, she hadn’t. In short, you just can’t grab some people’s attention – even when the headline is great and the content of the story is even better. But good luck trying.

The sparkling new edition of CIO Connect magazine is out. Thanks to all those who participated and to those that helped sort out the interviews. Here is a list of featured CIOs and business experts:

• Gordon Hextall, COO of NHS Connecting for Health
• Paul Jones, NHS CTO
• Mykolas Rambus, head of IT and special projects at Forbes
• Ken Narvey, group chief technology and services officer at HSBC
• Tony Mather, CIO at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office 
• Paul Woobey, CIO at the Office of National Statistics
• Ben Booth, global CIO at Ipsos MORI
• Anne Weatherston, Bank of Ireland CIO
• Mark Leonard, Colt CIO
• Martin Thompson, Tradefair CTO
• Steve Pikett, head of IT at Rothschild
• Mark Greenlaw, Cognizant CIO
• Jan Durant, director of IT at Lewis Silkin LLP
• Ray Johnston, group IT operations manager at Aspen Insurance
• Dean Branton, group director of business transformation at KCOM
• Nathan Hayes, head of infrastructure and technology at Osborne Clarke
• Mary Hensher, Deloitte CIO
• Dave Williams, IT director at Confused.com
• Robin Osmond, Tradefair CEO
• Sharm Manwani, associate professor at Henley Management College
• James Urquhart Stewart, media commentator
• Duncan Aitchison, partner at TPI
• Joe McDonagh, executive development expert at Trinity College Dublin
• David Head, director at La Fosse Associates
• Jo Alexander-Jones, organisational development manager at BG Group
• Guy Hains, president of CSC’s European Operations
• Patrick O’Connell, president of BT Global Service and MD of BT Health
• David Bodanis, scenario planning expert
• Rohit Talwar, futurologist

PRs looking to feature CIOs or business experts in forthcoming issues can ping me an email. Thanks in advance.

CIOs talk a lot about innovation. Actually, it’s often all they talk about – along with a bunch of related concepts, such as value, efficiency, globalisation, leadership and partnership. But what is innovation?

It’s a question that’s being analysed in a number of ways by CIO Connect and I’m putting together a special feature, speaking to CIOs and senior researchers at blue-chip businesses. Early conclusions? CIOs – and other business executives, more generally – often wrongly focus on the ‘blue sky’ element of innovation.

‘Blue sky thinking’, as well as being a bloody awful phrase, is only one tenet of innovation. It covers the research and development part, the creativity. But there’s another area of innovation that is probably more important, especially in the current economic climate.

Innovation is not just about developing something ‘new’, it is also about the re-use of existing assets in different and exciting combinations. Basically, it’s about regeneration and making good with something bad – ‘brown-field site thinking’, if you will (to borrow and manipulate the phrasing of geography).

Now, which is better – ‘blue sky thinking’ or ‘brown-field site thinking’?

I’ll be starting to work on the following features for CIO Connect magazine in the next week-or-so. As usual, I’m looking for one-on-one interviews with IT leaders (CIOs, CTOs and IT directors) of big name organisations. The briefs cover the following areas:

• Environmental responsibility and carbon neutrality – We will look at how corporate social responsibility and carbon neutrality can help drive increased value and operational efficiency.
• Migration strategies – How should enterprise software be deployed? Potential areas include bespoke development, legacy retirement, porting applications and SOA.
• Next generation leaders – What strategies can help CIOs create top class, next generation leaders? And how can IT leaders create a strong framework for succession planning?
• C-Suite executives – I’ll also be looking for one-on-one interviews with CxOs (CEO, FD, HR director, etc.).

Mail me if you have any pitches. Thanks in advance.

I’m putting together a feature on location-based services for CIO Connect’s spring 2009 magazine (brief below). As ever, I’m looking to talk to CIOs that have implemented are – or are thinking about implementing – location-based services. Here’s the brief – and ping me an email if you have any leads:

Location-based services and presence – Modern mobile devices offer a host of possibilities for CIOs. Location-based services can allow the business to deliver geographically-sensitive information. What types of location-based services can help CIOs change business processes? Potential areas of discussion include convergence, presence and tracking.

In Eastbourne, more specifcally. I’m off to the south coast tomorrow for CIO Connect’s annual conference. I’m not expecting to do much strolling along the prom, or listening to brass bands play. But I am expecting some interesting debates about the current economic downturn and the future of business technology.