Smallwood Maike's Insurance Transformation, Shifting from Talk to Action

Deb Smallwood

Who Should The CIO Report To?

user-pic
By Deb Smallwood on August 14, 2008 2:43 PM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes

When I think about this question - – I immediately defaulted to – of course the CEO….
But after some thought, after reflecting upon my past year as the Chief Transformation Officer of a mid-tier P&C company, my years at Liberty Mutual – evolution of the role - - - and just some basic research - - the answer is now - - it depends – it does not default to the CEO…and in short - - -some sort of matrix relationship…
The role of the CIO is very simple yet quite complex.
Let’s look at the simple part…
To enable the organization to maximize it’s investment of technology, leverage emerging technologies advances and enable the business to achieve it’s strategies, goals, and financial outcomes - - -flawlessly, seamlessly and effectively….. there needs to be trusted, credible, and reliable advisor…

So who in the organization will partner and guide the executive leadership team?
The role today is complex - - - CIO today depth and breadth of responsibilities span from Board level - - how do I compare to the competition in levels of automation, working with the Executive Team & LOB heads on strategy, to guiding/risk managing many multi-million initiatives to a state regulation will create manual work around - - ensuring the technical infrastructure server farms, to hard disk drive that bring down ½ the country to disaster recovery, to answering emails from an executive - -why is my computer screen fuzzy, my blackberry is not working….. CIO wears many hats - - -
So given the CIO’s level of responsibility and the level of accountability and authority given - - - – it should be matrixed - - - - -there should be an alignment to the CEO and the executive team - - there needs to be alignment. But from an execution state, there needs to be alignment with the officer or executive that gets things done in the organization.
Other considerations - -
1. What is the maturity of the company, leadership team , people, process and technology….
2. What are the strategies and goals and how wide is the gap between what the capabilities are today and where they need to go?
3. What is the view of IT –
· Cost of doing business - - - a utility or in trouble-non performing…laggard
· Transactional - - -not strategic, but essential – viewed as running the business – follower - -moves forward many mid tier carriers.
· Strategic Alignment - - - was integral part of the business - - - - -tight alignment – fast follower – St Paul Travelers, Liberty Mutual.
· Transformational, innovation- - quite entrepreneur - - market leader --- their business model - - progressive.
4. What is the Size & Diversity of the organization?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What do you think?
Decomponentize the role - - -
Strategy - - - -Governance - - -stratey, plans, priorty setting, architecture, risk management, archiecture
Operational - - - - - - -business application and data center…
Financial - -tco
developing the bus & it initiatives - - - - -tight alignment with CEO & LOB heads….
Business operational - - -legacy applications & data center - - - - - alignment with someone that
Small to mid tier - - - - - Matrix - - CEO - - seat at the table, COO/or someone that will partner and get things pushed through the organziatioin
Large - - - CEO - -

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://www.ebizq.net/MT4/mt-tb.cgi/10516

Leave a comment

The purpose of Smallwood Maike's blog is create a dialogue around insurance transformation; launching a different perspective on linkage between strategy, process and technology choices and shifting the mindset from a technology driven approach with SOA & BPM to a business driven service-oriented thinking that creates agile and flexible new insurance business models. Look for a wide gambit of trends, research, case studies, and insights on making transformation a reality.

Deb Smallwood

"I grew up in the insurance industry and have experienced the shackles that ineffective business processes with misaligned monolithic technology solutions have placed on insurance companies... Today, I really do believe those shackles can finally be removed with the right alignment of strategy to process to systems, and, I want to be out front in making this happen."...Deb Smallwood

A co-founder of Smallwood Maike, Deb Smallwood has held leadership roles Liberty Mutual, KPMG LLP, and TowerGroup, where she consistently found new ways to leverage technology in achieving optimal business performance.Her skill set includes business strategy, the development of business and IT roadmaps, and the delivery of application software. Prior to Smallwood Maike, Deb served as Chief Transformation Officer (CIO) for a P&C; mid-tier regional carrier.


Kyle Odermann

As a consultant and as an M&A; analyst, a critical part of my mission has always been to maximize and leverage a company's assets…assets that often derive from substantial technology investments…assets that often involve unique intellectual capital… and assets that have all too often been underutilized. At Smallwood Maike, we're working toward the same end by helping clients to realize the full potential of their investments. ...Kyle

Kyle Odermann came to Smallwood Maike from American Century Investments, where he led all day to day M&A; activities, including sourcing and evaluating potential acquisitions, securing Executive Committee/Board approval, and managing the integration of acquired businesses into the American Century portfolio.


Subscribe

 
Add to Google Reader or Homepage

Subscribe in NewsGator Online

Recently Commented On

Categories

Monthly Archives

ADVERTISEMENT