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Part 2

 

Here are some more good quotes and advice from panel discussions at the recent MIT CIO Symposium:

 

 

--Jim Walker, COO, Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney: There is often "creative tension" between the CIO and the COO; at our company, as we undertake the largest corporate integration in history, we are joined at the hip, like it or not."

 

--Limit yourself to five key projects at a time, advises, Ben-Saba Hasan, VP ISD at Wal-Mart. Then, collaborate with other business leaders to show results.

The three most common reasons that CIOs get fired, he said, are: Lack of trust, poor relationships and poor accountability--"it has nothing to do with IT. You have to deliver what you say you will."


--Steven Elefant, CIO, Heartland Payments Systems on security and mobility: "There are millions of opportunities for the bad guys to destroy us. The good guys still operate in silos, the bad guys share hacker tips on web sites. We need to adopt their ways."

 

--Andy Ellis, Senior director of Information Security, Akamai: CIOs have to "enable business users to take risks and then manage the risk; you can't eliminate them." [Read our Q&A with Andy here.]

 

--Steven Elefant: Don't ignore the inside security threats which are usually greater than the outside threats.

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Here are some highlights and great quotes I want to share with you from yesterday's panel on Emerging Stronger from the Downturn:

 

--Bob Brennan, President and CEO of Iron Mountain: “Driving top-line growth is the only sustainable way to grow. Top-line growth doesn’t come from cost-savings. You can’t take out any more costs.”
--Sundar Subramaniam, chairman and founder Knome and Cambridge Technology Enterprises, on accountability and security: “If you are committed to change, you will figure out the rest…otherwise, you will never change.”
“Existing business has a high need for security; innovative business can take more chances.”
--Bob Burke, President, CEO and Director of ATG: “The CIO is a business facilitator…just as we are for our customers…they are a unifying force among all the silos.”
--Bob Brennan on CIO responsibilities: “Separate the I from the T; emphasis is on finding great people; don’t hunker down” and just focus on technology. Being a CIO is becoming a “ridiculously hard job; CIOs can’t play defense.” We look for so many qualities, it's like seeking a "purple squirrel."
--Chris Capossela, Senior VP, Microsoft: “CIOs want solutions, not products; they don’t want to be ‘sold to.”
--Sundar Subramaniam: CIOs who are mired in legacy have only three choices: migrate to something new, rearchitect what you have or “burn it and start over.”

 

Valauble advice or unrealistic in your everyday world?

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Paula Klein, Smart Enterprise Exchange Editor
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Ellen Lalier, Smart Enterprise Exchange Concierge
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phone 516-562-5727; fax 516-562-5466