Strategic Technology

Martyn Harrow, Director of Information Services, Cardiff University

David Grant, Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University, is sorry not to be here. But if a CIO is worth his salt he should be able to do the CEO’s presentation, so I will do my best to cover his ground too.  I sit on the managing board of Cardiff and so have a corporate responsibility to lead and guide the university but also have four functional areas of responsibility:

• the library service
• media centre
• high performance computing
• university IT

David and I did have two presentations and I will not entirely attempt to present his but will step through it with the overheads. Then I will do my own. David and I have had a partnership over five years. It is very central to the university’s development and it also has to be nurtured and invested in. We do a lot of that nurturing in discussions over a bottle of wine. A lot of good ideas come out of that. But that key relationship does have to be worked on.

We first gave this lecture in 2003 and most observations are still valid today. First, a bit about Cardiff: 26,000 full time students, more than 6,000 members of staff, member of the Russell Group, seeking to be one of the top 50 universities in the world.

The CEO and the Vice-Chancellor – a  similar role? David contrasts the two roles in terms of industry and university. [See ‘CEO Roles’ slides.] More touch points than one might think. Even the conventional idea of short-termism in business and long-termism in universities is not strictly true. Both must manage short term outputs and deliver today but both also have to have an eye for the long term game plan and that is central to the relationship with IT right now.  There has been a huge change in the capability of ICT and global ICT impact is tremendous.

Vice-chancellor’s view of the  CIO role: makes the point that information absolutely central to the excellent management of the university but, again, university IT has perhaps been rather under-invested in the past and this is a legacy many of us face in this sector. Past under-investment is not just in kit and systems but in whole professionalisation and culture of the university and understanding of how to grasp the potential of IT and grasp it with competence. The CIO is business-critical and business-enabling.

Martyn now moves on to his own presentation.

CIO is one of the most exciting jobs that anyone can have but also one of the toughest jobs that anyone can do in any enterprise. Also one of the most exciting because the fast-changing nature of IT presents the opportunity to make a difference to your organisation. I’ve held CIO roles in government and public service, private sector and also provided coaching in CIO roles so I have a spread of experience. One of the most important features is the relationship between the CIO and CEO.

Why CIO? Because it is about how to make large complex enterprises work well. How to make them the best in their field. IT is the tool, the enabler you can use to achieve those outcomes. That’s my passion – the fusion of people and IT.

The new IT agenda
[further details on the slide]
In the 60s and 70s IT started to become central. We have moved from Doing IT to Managing IT to Leading IT. It is a single working lifetime change. We started our jobs on the left hand side of the chart (60s/70s – Doing IT) and we’re now on the right hand side and that rate of change within one lifetime has no equal in any other profession. Both in terms of pace of change and also the capabilities of IT. There is a generational change. It is a completely different paradigm. The shift from functional IT to IT which is much more about social connection - the human dimension of IT – and the fusion of those things is opening up a new paradigm. We’re really only on the cusp of a huge shift in power because of the shift from functional to human dimension of IT. It is a much more prevailing and compelling form of IT that sticks.

The skill agenda is also important – what does it take to be successful as a CIO in the 21st century? The same kind of skills needed for success in any profession or organisation. Very different skills to the technical skills that have been traditional in our discipline and that’s something we have struggled with – we suffer from the legacy of that. We may present in ways that are not so business-smart and often look a bit geeky. We need to learn about the people dynamic that is essential for success. If you need to get IT invested in, it can be hard to take management on a journey to feel confident about IT.

IT environment – Target for change
Checklist on slide: if you recognise too many of those points as a CIO then you are in a bad place. The last few points are among the most important: sceptical stakeholders. Treat the key people in your organisation as your investors rather than your customers. You want to take them seriously and deliver confidence. Your senior team are your key investors. They need to get the kind of service to convince them that the IT people can manage their own business well. IT has in the past been treated as a cost not an investment.

21st century CIO – agent of change
You need to be the organisation leader responsible for IT but also have a wider remit – have a positive impact wider than IT. Skills that would apply to anybody in any discipline.

How do you get there? Firstly, you have to BE the CIO. Take ownership and provide the catalytic change. Exhibit the kind of characteristics I talked about in the previous slide. Get the basics right first. Put the IT house in order so that the service delivers – show what you can do with the service you already have. Show that you can actually fix stuff and deliver excellence within the parameters you have. Recognise that the people factor is everything. Manage the people dynamics is key and you must invest in your own and your team’s development. One of the challenges when you have a technical profession. Think out a game plan for yourself.

IT game-plan for success
Look at the reality now, desired reality, action agenda and actions now. You have to figure out how to make it happen in your own organisation. Have to get your profession engaged with your colleagues elsewhere in the university.

An illustration from Cardiff
When I arrived in Cardiff I had that game plan and David and I put together a strategy for the next 5-7 years. Cardiff has set itself an ambitious agenda. We have modest funds so have to be very smart in our investments in order to get an edge. The international world of university research is incredibly competitive and we want to be one of the world’s top 50 universities. I looked at how IT could make our university distinctive. It could be an affordable investment. We identified three differentiating platforms of the future:

• Library strategy: what would a 21st century library of the future look like and how would we get there
• Modern IT working environment: CIO role to see some of the ways modern IT could help this institution. But it has to be something that the whole university sees. So we went through sessions with key players to show some of these ideas and ask if they could see ways that those ideas could help the university.
• Advanced research computing: we were a bit behind on this so we used some outside consultancy to work with colleagues with more knowledge and expertise to hold a mirror up to us

An illustration from Cardiff [more detail on the complex slide]
The university strategy is world-leading Cardiff; research; learning teaching and assessment; staff and student experience. There are specific areas of focus in these three areas: Excellence today; Creating new futures (the three major investment platforms: 21st century library, modern IT working environment, advanced research computing, pathfinding); Developing INSRV (Information Services).

The MWE concept illustrated [more detail on the slide]
We have a concept for the modern IT working environment: it will deliver to you what you need wherever you are, whatever device, 24/7, 365 days and be available to colleagues you are collaborating with too. This is being implemented now and is catalysing change in a diverse university. It helps achieve a sense of identity across campuses and departments. It is making a fundamental difference.

Take aways:

• The CIO has to be the person who takes the lead. Absolutely. And you absolutely have to guide your organisation through this fast-changing world. And you have to be skilled with all the usual skills
• The CEO/CIO role is crucial. And it also includes all the senior key players and they may not all be on the board and you have to figure out who they are.
• You need to have your own game plan for success. HOW you are going to make it happen.

Questions

Malcolm Read: your success in Cardiff is underpinned by a strong relationship with your CEO. What advice would you give to any CIO who cannot make that relationship work so well?

Martyn: You have to recognise where you are in a situation like that. You may not be able to achieve the transformational change your organisation needs without that. I would counsel anyone not to let your career be blighted by that and to think about moving and finding a CEO who does get it. But there can be work to be done – it’s not something to give up on lightly – the penny may drop over time. But ultimately you have to make that choice.

How do you know if you’re getting somewhere? People talk about hard measures of progress, such as network uptake, but these are hard to do as so many changes at any one time. The soft measures are the most compelling. What’s the buzz on the wire? Do other universities ask to come and see what you’re doing? They are coming to us at Cardiff. Are the academics starting to talk up the infrastructure? Is the university attracting academics because of the infrastructure and support? Are they asking you to co-author something eg in the area of high performance computing? The final soft measure of progress is your CEO becomes a hero for the use of IT.

Delegate: can you just talk about the role of the deans in the faculty in terms of influence and how it works?

Martyn:  It’s always a challenge to get the right kind of relationships with everyone and it’s a journey. You have to pick a few to start with and then work over time. They have to see that you are on their side and working to support their agenda and whenever they need anything you must move heaven and earth to try to achieve it. If you do that then the relationship moves on to a different place and they become sponsors of the cause. I think that’s happened in Cardiff. If you get the relationships right then you can have an influence beyond the IT agenda.

Delegate: One of the things that David did when he became VC is to disband a lot of the committee structure and the concept of personal responsibility was put in its place – making it easier to get things done. So the issues would get at least surfaced within a two week period and not get lost in the committee structure.

Martyn: I go to almost everything I am invited to and so they see me as part of the organisation and not the IT geek over in the corner. It helps to break down the need for formal structures.  We take an interest and use our initiative to help them out.

Delegate: We would welcome the way you emphasise the people dimension. In this sector there is quite a culture of adversity to change and people who have been there for some time and think they know the way to do it. How did you address those issues?

Martyn: In private industry leaders can do a lot of incentivisation which may – but not necessarily - make it easier to align people to the purpose. A CEO may have some levers a VC does not have but I don’t think it’s really that different. People are driven by attainments and the key trick is to get people on side with change is to help them to understand that what you are seeking will help them to achieve what they want to achieve. How you get to that point of understanding has to be dealt with as the opportunities arise. In Cardiff people are generally on board with the idea of getting the university to the top 50 positions, and that all the efforts we are making on the ground are very clear.

Delegate: One of the things that has been amazingly successful is the investment in people. My experience in the past is that this is not traditional. We tried to understand how the people in INSERV work together and support the university’s mission.