By John A. Glowacki Jr. Before considering any strategic moves, it’s a good idea to take a hard look at your company’s current state of affairs. Having recently taken on the role of CSC’s chief technology officer (CTO)*, I was able to do that, using CSC’s framework of people, process and technology.

I have found that what is most important are the leadership
opportunities embedded in the parts of the framework — mostly
in people, but also in the last two parts, process and technology.

The CTO must align technology and related issues to the major business objectives, which become fairly complex in a Fortune 500 company. So why should a CTO be so interested in leadership issues? Because leaders (at all levels) can make the
technology efforts of the company (and the company itself ) successful. From a business perspective, people are often the greatest investment we make. Making process and technology work requires informed, motivated and skilled people to proactively manage and execute the initiatives and operations of the business, be they technical or otherwise.

Look at any significant technical project or service being delivered. Does it have 10 “technical” people on it? 30? 300? That’s 10, 30 or 300 potential leadership opportunities (or failures) that will impact the success of the project.

There is a great deal of value in having the right processes, but it’s always a balance: too much process and you become sluggish, too little and it’s the “Wild West,” where good results are not repeatable. Processes present opportunities for leadership: True leaders will look outside the organization for the best new
way to do something. It is safe to say that CSC typically learns at least one better process or procedure during every large account we take on. You cannot legislate common sense and good organizational discipline, no matter how much process you use. Leveraging from outside your organization is another component of leadership.

Technology is continually evolving and this too has to be managed. That is, how big or fast do you really need to be to solve the problem, and what is the best value decision? Obviously, the implementation and operation of technology relies on people and process — again, more leadership opportunities.

*For context, CSC is an account unto itself, i.e., the IT services CSC requires to run itself internally are provisioned through the same outsourcing scheme CSC uses to support its clients. Therefore, the CIO and CTO have very similar latitudes and responsibilities as the retained client executives of our large accounts.

1 | 2 | next page >