Expo: Role of CIOs in business transformation stressed

Cloud Computing, Enterprise Mobility and Cloud Security were the topics discussed on the final day of the summit.

KARACHI: “Chief Information Officers (CIOs) play a critical role in successful business transformations,” Principal and Chief Innovative Officer, Intelligent Systems United States (US), Dr Frank Harper said while addressing the final session of the 2nd CIO Summit and Expo that concluded at Marriot Hotel on Wednesday.

An expert on transformation leadership, Dr Harper – who flew in from the US to speak at the summit – highlighted seven different roles played by highly effective CIOs and the challenges they face.

“One of the most important roles of CIOs is that of educators,” Dr Harper said in his presentation titled, ‘CIOs Role in Business Transformation: Twenty-first Century Transformational Leadership’. “The more you can educate your business community, the better the results,” he said.

Dr Harper’s presentation – which gave a detailed picture of CIOs’ role in business transformation; the challenges they face and barriers to strategy execution – remained the highlight of the day.

The IT expert, who brings with him 35 years of work experience in big corporations across five continents, shared his leadership recipe with audience. His detailed talk on strategies that helped him achieve a project success rate of 96% provided a perfect ending to the two-day summit and expo – an amalgamation of top CIOs, IT heads, IT professionals and experts who get together every year to discuss the issues that matter to them the most.

“The CIOs should seek to understand rather than expecting to be understood,” Dr Harper said. “They should ask the right questions. If they don’t ask strategic questions, they will not have the information required for successful business transformation,” he added.

Cloud Computing, Enterprise Mobility and Cloud Security were the topics discussed on the final day of the summit, Summit Director and CEO, Solutions Inc. Kamran Saeed said.

The first session focused on key considerations in developing a comprehensive Enterprise Mobility while Nadeem Malik, Director Enterprise at Huawei Technologies, informed the audience on how to adapt their organisations to the new environment where the employees could bring their own devices for enterprise productivity, Saeed said.