Pour devenir une véritable source de création de valeur, il convient que la DSI comprennent les métiers, soit au service de la commercialisation des produits de l'entreprise et par conséquent focalisée sur le client final.

A Customer-Focused Team

We have team members with strong business skills because I recruit for and develop them. Furthermore, I have not centralized my application teams; I want people to develop strong industry knowledge in order to support specific business units and understand their particular customers.

My entire team goes on sales calls; it's important for IT staff to hear directly what the customer wants. The salesperson isn't going to ask what kind of systems customers would like or what technology our competitors have. But IT can engage customers in that conversation, and the salespeople hear the answers. That can build momentum for a specific initiative.

I have not imposed a quota for going on sales calls, but I've hired people who like to do it. They're harder to find, of course. In fact, that's the biggest staffing challenge I have. But I think people who like to work with the business tend to like to be in front of customers. Their idea of success is making sure they meet business needs, not only that they are putting in a great technology solution.

Meanwhile, an affinity for our business is essential to career development in my organization. I have a preference for buying systems rather than building them; we build our own when there aren't viable solutions in the marketplace. Because of this, I'm not sure I can always give developers the best career path that will lead to more senior development roles.

But I know I can offer a great career path to somebody who is a program manager or business analyst-or even a developer who wants to move into one of these roles because his skill sets can easily translate to the skills needed to become IT directors, to support the IT needs of a business unit and ultimately to take my job. In fact, that's my number-one interview question for any IT leadership role. If the candidate doesnâ¬"t say he wants my job, then heâ¬"s the wrong person.

Tom Gernon

Tom Gernon is CIO of MDS and is a member of the CIO Executive Council. He was COO of D2Hawkeye Inc., a healthcare software company, and has held CIO positions at both PerkinElmer Inc. and J.P. Morgan Invest.

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