INSEAD and CIOnet announce European CIO of the Year award winners

INSEAD, the leading international business school, in partnership with CIOnet, announced the winners of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year Award which was presented at the CIO City Conference in Brussels on 25 March 2011. Pascale Avargues, Directrice Organisation et Informatique, Mairie de Bordeaux; Daniel Lebeau, VP Management and Information Systems, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals; and Marcello Cordioli, Chief Information Officer, Permasteelisa were recognised as the winning CIOs for their success in using Information Technology (IT) to help their organisations operate more efficiently and innovate with customers.

European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, introducing the European CIO of the Year Awards at the CIO City Conference, noted: ‘CIOs are shaping the wider business agenda as never before. This event is about recognising those outstanding achievements across Europe, and I am looking forward to discussing how CIOs can become critical partners in the delivering the Digital Agenda for Europe.’

The three winners were selected from a field of 15 diverse finalists identified by the country offices of CIOnet network. Each candidate was interviewed and surveyed on specific topics which allowed INSEAD and CIOnet to categorise each finalist into one of three types of leaders (Technology-driven; Business-process driven; and Client-driven). The final three CIOs (one representing each type) were selected on the basis of two key factors: the CIO who best represented a specific type of leader and who together, embodied the diversity of the 15 finalists.

In addition to the awards, INSEAD and CIOnet released the results of an in-depth study, IT-Enabled Leadership: The Expanding Strategic Roles of CIOs. This report presents results from a study which surveyed 130 CIOs from seven European countries and interviewed 14 of Europe’s most effective CIOs (as judged by their peers). The survey examined how much time CIOs spent in 2010 across the following four categories: managing IT services; working with non-IT colleagues; managing enterprise-wide business processes; and working with external customers and partners.

Selected by their peers as Europe’s most effective CIOs in 2010, the profiled CIOs in the report include (in alphabetical order): Claudia de Andrade, City of Amsterdam; Pascale Avargues, Mairie de Bordeaux; Egil Brækken, Hafslund; Paolo Capodanno, Elettronica Spa; Marcello Cordioli, Permasteelisa; Sabine Everaet, The Coca-Cola Company; Federico Flórez, Ferrovial; Stella Kuin, Kadaster; Daniel Lebeau, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals; Idoia Maguregui, Bankinter; Jan Erik Ressem, Lånekassen; Lineke Sneller, of Tele2; John Suffolk, UK Government; and Luigi Vassallo, Matrix Spa.

‘Contrary to traditional perceptions of what CIOs do, executives in this position spend a significant percentage of their time outside of managing ICT services,’ said Soumitra Dutta, The Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology and Academic Director of INSEAD eLab. ‘Any organisation that treats IT simply as a cost that needs to be controlled should take note of the findings in this report and realise they are losing out on significant opportunities.’

Based on CIO responses, three distinct types of CIOs emerged: Technology-driven CIOs (managing the IT organisation and its people); Business Process-driven CIOs (managing enterprise business processes); and Client-driven CIOs (focus on meeting customers with external customers, partners and colleagues).

One-third of CIOs surveyed anticipate their roles will change significantly over the next three years. Almost a quarter of the CIOs said they expect to spend more time defining and managing enterprise-wide businesss processes. Nearly 25 percent of CIOs believed their role would transform to become more focused on business processes.

‘The report provides insights into how IT-enabled leaders are creating strategic value from IT for a variety of organisations,’ Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director of INSEAD eLab, noted: ‘The report findings complement INSEAD eLab’s past research findings on skills and competitiveness and suggest that fostering IT-enabled leaders is an essential component in any effort to strengthen a region’s capacity to innovate and develop more broadly.’

The profiles of CIOs in the report illustrate how each type of leader provides distinct kinds of value to the organisation. Technology-driven leaders ensure the organisation is spending more on innovation and less on operations and maintenance; Business process-driven leaders help non-IT colleagues map, re-design and improve how things get done in the organisation; and Client-driven leaders help extend their organisation’s capacity to innovate with customers. 

‘The findings in this report offer insights into how organisations are taking control of IT by fostering IT-enabled leaders,’ said Nils Olaya Fonstad, Associate Director of INSEAD eLab. Hendrik Deckers of CIOnet added: ‘We would like to congratulate all of the finalists and commend the three CIO of the Year Award winners for their outstanding achievements. We are deeply committed to supporting research and initiatives that foster development and leadership opportunities for CIOs and we look forward to our ongoing partnership with INSEAD.’