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Think global, says IBM CIO

Information Age staff, Information Age

10/04/2008 12:41:52

While recently in Australia, Hennessy spoke at ACS events in Sydney and Melbourne on the topic of "Developing a successful career showcasing innovative leadership", aimed at young ICT professionals.

Hennessy has been with IBM for 25 years but his appointment in July 2007 saw him take on his first "pure technology" role for the company. He is responsible for the technology needs of 372,000 staff worldwide along with 50,000 contractors. This means Hennessy supports more than 400,000 devices, eight million square feet of data centres along with thousands of servers and applications.

Although Hennessy admits he enjoys access to IBM's technology, he says as CIO he faces the same challenges as any other ICT leader, particularly how to help facilitate the long-term growth of the company and "help employees feel good about the company they work for and be more productive".

According to Hennessy, there can be a tendency to consider automating processes quickly, to some benefit, rather than spending more time looking at the underlying business objectives for greater advantage. To do this, ICT staff need business skills and an understanding of the business processes, he said.

"I would encourage young people to seek out these opportunities [to build business skills]. It may be time in a different department, it may be a rotational assignment, it may be studying on their own time the issues affecting the industry that they're in or understanding the metrics the business leaders in their industry use to show quality and financial improvements."

With business increasingly global, young people starting careers in ICT would also do well to look outside Australia. "Young people with a comfort level with different cultures and different ways of doing business will have an advantage," he said.

Hennessy says you can develop these skills by working on global projects or global companies but also through social networking and online collaboration. "If you have the mindset to do it, you can accomplish it."

Hennessy also suggests students consider ways they can be exposed to business processes at university, such as taking different courses and electives, and through industry organisations like the ACS.

Speaking with Information Age, Hennessy highlighted ways IBM uses the different skills and ideas of its employees worldwide through online collaboration. One example is the Jam Process, in which IBM publishes a topic online for employees to contribute possible solutions. The topics are time-bound and experts provide background information.

"It's very interesting to watch," Hennessy says. "[A topic] might be posted during the day in North America and the North American team works on it and then during the afternoon and evening the Europeans start work on it, doing more and more, and then the Asians in the night time (back in the US) - you actually see the different perspectives and ideas coming in. It creates a much richer, more robust solution."

As well as generating ideas, Hennessy also believes social networking and collaboration tools can be of benefit when it comes to managing ICT staff across geographies - and generations. "I think an organisation has to be nimble enough to take advantage of that diversity.