InformationWeek

August 11, 1997

Secret CIO: Playing Internet Roulette
The Net has helped IS win attention in the boardroom. But it has also provided unlimited opportunities to make the wrong choice.

By Herbert W. Lovelace

love the Internet. I haven't had so much fun with computers since I first learned to program and found out that by simply typing some letters and symbols, I could make this big machine spew out lots of paper covered with all sorts of information. It was like magic.

That trick held my attention for years. Then I got distracted by a number of management chores that I somehow wound up being responsible for-my initial promotion being based, I am positive, on the perverse theory that a good programmer would make a good supervisor.

Now, with the popularization of the Internet, not only do I find what seems like all the world's knowledge-rea l and imagined-at my fingertips, but I have also come closer to the center of where the action is in my company. I am invited to meetings where businesspeople are exploring meaningful ideas and my thoughts are even welcomed. This is heady stuff for a guy who was still being referred to as the head of data processing long after I became a company VP.

All this attention is great for my ego. Just the other day, Phil Whitestone, our president and CEO, had a meeting to discuss strategic opportunities and invited me to sit in so that I could provide my expertise (his words) to the group and ensure that we identified where technology could be a competitive weapon for or against us (again, his words). There I was, listening to heated discussions about potential major new business initiatives to counter declining profit margins in one of our core businesses, nodding my head periodically to show I was pondering key points, and once or twice actually saying something that may turn out to be of some value. Wow, have we IS types come a long way.

On the other hand, it may be that our newfound fame is short-lived. I didn't think it was possible for our jobs to be even more complex than before-but with the Internet, there are unlimited opportunities to make the wrong choice and miss something important. I am concerned about adaptability, overblown expectations, hype, and hacking. All of us struggling with electronic business on the Web and the technical decisions to support it are playing in an arena where the stakes are very high and mistakes are really, really noticeable.

Imagine the impact on the business if we spend a fortune building tools and networks that are expensive-or even worse-take so long to modify that we can't respond to the competition?

Keep The Hype In Check
We can't do a lot about overblown expectations. People read about innovative selling and lowering costs through the Internet and want to jump in to achieve the benefits. However, if we're smart, we'll do our best to keep the leve l of hype low. It's a fine line to walk.

Then there's the hacking issue. What happens if the site gets hacked and the picture of our CEO winds up being defaced? What does that do for the comfort level of our management? It's happened to the CIA-what makes us think it can't happen to us?

There's an old Chinese curse that I try to remember: May you live in interesting times. The Internet is a lot like a big roulette wheel. Make your bet. The ball drops. Watch it go round and round. As the wheel spins, you have high hopes, but you don't know where it's going to land. Some people will bet correctly. Others won't. The odds may be against you, but the ride is never dull.

Herbert W. Lovelace is CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. Herb practices his day job under an alias and has changed the names of colleagues to protect the guilty. Send him E-mail at secret@cmp.com . He'll provide real answers-and whimsical comments-to your questions on InformationWe ek Online at techweb.cmp.com/iw/current/secret.htm .

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