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CIO Profiles: Anthony DeCanti Of UniGroup
Career Track
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Anthony DeCanti Senior VP and CIO, UniGroup |
How long at UniGroup: About a year at this logistics services company.
Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: Making the transition from the business to IT. Education in IT made me a better business leader; business experience makes me a better IT leader.
Decision I wish I could do over: In the past, I made the mistake of chasing technology. There's a balance between implementing new technologies that offer a competitive advantage and developing reliable, consistent systems.
On The Job
IT budget: $30 million
Size of IT team: 180
Top initiatives:
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Vision
One thing I'm looking to do better: I want to improve collaboration. We just have too many walls today.
How I give my team room to innovate: I ask for individuals or teams to present ideas to me that they feel have potential to make a difference. This demonstrates initiative and passion for the idea. If an idea has merit, I free up their time to pursue the idea and ask for regular updates.
The most common cause when IT projects go wrong: A breakdown in communication between IT and the business or a lack of support from the business is usually why projects fail.
What I want from tech vendors: We need truly unique, innovative approaches to problems from our vendors instead of another repackaging of the same old ideas.
The most overrated IT movement: Cloud computing. It's not that I don't support it or believe that it's going to happen, it's just that there are so many case studies that are simply not true. Let's face it, there is still a lot of work to be done to make it easier and more affordable.
Kids and tech careers: I'm definitely trying to steer my kids toward technology careers. They're still young, but I believe that technology will always have a future.
Personal
Degree: Creighton University, BS in computer science
Favorite pro sports team coach: Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, because he coaches his team like I feel I coach my team -- we're both involved and personal
Best book read recently: Unbroken, a well-written and incredible story about Louis Zamperini
If I weren't CIO, I'd be ... a COO -- I love operations
