Becky Blalock Senior VP and CIO Southern Co.

How long at current company: 10 years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: I'm most proud when someone I mentor or who has worked under my leadership gets promoted. Helping others succeed is what I enjoy most about my job

Most important career influencer: Abraham Lincoln. When he was a candidate he used new technology--the telegraph-- and it changed the way people campaigned and communicated with the president. Also, Allen Franklin. When he was CEO of Georgia Power, I served as his assistant. I learned the importance of metrics from him. He used to say, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

Decision I wish I could do over: If I could do my career over, I would take more risk early on. Throughout my 29-year career with the company, I've held 12 jobs in five functional areas. Most of that movement happened in the last 15 years. Before then, I rarely went out on a limb for a job or developmental opportunity.

The next big thing for my business will be ... smart grid technology. A smart electricity grid can closely monitor energy flow and use across a large network. A smart grid could instantly identify outages and could potentially heal itself.

Best advice for future CIOs: They should stay focused on business value and avoid being enamored with the technology. They also should never underestimate the value of proactive communication.

IT budget: $330 million

Size of IT team: 1,110 employees

Top three initiatives:

• Advanced metering infrastructure
• Information management
• Development and deployment of enterprise-wide software for work management, financial computing, and inventory

How I measure IT effectiveness: In our IT department, we seek customer ratings on projects. We also evaluate the net present value on projects delivered. We have a monthly IT management report that's comprised of 62 metrics, including goals, financials, project performance, operations performance, and people. Additionally, we participate in a utility IT benchmarking program

Colleges/degrees: Undergraduate degree in business administration from State University of West Georgia; master's degree with honors in business administration from Mercer University

Leisure activity: Reading

Best book read recently: Younger Next Year For Women

If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... a writer.