CIO Profiles: C. Scott Blanchette Of Healthways

Career Track

How long at current company: Five years at this health-services software company

Most important career influencer: Dr. Adrian Lewis, professor of military history at the University of Kansas and graduate program director at the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He provided a lifetime of advice on how to take one's skills and passions and direct those toward some meaningful good.

On The Job

Size of IT team: 750

How I measure IT effectiveness:

Confidence is the only metric that is of consequence. I'd gauge confidence across three domains:

Vision

Next big thing for my industry: Healthcare reform will change many aspects of healthcare. Risks, financial burdens, accountability, and business models will be in flux for a few years. I also look forward to advancements on the Web, in the 2.0 or social space, and in mobile computing impacting healthcare. We may be developing a generation of Americans who will see technology as a cornerstone to their well-being, the way past generations viewed doctors, nurses, and hospitals.

Advice for future CIOs: Lead, don't manage. In the early days of the job it will be necessary to use your management acumen. Over time, those instincts must be displaced by a higher calling to organizational leadership, and management must be left to those whom you trust.

The government's top tech priority should be ... The federal government has the richest computing capabilities on the planet. Pointing that portfolio toward one, two, or three specific opportunities would do great good for our nation. It would be a powerful statement to say, "in the next four years, we will ensure taxpayers receive the maximum potential value of the money already invested in our technology portfolio."

Personal

Colleges/degrees: BA, MS, and MBA from James Madison, North Texas, and Maryland, respectively

Business leader I'd like to have lunch with: Mark Cuban (Broadcast.com, HDNet, and Dallas Mavericks)

If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... I spent the first third of my working life in the military. Beyond being a CIO, my passion for the middle third, I still fully intend to spend the back third of my working life teaching, writing, and coaching.

Ranked No. 8 in the 2010