CIO Profiles: Mujib U. Lodhi, CIO At DC Water And Sewer Authority

Career Track

How long at current company: 9 years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: Within my first few years at DC Water and Sewer Authority, I transformed IT so that it was well aligned with the strategic plan of the organization. We've achieved a level of leadership that creates new business value and has allowed the organization to excel in areas not feasible just a few years ago. Our Smart Cities Initiative with IBM's Global Business Services and Research is one example of this.

Most important career influencers: A passion for my work can be attributed to my parents. I also credit Paul Bender, the previous deputy general manager and CFO at DC WASA, for helping me understand the importance of organizational culture. Charles Kiely, assistant general manager of consumer services, also enabled me to develop a culture of innovation.

Vision

Advice for future CIOs: Don't measure your success based on service delivery but, rather, on the business value. Also, share the credit of successful activities with your business partners.

The next big thing for my industry: The last 15 years has been all about automation of business functions. The next 10 to 15 years will focus on analytics, BI, and building intelligence into business assets.

The federal government's top technology priority should be ... to focus more on early adoption and innovation and less on maintaining fundamental IT infrastructure. This is important in our current economic climate as tax revenues decline amidst a growing public demand for more government services.

On The Job

IT budget: $20 million

Size of IT team: Around 60

Top initiatives:

>> Turning DC WASA into a "smart" utility by bringing science to the business.

>> Bringing greater intelligence to our subsurface assets such as water and sewer mains, hydrants, valves, and sewer main holes. Business assets are information storehouses and have a lot to tell us about how effective they and we are in our day-to-day affairs. Extracting that information requires the use of advanced technologies to deliver that critical information to be analyzed through advanced analytics.

>> Integrating our enterprise-level activities into a predictive analytics, data warehousing, and business intelligence core model that allows more effective monitoring and achievement of enterprise objectives. Among other things, this will promote greater environmental stewardship and utilization of water resources.

How I measure IT effectiveness: We use the typical service-level agreement model and service catalogs, and adhere to our commitments in that model. Our governance model involves six layers of governance that include multidepartmental participation to make sure we're meeting business objectives.

Personal

Favorite sport: Cricket

Biggest business-related pet peeve: Fear of change

Tech vendor CEO I respect the most: Steve Jobs, who inspires confidence in my own strategic philosophy of fostering a culture of innovation within my team and within the entire company

Best book read recently: CIO Wisdom: Best Practices From Silicon Valley, by Dean Lane

Smartphone: iPhone

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