 |  |
CRAIG LATHROP CIO Americas' SAP Users' Group | |
|
Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: The team I had when I was CTO at Thomson Dialog. This collection of 300 globally dispersed (and quarreling) groups came together to build its own closely guarded systems with a custom-built single enterprise solution.
Most important career influencer: My high school wrestling coach, who told me I'd never amount to anything. I'm still trying to prove him wrong.
Decision I wish I could do over: In a prior role as CTO of a small learning company, we had a set of software solutions with so many complex features that the smallest change was expensive. I didn't realize quickly enough that IT's close alignment with the multiple business units, and filling all their requests, wasn't in the best interest of the overall company. I should have asked the tough questions about the value back to the business, which could have led to a broader examination of the business model.
Best advice for future CIOs: Take real interest in your people at every level; they want to work hard for someone who cares about them.
View on offshore outsourcing: Offshore or onshore, outsourced teams need to be involved and understand the business. Otherwise, it can cost more to outsource, and decrease management bandwidth.
IT budget (approximate): 12% of revenue
Size of IT team: 12 internal, plus many partners
Top IT initiatives:
- Improving our membership processing and financial systems to reduce manual efforts and improve responsiveness to our member's needs.
- Enhancing our online application and social media capabilities for our member communities and resource centers, and to make our collaboration workspaces full of real value for our members.
How I measure IT effectiveness: Web site metrics and activity levels; high marks and continual up trends from our member surveys; help desk ticket data--open/close ticket rates, time to resolution, etc.; and an engaged, informed, recognized team.
Colleges/degrees: BA in business management from University of Northern Iowa
Leisure activity: My kids, golf, and genealogy
Best book read recently: John Adams, by David McCullough
Smartphone: I'm never without my BlackBerry.
If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... on better terms with my wife.