@ Forrester IT Forum: “make.believe” Business Technology Transformation, Drew Martin, SVP and CIO, Sony Electronics

Keynote Speech: “make.believe” Business Technology Transformation, Drew Martin, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Sony Electronics

Business technology (BT) transformation means different things to different companies. The challenge is to identify which technological trends have the greatest opportunity to transform your business and then to rally people around believing they can make that transformation a reality. This session will highlight how Sony Electronics’ IS department is doing this to contribute to Sony’s overall transformation. It will focus on harnessing the power of social networking and on seamlessly connecting electronics products with content for consumers.

Participants in this session will take away the following:

• Practical real-life examples of making BT a reality in consumer electronics.
• How to foster a culture of innovation while also managing day-to-day operations.
• Lessons learned from pursuing innovation and managing associated risks.

Martin starts with an overview of Sony Electronics.  Lots of mobile devices in the picture, including the “bloggie” video camera. From there, Martin explains “make.believe” spirit and the fit with IT. 

First, as a CIO you can’t pick one model of IT – low cost, catch and fetch (projects), innovative.  Need to do all three.  Second, can’t pick same handful of individuals for all the innovative projects. Third, inspired from a Harvard Business Review article in August 2008, platforms are they key for accelerating future innovation in your company.

Next, the “make.believe” approach.  Need both introverted and extroverted engineers.  Show the magic, not the trick.  Believe the hype.  On the hype, temper at the start, but believe for the longer term.  Calls out cloud computing as an example.

Third, Martin shares his Rules for IT Radicals:

• Re-distribute the wealth
• The Willie Sutton Rule – Translate innovative ideas into the money. Go to the CEO with money-making ideas.
• Keep your friends close…
• Find the umbrella – From Dilbert – every budget has room to innovate

Finally, Martin advocates Having Fun:

• Separate church and state – remove the religion
• Play to win – huge difference in playing not to lose versus playing to win

For more of Drew Martin’s perspectives and Sony’s use of social media, check out this interview in Forbes, published yesterday.

Comments

[Mark Griffin]

Wow this guy sounds like every IT person's dream CIO. I really liked the comments on innovation and "Play to win – huge difference in playing not to lose versus playing to win". So many IT shops don't get that at all and not just at the CIO level but down in the analyst ranks as well.

markg

[brenda]

Hi Mark,

Yes, Drew Martin was definitely impressive. I liked that quote as well. He said in this environment, you can't afford to play not to lose.

Actually, all the CIO presentations here were very good. These guys get it!

Brenda