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Highlights from the College’s 2000 Spring CIO Forum
CIO Leadership
Nearly
300 attendees (members of the College, Foundation, press, and invited
guests) gathered at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, TX on April 9 to
participate in the 2000 Spring CIO Forum. The Forum provided a setting for
which attendees could network and participate in discussions related to this
year's topic, "CIO Leadership". Thanks to all who attended for
making this one of the most successful Forums ever! For those of you unable
to attend this year's Spring CIO Forum, here’s a summary of
highlights:
Jeffrey Immelt, President and CEO of GE
Medical Systems, gave an enlightening and thought-provoking keynote address
on “Leadership & The Healthcare CIO”. Acknowledging that the
healthcare CIO has “a tough job”, he stressed that information must
continue to be a core value of every hospital and health system. According
to Immelt, the role of the CIO must also change as three important jobs
merge into one…that of technology, process, and organization leader. He
then defined and discussed the components of a leadership model found
effective in his own organization – metrics, process, standards,
structure, and organization – and suggested that this model “may” also
prove effective for healthcare CIOs as well. Disadvantaged by a lack of
industry standards and organizational support to drive new technology, the
new CIO “must succeed”, he said, and good leaders can make it happen.
His recipe for leadership: build alignment (focus tasks and measure
outcomes), build adaptability (tolerate risk and promote change), and build
a winning culture (recruit and retain great people – the foundation for
everything).
 Howard
Charney, Vice President of Cisco Systems, followed with a lively and
multimedia-rich presentation focusing on the positive impact of the Internet
on the healthcare industry and the tremendous leadership opportunities that
lie ahead for healthcare CIOs. Outlining some of the drivers of change in
the healthcare setting…HIPAA, BBA, industry consolidation, and the swing
from a provider-centric to consumer-centric model, Charney then shifted
focus on how the Internet is radically changing the way we “work, live,
play, and learn”. According to Charney, surprisingly only 40% of
healthcare organizations have an articulated Internet strategy, however,
consumerism and increasing competition will drive healthcare organizations
to adopt new, Internet-driven business models and utilize the Internet to
achieve greater levels of efficiency and productivity, re-engineer business
processes, strengthen business relationships, and satisfy growing consumer
demands.
 The
post-lunch session, “Managing Discontinuous Technologies”, featured an
energetic and passionate presentation from Professor F. Warren McFarlan of
Harvard University. According to professor McFarlan, never before in his
past 42 years of IT experience “has there been a year like the year 2000
and the next two years that stand ahead of us”. Driven by the explosive
advances in Internet-enabled technologies, an information revolution is
putting extraordinary pressures on executives who are “dealing with a very
deep and very profound discontinuity in IT applications”. Managing these
discontinuous technologies and leading your organizations into the future,
he stated, “requires a very different set of management practices and
leadership skills” than those suitable in the past. Through case example
he showed how leading organizations as HEB, Cisco Systems, and Charles
Schwab are adapting to the new challenges. What is the key to effective
management of these new, disruptive technologies and processes? Leadership.
Driven from the uppermost executive levels within the organization.
 In
the final session of the day, “Take Me To Your Leader”, Dr. Gordon
Kingsley, Vice President of Development from Health Midwest, shared his
experience and research in organizational leadership. According to Dr.
Kingsley, “the management of information and of information systems is the
most important and maybe the essential element of organized life, and it is
at the core of healthcare, therefore, putting healthcare CIOs are at the
center of it all”. He discussed the importance of leadership as being
critical to the success of any human endeavor, and described five
fundamental qualities that characterize the life and work of all effective
leaders – have a vision for your organization and always think BIG,
communicate your ideas effectively, work and then work harder still,
persevere – keep going when others tell you to stop, and believe.
Effectively using story, poetry, and song to solidify the concepts, his
final message to attendees, “go for it!”, provided a fitting and
uplifting conclusion to the day’s exciting program.
The
2000 Spring CIO Forum was concluded with a prize raffle drawing.
Congratulations to Johannes Thomsen, winner of a high-tech MP3 player from
Nomad, and to Darrel Leonhardt and Philip Morlan who both won a home DVD
player. Thanks to everyone for making this Forum such a great event!
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