Five Questions With Andy Roach

 

Reprinted with permission from the 2008, Vol. 1, issue of Information Systems Control Journal. Copyright 2008 ISACA (www.isaca.org).

 

 

 

 

You have a unique position as a CIO and PR executive. How do these roles complement each other?

 

I find that the two roles complement each other very well. In my CIO role, I’m responsible for ensuring that our technology investments align with Ketchum’s strategic goals. Because we are a professional services firm, these strategic goals are largely defined by the needs of our clients and the account teams that serve them. Having firsthand experience with our clients as a public relations executive means that I can see how our technology is impacting the business on a day-to-day basis. This kind of insight makes me a better CIO for Ketchum.

 

At the same time, in my public relations role, I’m responsible for developing and implementing communications programs for our technology clients. In many cases, our clients’ customers are CIOs or other technology executives, so I am both a strategic counselor and representative of their potential customers. These experiences give me direct insight into both sides of the marketing communications “mix,” which enhances the counsel I give to clients.

 

 

How and why did you transition or incorporate your IT and marketing/PR backgrounds?

 

I have a deep passion for technology. From a very early age, computers and programming have played a role in my life. I used to develop computer games as a hobby during middle school. Later on, I used computers to do graphic design and build databases for various side jobs in high school and college. And, in order to stay productive in these pursuits, I learned how to upgrade and rebuild computers. As I developed in my technology career, I found I was able to provide support, programming and design to others to help them accomplish their goals, too. This included developing databases for marketing-communications and training departments at various companies early on in my career.

 

In the mid-1990s, I had a strong interest in multimedia and interactive technologies. The cross-section of design, interactivity and information fascinated me. This interest turned into a career in web development just as the dot-com era hit. Not surprisingly, most of the Web sites I built during those days were marketing-oriented. Along the way, I began to counsel clients on their online communications strategies as well.

 

So, I have always straddled the line between communications work and technology development. Six years ago, this culminated in becoming the chief information officer for a top global public relations agency—Ketchum. Ketchum has always been an innovative company in terms of the opportunities it gives its employees. About a year ago, I was approached with the idea of splitting my time between client work and my CIO duties. Of course, I jumped at the idea—engaging both the left and right sides of my brain on a daily basis is ideal for me, and I think that my experiences give me the skills necessary to do both jobs well.

 

 

What advantages do you believe your communications background brings to your role as a CIO or vice versa?

 

As an IT practitioner, my number one goal is to make sure that the IT function is meeting the needs of our employees and clients. A significant component of the success of this mission lies in good communication. This means that we do everything in our power to ensure that our employees not only have the tools they need to provide great service to their clients, but also that they are aware of how to use them effectively and efficiently. Having a communications background, I can ensure the proper dissemination of information about technology to Ketchum employees and clients. For every IT implementation—whether it is a security initiative, a training initiative, or developing the case for a new product or service—communications is at the heart of its success. Much of the communication is two-way—it is essential to engage in a dialog with employees. In IT, we find we have to make difficult decisions from time to time; 99.9 percent of the time, employees and clients are willing to go along with our decisions as long as they understand the “why.” Having a good rapport with our constituents is an essential aspect to this mutual understanding.

 

 

From your perspective as a CIO, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing CIOs today? Are these the same topics being discussed in the media?

 

If I were to abstract what I see as the biggest challenge CIOs face, it is one of ensuring IT stays relevant and valuable in a rapidly changing world. CIOs face a struggle between managing technology innovation and securing the technology foundation.

 

From always-evolving compliance requirements, to exponentially increasing storage and bandwidth needs, to constant security threats, we spend a lot of our time on the foundational aspects of IT. Ensuring that IT is a “well-run utility” is sometimes taken for granted, and yet it requires an increasing amount of work and creativity. We need to do all of these important things, and also find the time to innovate, to extract as much value as possible out of our technology investments.

 

In many ways, CIOs have always been at the forefront of innovation at companies. CIOs need to hold on to this important role we play, and I see that becoming more and more challenging. We are seeing a rising tide of consumer technologies coming from outside of IT that are being used to make employees more productive and do exciting new things, but they can sometimes come at the expense of security or other infrastructure considerations. The traditional cycle of standardizing and securing solutions and then leveraging those for business benefit is becoming shorter and shorter.

 

In order for CIOs to continue to stay relevant and valuable to our companies, we need to learn to marshal the many methods for solving these issues. Frameworks like Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) and Val IT are important because they give CIOs a road map to follow to help solve some of the essential issues in IT. Other techniques, such as virtualization, outsourcing, Web

services, etc., also help us to do more with the resources we have at our disposal. And, sometimes, they require more resources, but they bring new benefits.

 

Managing the balance between innovation and foundation is the essential issue we face as CIOs today. And, I do believe this issue is being discussed in the media and among CIOs, if maybe not in these exact terms. The technology providers that can help CIOs meet these challenges for their business will be the most successful ones. But, in the end, it is up to CIOs to determine the right mix of solutions for their company and their industry.

 

 

What has been your biggest workplace challenge and how did you face it?

 

The biggest workplace challenge I have had is directly related to the challenge that I believe CIOs face as described previously. I believe it is a growing trend for CIOs to start taking on more and more business-facing roles. With a foot in both sides of the business, I find myself receiving more feedback on my decisions than I ever thought I would. And the feedback comes from a wider variety of people than ever before. Sometimes this can be difficult to maneuver and may even cause me to second-guess decisions that I may have just moved forward on more aggressively in the past.

 

For instance, if I make a decision to standardize on a particular business application because I have to do that from a cost-efficiency or support standpoint, it is likely that I will hear about it from the employees whose lives I am changing. Most IT professionals are used to that kind of feedback and recognize that these issues are legitimate and should be addressed. However, since I am also on the businessfacing

side, I might work directly with these employees whose productivity may be impacted as a result of the change. This can put me in a Catch-22 situation, where the decision I have made to increase efficiency on one side might be directly impacting productivity on the other side. In this example, one would hope that the productivity hit would be short term, of course.

 

But even a short-term hit to productivity can affect the business adversely, and I am now more keenly aware of those issues in ways I have never been before. So, I have learned to measure every decision I make on whether it is the right thing for the overall business. Sometimes this requires discussions with my peers on the business side, sometimes it requires conducting pilot programs and, in almost every case, it requires a great deal of communication. I have learned that if I believe what I am doing is right and I have strong business reasons for my decisions that I can articulate to the affected people, then I can feel good about the decisions I make. I find that most people trust and accept that I am trying to make the best decisions for the company. However, I believe very strongly that I cannot take the trust that people have in me for granted—it is something that needs to be earned every day. And transparency is essential to that trust.