James Rinaldi, CIO, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

I see the CIO being a strategist, enabler, and leader of change more than ever. The role of the CIO has evolved thanks in part to the impact IT has had in our daily lives. The CIO now not only has a seat at the table but demonstrates how IT can change how work gets done and even create new business opportunities for the company. Today’s CIO is a translator, such that they must communicate the outcomes possible with IT versus the technology itself. To be the leader, strategist, and trusted enabler, the CIO must be an effective communicator. Fellow executives want to hear about results and how the results affect the company. It is very exciting to be a CIO today.

Importance of IT in Today’s Business

I really believe you have to build a relationship based on mutual benefit versus just necessity. Communicating the business outcomes does help business counterparts see value. Good metrics that show improvement helps as well but should be communicated along with the outcomes. Being a trusted executive that can be counted on to exercise good judgment while having the flexibility to adjust as events dictate is what others want to see in a CIO.

​New ways of interacting with computing are very exciting. Amazon Echo, Apple’s SIRI, and many others are opening up newer applications

I also advise CIO’s to educate their counterparts with seminars, demonstrations and benchmarking where possible. It turns out that not everyone understands IT the way we do and it can be overwhelming to them. It is really important to show how solutions can work at your company by what others are doing.

I am excited by many technology innovations, especially autonomous vehicles, machine learning and how cloud computing keeps evolving. When you think about being able to get from point A to point B and the transportation is autonomous, it opens up many other possibilities. Drones are being built to deliver goods but also people above the road traffic. Very exciting to imagine the future.

The unlimited capacity of the cloud and all of the evolving capabilities are very exciting and can help solve problems that we were unable to solve before. This allows new innovations and insights that would take too long to be effective otherwise. Businesses are being born in cloud computing and the speed to market becomes faster.

Virtual reality is getting much more sophisticated and applications in reality are becoming very obtainable. For example, you can experience things that you may not be able to physically or financially. Riding a wave, skiing a mountain, vacationing in places you cannot access are some examples. 

For business, it could be exploring new cars and driving them first before you physically get the experience. Then one day, with the aid of 3D printing, get your customized vehicle delivered.

New ways of interacting with computing are very exciting. Amazon Echo, Apple’s SIRI, and many others are opening up newer applications. It is becoming more fashionable to write code that uses these interfaces more and more. So the “internet of things” is really happening which creates more sensors and more data.

Changes in IT Landscape

I have seen IT become an integral part of producing the product. We have become internal consultants to our business components so we can focus on delivering capabilities and solutions and not peddling technology for technology sake. I am pleased with the new workforce entering the market, their skills are fantastic and seemingly have no fear in trying things. Add those skills with experience and you can transform into a world class IT organization.

I would like to say don’t be your own worst enemy by bad mouthing or being too critical of IT in public. If others see it they will join in. Also, too many IT shops want to focus on efficiencies before they deliver effective IT. That is a common problem and it always leads to a bad customer experience. I find too many in IT think IT is too expensive, if true then fix it but often it is not enough funding and IT should show the value of more funding. One thing I tell business functions is I can cut my budget and save some money or you can add to my budget and I’ll save you more money.

Finally, it is the best time to be in IT and tomorrow will only be better. Enjoy it, support your workforce and deliver to your customers.