2009 China CIO Forum (中国CIO高峰论坛)
2009 China CIO Forum was recently held in the beautiful and relaxed environment of Yalong Bay, Sanya in the Province of Hainam (海南省三亚龙湾). The event was organized by the IT Manager Magazine (IT 经理世界) and supported by Hong Kong Computer Society. Over 170 CIO’s from enterprises across the nation participated in the 3 days event. HKCS was represented by a small delegation of CIOs including Sunny Lee (Hong Kong Jockey Club), Daniel Lai (MTR Corporation), Raymond Cheng (HSBC), Nelson Ying (Tai Fook Securities), and Peter Yeung (Amway). Daniel Lai, as Chairman of China CIO Forum delivered the opening address, while Sunny Lee chaired the second day of the conference, and Nelson Ying delivered a presentation on strategic role of IT. Other key speakers included Professor Xie Kan of ZhongShan University, Ms Xiaoyan Wang, CIO of Lenovo, and Dr Peng Lu, VP of Taobao.com.
Other CIOs also delivered presentations on a broad variety of topics, 2 panel discussion sessions were staged and 4 concurrent round table discussion sessions were held on Day 2 afternoon.
The theme of this year’s Forum was “IT enhancing business (IT优化商业). The program for the 2 days event was extremely full.
There were 15 presentations and 2 video presentations by Henry Mintzberg and James Champsy, management “GURUS”. Henry Minzberg believed global economical growth will be led by the ‘Bric’ countries, he considered that the financial tsunami was a result of ‘sick form of management’ that spreaded through various industries. He also quoted the example of success of Honda motor was because they were “on the ground” and spent effort to learn and understand the market.
Dr Lu Peng, CIO of Taobao.com, the most successful e-Business website in China shared their success story and the successful criteria – open, sharing, collaborative, standards, and global. In sharing his views on enhancing IT performance under economic crisis, Mr Wang Shiping, General Manager of Accenture stressed the importance of risk management and control at all levels – enterprise, operations, projects, market. Monitoring systems using IT can be deployed to manage risks.
Michelle Jao shared with the audience how IBM adopted Global Integrated Delivery approach to enhance applications development and management, helping customers to enhance business processes, create business values, or even transform businesses with IT. Examples given were Bharti and ABN-AMRO (Value Creation Centre).
In the Panel Discussion, the topic of how CIO’s deal with financial tsunami was discussed. Solutions suggested included:
- Standardization of business processes, IT solution, and IT infrastructure
- Centralization and consolidation of IT service groups
- Better use of customers relation management systems to enhance customers relationship (customer loyalty)
- Introduction of risk management solutions
- Innovation
- Adopt international best practice in business and IT
- Use IT to expand geographical coverage to grow business
- More robust ROI and IRR analysis on IT Investments
- Improve customer service
- Use partners on non-core business (outsourcing)
- Understand competitors (informed intelligence)
- Consolidate suppliers
- Review telecommunication services, redefine requirements and negotiate better terms
- Ensure economy of scale
- Review and assess IT assets to maximize utilization
In introducing the second day of the event, Sunny Lee outlined the unprecedented waves in the last 10 years:
- Asia financial crisis in 1998
- Dot com bubble bunt in 2000
- SARS pandemic in 2003
- Global financial tsunami in 2008
- The threat of Swine Flue in 2009
They have caused structural changes in business. Enterprises must prepare themselves in order to survive. The key is AGILITY. CIO should act accordingly:
- Do the right things
- Do the things right
- Using the right resources
A video presentation by James Champsy was shown. He is the author of “Reengineering the Corporation’, ‘Outsmart’, and ‘Inspire’. He commented that in the recession time of 80’s, business was very competitive. He observed that work processes were too complex, bureaucratic and not effective, work should be considered as processes and not from tasks perspective. By improving cycle time, it improves efficiency. Reengineering is about changing method of delivery.
In the 90’s, the Internet allowed restructuring and new way of doing things, IT can be applied to deliver value. In order to deliver “more with less”, management need to be ‘smart’:
- Focused
- Understand customer need
- Leverage on IT
- Take risks, reduce time to market
During economy down turn, companies should not stop investing, but continue to invest wisely, they can become stronger after the downturn. This is the best time to change and improve business models. CIO should ‘do more with less’ by developing more effective and efficient processes with IT.
Nelson Ying shared his experience in turning IT department to be a strategic business unit, and the need of CIO to:
- Increase revenue
- Increase agility
- Minimize risks
- Enhance efficiency
He also shared his insights on ensuring business agility with innovation and effective processes. In increasing competitive advantage through IT, systems need to be moved from a coordinated to collaborative approach with focus on customers. IT platform can also enhance customer intimacy.
CIO Forum 2009 was very well received by the delegates. Not only a very full line up of speakers shared insights and experiences, delegates also had significant opportunities to network and interact amongst themselves during the 3 days under a relaxed environment.
China CIO Forum, as an organization also held its 2nd Council Meeting on 18 June 2009 to review past achievements, discuss future activities, and elect Council Members. Daniel Lai was elected Chairman (理事长), while Sunny Lee and Raymond Cheng were elected Council Members. The China CIO Forum Council also agreed to establish strategic alliance with other local and regional CIO groups/organizations. At the gala dinner that evening, a Partners Alliance Initiation Ceremony was staged to announce the start of the alliance relationships. The Alliance partners include:
- Hong Kong Computer Society CIO Board
- Fujian Information Federation CIO Division
- Shanghai CIO Club
- Wenzhou CIO Club
The organizer is looking forward for HKCS CIO Board members and other Hong Kong CIO’s to attend China CIO Forum in 2010.
The HKCS delegation at the event
Sunny and Daniel with Secretary General of Fujian CIO Club
