For this edition of the “CIO Two Cents” newsletter, I’m excited to share valuable CIO insights from a conversation with my good friend the Honorable Dana Deasy, who is the former CIO at the Department of Defense. Read on for more.
– Yvette Kanouff, Partner at JC2 Ventures

*The JC2 Ventures team (John J. Chambers, Shannon Pina, John T. Chambers, me, and Pankaj Patel)*

This week, I caught up with my friend the Honorable Dana Deasy. For those of you who don’t know Dana, he is the former CIO at the Department of Defense, where he was the primary advisor to the Secretary of Defense for all IT-related matters. Before that, Dana was the Global CIO at JPMorgan Chase, BP, General Motors, Tyco International, and more. As if that isn’t enough, I’ll add that he has been inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame, named a Wash100 leader, and he currently teaches at Carnegie Mellon. Separate from Dana’s amazing resume, he is just a really great human being. As we do, we were discussing the state of IT, cloud, AI, networking, and world peace. So much of our conversation was relevant to CIOs and other IT leaders that I thought I would share a few of Dana’s thoughts with my readers.

What are some of the top concerns in the Government IT sector that are on your mind?

Simplification – we face a more complex enemy, and data is overwhelming most CIOs. We must manage through this complexity and focus on data that matters and provides valuable insights.
We provide lip service to new technologies, but we need to move faster to enable and demonstrate commercial and innovative technologies in the Government IT sector.
We need to remove legacy systems. Legacy is eating our lunch and drowning innovation.

What are some of the top non-technical skills a CIO needs to have today?

A CIO needs to be a culture-leader. CIOs are increasingly critical to business transformation, and they need to be enablers of innovation and growth across the entire organization.
CIOs need to be able to make a big impact and have strong communication skills. The narrative matters. In the Government sector, for example, a CIO can rely on policy. In the private sector, a CIO can follow ‘what others do’. These are safe approaches, but in reality, CIOs need to lead the charge towards the future of IT, policy, and more, and they need to be able to articulate why.
CIOs need to network and bring together disparate groups. Given the rise of AI, increasingly complex compliance and regulatory standards, strategic initiatives, geopolitics, and more, CIOs have a unique opportunity to build bridges, remove obstructions, and stand in the middle of company or government divisions. I’ll go one step further to say that today CIOs need to feel very comfortable standing in the gap of corporate and government divides.

What are some tabletop exercises that CIOs and CISOs should be considering?

Review ransomware scenarios, of course, which involve uncomfortable discussions of whether to pay or not, data loss, customer data protection, business continuity, communications, and more.
Isolation exercises – not just disaster recovery, but also partial connectivity in the case of natural disasters or other causes of connectivity loss. This includes the loss of chain of command and ensuring proper backups for decision-making in the loss of locational access.
Supply chain tabletops. Most people think of supply chains as physical purchasing chains, but today’s supply chain includes cloud and other outside services that warrant new ways of thinking about potential interruptions.

Here are the Key Take-Aways:

Moving fast? I've got you covered. Here are the key takaways:

(1)

CIOs must simplify complex and overwhelming data, adopting and showcasing new and innovative technologies, and replacing legacy systems that hinder innovation.

(2)

CIOs need to be culture-leaders who foster innovation and growth, great communicators who can craft a compelling narrative, as well as networkers who can bridge gaps and remove obstacles within and across organizations.