7 takeaways from CIO Tomorrow 2024 for leading transformation

As the tech landscape continues to evolve at breakneck speed, CIOs across industries face immense pressure to lead transformational change.

At CIO Tomorrow 2024, we saw how Ohio’s Silicon Heartland is setting the stage for innovation—and what lessons today’s CIOs can take back to their teams.

Themes emerged in the introduction from Nick Fortine, president and publisher of Columbus Business First, around taking things to the next level, actively driving a path forward, and preparing tomorrow’s tech leaders today.

2024 Executive Committee Chair Timothy Cunningham, CIO at Grange Insurance, pointed to Ohio “rapidly emerging as a region focused on innovation and collaboration.”

Here are seven key takeaways from CIO Tomorrow 2024 that every CIO should consider as they lead their teams through the next wave of innovation and transformation.

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1. The 9 C’s of change management 

The morning keynote address, Navigating the Tech Nexus, was presented by Dr. Mark Boxer and framed the conference theme against the rapid changes we’ve already experienced in the past 5 decades. Within this evolving technology landscape, Dr. Boxer described several phases:

• Tech Developer focused on Technology
• Tech Aligner focused on Technology
• Tech Integrator focused on Process
• Tech Architect focused on Process
• Information Architect focus on People

Dr. Boxer emphasized that tech innovation, sustainability, and inclusivity require a focus on people. Because of this, he points to the need for CIOs to focus on their impact on culture through deftly managing change:

• Iterative change
• Innovative change
• Disruptive change

We couldn’t agree more. Software challenges are inherently human challenges: they involve understanding human needs and fostering a culture of collaboration to solve those problems.

To be successful amidst massive change management, a new Humanistic CIO is required with skills across 9 C’s:

1. Caring
2. Courageous
3. Creative
4. Collaborative
5. Connected
6. Curious
7. Clarity
8. Community
9. Calm

Dr. Boxer advised this also requires a foundation of business alignment, talent development, and execution excellence.

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2. Community building: Driving Silicon Heartland innovation

The Innovation Live! segment recognized individuals and organizations making an impact in Ohio’s Silicon Heartland, including interesting applications of technology.

Fresh perspectives and cross-pollinating ideas from one industry to another are at the heart of what we do as consultants, so it was delightful to see such a range of organizations sharing. We’re also big believers in community, and each leader shared the ways their organization is enriching the Ohio tech community.

• Ohio Life Sciences, Eddie Pauline
• OhioX, Chris Berry
• The Ohio State University Center for Software Innovation, Shereen Agrawal
• Smart Columbus, Jordan Davis (We know her! We helped Jordan with a Can’t Stop Columbus initiative during the pandemic for Curbside Concerts, as part of our Great Causes program.)

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3. Transformational leadership is iterative

With so many incredible topics, choosing breakout sessions felt like deciding which aspect of business transformation to tackle first.

For the morning breakout, I attended the Transformational Leadership in the Digital Age panel featuring:

• Tracie Cleveland, Senior VP, Digital Transformation Executive, KeyBank
• Michelle Greene, Executive VP & Chief Technology Officer, Cardinal Health
• Jay Parsons, Managing Director, JP Morgan Chase
• Greg Skinner, VP, IT Utilities Systems, NiSource
• Allison Sutley, CTO, Express
• Moderator Channie Mize, General Manager, Slalom

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The conversation ranged from top trends impacting tech leaders today to transformation challenges.

A recurring theme was the need for iterative transformation. Don’t try to change everything at once. Choose what’s most important, and take an incremental approach combined with change management to bring the team along. Breaking down the transformation into manageable steps also helps drive the business outcomes you need with less disruption.

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4. Navigating 5 key trends and challenges for tech leaders

AI and LLMs are of course a big focus right now, but this conversation was more nuanced around how AI can be used as a tool to solve core business challenges. Careful attention to underlying LLM models and data as part of this trend and rapid adoption were a concern.

Balancing speed with agility—especially during transformation—emerged as another thread. How are you balancing speed and agility for your software? For the business? It’s a tricky question, especially when a transformation effort is involved.

The wider conversation focus was transformations, and this played out in several threads: challenges, aligning expectations, choosing the right initiatives, and managing transformations successfully.

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Balance innovation with transformation

Greg Skinner pointed out that when transforming core technology, the ideal would be to innovate around the core, but businesses cannot wait for that. Innovation has to continue while the transformation work happens.

This means moving fast, but exercising caution, because 70% of large transformations fail (McKinsey). Including change management from the beginning and a leadership mindset of “I commit to do XYZ,” can help. And always, “Run with bad news, walk with good news.”

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Embrace incremental change to stay competitive

Tracie Cleveland also pointed to mindset as key. She suggested, “Wrap your mind around the fact that change is inevitable .. Tackle what’s in front of you and what’s ahead so you don’t lose competitiveness and talent … then break it down to manageable challenges …The unknown is where we need to spend our time” She suggested focusing on “where you need to move the needle in an incremental way.” Tracie also emphasized, “Help the team understand how the change helps them in their career to grow as leaders and the importance of continuously learning the business and the customers.”

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Set clear expectations and remove what’s no longer needed

Michelle Greene’s number one tip was to manage expectations. That includes ensuring a commitment around the transformation investment and alignment across functions on the expectations.

She reminded the audience to keep in mind the balance of hybrid, in-person, and remote when managing expectations. Michelle also applies a “brick in-brick out” approach to transformation. If you're going to add something, remove something that no longer needs to be there.

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Lead with customer understanding and imaginative sessions

Allison Sutley encouraged the tech leaders in the audience to “understand the customer and how they use the systems. Change management is critical to this process and adoption.” She also offered advice to emerging tech leaders: “Focus on getting to know the business.” Allison shared her team’s approach to holding “pink sky sessions” to unlock imagination with no constraints about how to do things differently. Those sessions include non-technologists in the business, and can often help tech leaders choose the right transformation initiative based on what the business needs.

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Don’t forget your core systems during transformation

Jay Parsons provided a helpful reminder, “Don’t forget about maintaining existing systems while working through a transformation. They’re critical to keep the business running.” All too often during a transformation, the things still in place can be forgotten. Jay also reiterated that remembering your customers is key: “Make sure the client is benefiting from the digital transformation, not just the company.”

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This incremental approach to transformation aligns perfectly with our approach. Change is hard, and big change is even harder. We believe in scoping to strategy by tackling the most important challenges first. We also help clients balance innovation with the need to limit day-to-day disruption—because transformation only succeeds when it’s grounded in practical, actionable steps.

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5. Fast-tracking your team's leadership journey

The Ohio tech community is very generous and this showed in the panel talking about how to support tomorrow’s emerging tech leaders.

• Brittany Carter, CIO, Ohio Department of Children and Youth
• Michael Farrar, CIO, City of Westerville, Ohio
• Yetunde Okonrende, Associate VP Nationwide Financial Technology, Nationwide Insurance
• Jeremy Waweru, Associate VP Information Technology, ViaQuest Inc
• Moderator Tonjia Coverdale, SVP Chief Strategy Officer for Operations & Technology, Associated Bank

‍Moderator Tonjia Coverdale introduced the panelists and pointed out each time their pink accented attire, and then later delighted the audience by sharing a story. As a young, emerging leader, an executive told her that in order to develop executive presence she needed to stop wearing pink. Tonjia turned that on its head by sharing conversation with 5 tech executives all wearing pink. The panel conversation carried this thread by encouraging emerging leaders from all backgrounds to be curious, explore, and be authentic.

Brittaney Carter encouraged curiosity balanced with a willingness to “let go of more and trust the people around you.” Even with great support and advice, leaders need to be ready for the unexpected, because pivots happen often.

‍Michael Farrar suggested balancing curiosity with being uncomfortable, “because that is how you learn and grow … when people came and said no one wants to do this, I took it on and it made me more well-rounded.”

‍Yetunde Okonrende built her tech career by being curious and then leaning into opportunities. She advised that this takes “courage to have focus and take risks, and lending that courage to others.” To develop executive presence, Yetunde encouraged emerging leaders to be “confident and inspiring, but also be open to learning from others.” Storytelling is also a great skill for a leader.

‍Jeremy Waweru suggested that part of becoming a leader is learning how to “listen better and let go” as well as being aware of diverse cultures, backgrounds, and ways of thinking. Emotional intelligence is a key skill for emerging leaders to showcase and further develop.

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6. Collaboration is key to innovation

The afternoon continued with a panel of leaders sharing their organization’s experiences helping innovate in the Rise of the Silicon Heartland:

• Dr. Rebecca Butler, Executive VP, Columbus State Community College
• Mike Kaufmann, Former CEO, Cardinal Health
• Steve Stivers, President & CEO Ohio Chamber of Commerce
• Tom Walker, President & CEO, Rev1 Ventures
• Doreen Delaney-Crawley, Executive VP & Chief Operations Officer, Grange Insurance

The examples each organization’s leader shared varied widely across different business domains, but the theme was clear: the Silicon Heartland of Ohio succeeds when leaders and organizations work together and collaborate.  Collaboration unlocks new ways of thinking and problem solving!

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7. Mindful authenticity in a Gen-AI world

The conference concluded with an afternoon keynote address from Channie Mize, General Manager at Slalom, who spoke about why it’s so important to couple the transformational potential of generative AI with responsible leadership, ethical frameworks, and a deep commitment to human-centered innovation.

Standout takeaways are the reasons why authenticity matters:

• Decrease deception in AI due to bad actors
• Avoid trust issues inherent in AI due to bad actors
• AI can be a tool to increase authentic engagement when used well
• Showcasing ethical leadership is always in style

Channie also shared real world examples from United, Voyages, and Hologic of how generative AI used responsibly can help cut through a mass of data to connect real people with real answers.

United’s Storyteller team solved for rapid communication challenges to inform travelers about unexpected changes to flight statuses with easy-to-understand custom messages including useful details.

Virgin Voyages built an internal tool that reduced call center escalations by 20% using a “one-of-a-kind, enhanced” chart bot with natural language answers.

Hologic trained a model with more than 50,000 images to speed up cervical cancer screening without losing accuracy.

Solving real human problems using generative AI responsibly helps drive authenticity by:

• Knowing your audience
• Using the right data
• Maintaining human oversight
• Creating realistic scenarios
• Asking for feedback
• Ensuring ethical use

Are your AI initiatives a “the board says we need an AI strategy” endeavor, or are they addressing core business challenges? Connecting AI to concrete business challenges, and remembering the humans behind the screens can turn a “just because” initiative into a practical strategy.

CIO Tomorrow 2024 provided a great opportunity for leaders to reflect on technology trends and tools, innovation and change management, and developing the next generation of tech leaders.

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Want to chat about this?

In order to drive lasting change, focusing on the people behind the technology is key. Join us for no-judgment office hours to unpack the next step in your transformation journey.

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