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GEORGE WESTERMAN

Principal Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy

George Westerman is a Principal Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy, where he leads research programs on digital transformation, innovation, and IT leadership. He also serves as faculty chair of the MIT Sloan course Essential IT for Non-IT Executives.

George is author of three award-winning books, including Leading Digital: Turning Tech-nology into Business Transformation (named one of the top ten books of 2014 by Business Digest and 2015 Axiom Book Awards Silver Medalist), and The Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value (CIO Insight magazine’s Best Book of 2009). George contributes regularly to publications such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review and The Wall Street Journal. This work has won numerous awards.

George is a member of the Board of Directors of the Technology Business Management Council and CoChairman of the MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Awards. Prior to earning a doc-torate from Harvard Business School in 2003, George gained more than thirteen years of experience in product development and technology management roles.

Business Intelligence
Business Strategy
Competition
Decision Making
Leadership
Strategy

Leading Digital: Transforming Your Organization with New Technologies

Key Audiences: Senior executives — in business or IT — interested in digital transformation.

Fueled by mobility, analytics, social media, cloud computing, and embedded devices, companies in every industry are mapping their way through the digital universe. Yet some firms are far outpacing others in their ability to drive new value from digital technology. Drawing from his new book, Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation, George shows how effective leaders can transform their businesses – customer engagement, operations, and business models — to continuously create new value from technology. This session will help leaders at all levels develop the skills needed to drive digital transformation in their organizations.

Driving Digital Transformation: How to Turn Your Company into a Digital Master

Key Audiences: Senior leaders at all levels of the organization interested in being part of the digital conversation

What do companies as diverse as Burberry, Caesar’s, Nike, Codelco, and Asian Paints have in common? They are all Digital Masters: they use social, mobile, analytics and other technologies to transform the way they do business. Regardless of their industry, Digital Masters are 26% more profitable than the competition, giving them a huge digital advantage. As part of their DNA, Digital Masters invest in digital innovations and build the leadership skills to turn technology into transformation. This session will help leaders at all levels to play their parts in the strategic digital conversation.

Taking Charge of the IT Value Conversation: Earning Your Seat at the Table

Key Audiences: IT leaders who wish to play a more strategic role in their organizations.

In the new era of IT, executives are valued not for their ability to run a technology organization, but for their ability to help their companies drive competitive advantage. Yet too many CIOs remain stuck in an order-taker role, unable to influence the strategic conversation. This talk draws on award-winning research with IT and non-IT executives to demonstrate the critical path to moving from an order-taker to a strategic partner. IT leaders who take charge of the value conversation are able to deliver tangible strategic value. In this session, George discusses how you can change the conversation to become a strategic partner to the business.

IT Is from Venus, Non-IT Is from Mars

Key Audiences: People on either side of the IT/Business relationship and professionals who want to improve the way they work with their counterparts

In many companies, the relationship between business leaders and IT departments is like a troubled marriage. They share commitment but lack good communication. Unable to find common ground – and a common vocabulary – they find that their relationship is tense and unproductive. Decision-making is slower and more difficult than it should be. IT solutions seem more expensive and complex than necessary. It doesn’t have to be this way! Like any strong relationship, the key is transparent communication about what really matters. This session focuses on four common areas of miscommunication in the IT/Business relationship: establishing trust; making better investment decisions; creating value; and exploiting the power of technology – and provides tools to improve them.

Making Business Sense of IT Risk: Finding Value in Risk Management

Key Audiences: Business leaders who want to improve their IT oversight, conversations, and relationships.

Many business executives find conversations about IT risk challenging. Unsure of what questions or ask or what answers to accept, discussions too often focus on what’s not possible, rather than what is achievable. Focusing on the wrong risks can get in the way of achieving great things. It doesn’t have to be this way. Companies that drive the greatest value from IT focus as much on agility as they do on preventing failure. They talk more often – and more comfortably – about the risk implications of key decisions. As a result, these companies have fewer incidents, more efficiency and a greater ability to change. This session will present a framework for dealing with IT risks that changes the nature of risk-related conversations – and leads to both better communication and better decisions. Through examples and insights, you’ll learn how to transform IT risk management from a cost of doing business into an enabler of strategic value.

How to Have the IT Risk Conversation: Delivering New Value from IT Risk Management

Key Audiences: IT Leaders seeking to drive new value from IT risk management and to improve the IT/business relationship overall.

Understanding IT risk is fundamental to driving advantage from IT. But few people outside of IT enjoy talking about it – or even know how to. Too often, silos of risk intended to pre-vent incidents actually prevent organizations from capturing valuable opportunities. Research shows that companies with fewer incidents, more efficiency, and stronger IT/Business relationships manage IT risk differently. They start by defining a common lan-guage for talking about key IT risks and the value of risk management activities. Using insights from his award-winning book, IT Risk: Turning Business Threats into Competitive Advantage, George discusses how to take charge of the IT risk conversation, transforming risk management from a necessary cost into a new source of business value.