Executive IT Leader Program

Leadership is a way of being; leaders today are required to think critically and lead strategically under pressure, all while engaging with softer people skills. Leaders at the top of the technology food chain are especially challenged to bring high-value business solutions in a fast-paced, rapidly changing technology landscape, particularly in the age of AI.

In this session, participants will be introduced to the Program and the major case study.

The highlight of this session is an interactive panel. Participants will hear from and engage with CxOs who have successfully navigated these types of challenges, sharing thoughts regarding “if I only knew then what I know now….”.

Whether a corporate board, the political leadership in government, or an administrative board, understanding their role and relationship to the rest of the organization is crucial to your executive success. What is the line between oversight and management?

In this session, you will:

• Understand the purpose and role of a board and its members.
• Explore the connection between board oversight and organizational strategy.
• Learn practical approaches to creating productive relationships with board members and managing uncomfortable situations.

Strategy is often misunderstood as a planning process rather than as a critical analysis of industry rivalry, competitive position, and relative performance.

In this session, you will:

• Explore the context of modern strategy formulation as a continuous process of improvement and execution focus.
• Assess strategy versus business planning and analysis, including emerging agile frameworks.
• Understanding ERM as a derivative of strategy and compliance, because all enterprise risks must be accepted, mitigated or transferred. These are defining enterprise choices.
• Address emerging comprehensive risks such as AI adoption and enterprise cybersecurity as organizational and not technical risks.

AI is a defining technology shift that demands immediate organizational attention. Waiting is strategic malpractice that creates more risk than proactively embracing ethical, responsible AI deployment as follows:

• Distinguish the differences between foundational AI technologies and platforms from applications and strategic use cases.
• Gain exposure to conceptual frameworks for ethical and responsible AI and how those can be rapidly implemented to drive real results.
• Make connections between the changes AI will bring to most organizations, your organization’s mission and strategy and how to protect those appropriately while not avoiding AI adoption.
• Be aware of the strategic risks of being AI vendor-led in terms of adoption over purposeful, ethical and responsible AI use cases.

In 2018, futurist Jamais Cascio saw a new world emerging – which he called BANI: Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible. We are now deep into BANI. In this new world, traditional transformation playbooks fall short. We need change agility. Learn what it takes to be a nimble executive in a world that won’t wait.

• Work simultaneously on three integrated thrusts when transforming the enterprise
• Identify gaps in the ways your organization currently works on adapting strategically 
• Activate powerful levers for culture change available to senior executives
• Recognize the Top-5 symptoms of sluggish decision-making, and assess which ones are currently at play in your business
• Find out which decision-making model is best to drive agility
• Learn a proven strategy to develop nimble decision-making capabilities throughout the business while making actual decisions

The role of the CIO – in fact, of all C-Suite technology leaders – is changing rapidly.  To aspire to or directly support success in the role requires:

• Proactively define your own definition of your “leadership posture”.
• Develop awareness of GRC vs management cope and practices to best align strategy, risk, and results to match enterprise goals and appetites.
• Delve into managing organizational change in a world where technology hype cycles and innovations are continually stress-testing historical expectations, norms, processes, and resources.
• Explore emerging best practices for aligning enterprise strategy and processes to the IT team’s functional strategy and processes.

You and your team will deliver your solution to a mock Board of Directors, who will adjudicate your presentation. This session provides you with opportunities to integrate, practice, and demonstrate the insights you have gained in the program.