I have heard many a CIO proudly proclaim, “In my company, there are no IT projects, only business projects.” Those are pretty words, but when the project is complete and someone isn’t happy, the CIO is often left holding the bag, not the business partner. This may be the most challenging CIO Paradox of all: As CIO, you are accountable for the success of a project, but the business has to own it.

While solving this particular paradox is a marathon, not a sprint, I am taking a stab at it in the second installment of my “Educate the CFO on ERP” series for CFO.com (item #1 below). Many thanks to Heller Report readers, who replied to my request for insights on this topic.

Be sure to check out Barry Libenson’s take on the ERP question in item #2. As CIO of Land O’Lakes, he recently completed a sizeable ERP transformation and lived to tell about it.

– Martha

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1. Five Big Ways Your ERP Could Go Right

In the June installment of my blog on CFO.com, I outlined five common ERP program mistakes. For this July installment, I tapped Heller Report readers for more ERP insights. Let's educate those CFOs!
Read the blog on CFO.com

2. CIO Secrets to Great Pizza: The CIO Interview with Barry Libenson of Land O’Lakes

Spoiler alert! It’s about the flour, not the toppings. But the recipe for a successful ERP implementation is a bit trickier than making pizza. In this CIO Interview, Barry Libenson shares three ERP critical success factors of his own.
Read The CIO Interview

3. Featured Leadership Book: Lessons in IT Transformation, by Larry Bonfante

As CIO of the United States Tennis Association, Larry Bonfante and his team are responsible for all the IT-related services supporting the U.S. Open, the most highly attended annual sporting event in the world. Check out Larry’s book, Lessons in IT Transformation, which is focused on the leadership qualities required to transform IT.
More about this book on Amazon.com

4. Featured Executive Placement: Senior Enterprise Architect for Save-A-Lot

Heller Search was recently retained by Save-A-Lot Food Stores to recruit their new Enterprise IT Senior Architect. Save-A-Lot has 1,300 locations nationwide and is a wholly owned subsidiary of SUPERVALU Inc. We successfully placed Zulfiqar Khan in this critical role. Zulfiqar brings to Save-A-Lot 20 years of experience in architecture and application development, and an MS in Engineering Management from Stanford University. Congratulations and best of luck in your new role, Zulfiqar!

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It was wonderful to see so many of you at CIO magazine’s Perspectives event in Boston. Thanks for showing up to my talk!

Martha Heller
President, Heller Search Associates
martha@hellersearch.com