Welcome to the 14th Symposium!

After a brief overview of the Symposium program, we will introduce the four MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award finalists, Carlo Bozzoli of Enel, Julia Davis of Aflac, David Gledhill of DBS Bank, and Stephen Gold of CVS Health and announce the winner. We will also share what you need to know to get the most out of the day, including the use of the Q&A app, Sli.do.

Lindsey Anderson, SM ‘79Ray Chang, SB ‘77, SM ‘84
Lindsey Anderson, SM ‘79Ray Chang, SB ‘77, SM ‘84
Pathways to Future Ready: The Digital Playbook

Virtually every company is working on transforming their business for the digital era. But unfortunately there's no playbook for digital—so far. In this session Peter will share a framework for digital transformation and facilitate a conversation on lessons learnt from executives leading these transformations.

Peter Weill, Chairman(@peterdweill), MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research will moderate the panel, including:

Peter WeillLucille MayerDavid GledhillJim FowlerRoss Meyercord
Peter WeillLucille MayerDavid GledhillJim FowlerRoss Meyercord
Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

This Fireside Chat will focus on what Erik Brynjolfsson and Andy McAfee call "the second phase of the second machine age."  This phase has a greater sense of urgency, as technologies are demonstrating that they can do much more than just the type of work we have thought of as routine.  The last time new technologies had such a huge impact on the business world was about a century ago, when electricity took over from steam power and transformed manufacturing. Many successful incumbent companies, in fact most of them, did not survive this transition. Today, companies need to rethink the balance between minds and machines, between products and platforms, and between the core and the crowd. The second element in each pair has become much more capable and powerful within the past few years.  Who better in an organization to navigate this change than the CIO?

Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher, and Global Chairman, MIT Enterprise Forum(@Jason_Pontin), MIT Technology Review will moderate the panel, including:

Jason PontinProf. Erik Brynjolfsson, PhD ‘91Andrew McAfee, SB ‘88, SM ‘90
Jason PontinProf. Erik Brynjolfsson, PhD ‘91Andrew McAfee, SB ‘88, SM ‘90
Putting AI to Work

While the poster child of AI, the fully autonomous vehicle, is still five or more years out on the horizon, there are many implementations of AI that are available today or will be within the next year or so. AI technologies and AI-driven products are enabling new services never possible before, providing deep business intelligence, automating work, and cutting costs. The development and deployment of these systems also raise ethical and regulatory concerns as well as the risk of the displacement of jobs. This panel will focus on how firms are implementing or how they expect to implement AI, including effectiveness, stage of adoption, and benefits, as well as the potential impacts on unemployment and society.

Joi Ito, Director, & MIT Professor of the Practice(@joi), MIT Media Lab will moderate the panel, including:

Joi ItoSeth EarleyProf. Josh TenenbaumRyan GariepyAli Azarbayejani, SB ’88, SM ’91, PhD ‘97
Joi ItoSeth EarleyProf. Josh TenenbaumRyan GariepyAli Azarbayejani, SB ’88, SM ’91, PhD ‘97
The Cognitive Company: Incremental Present, Transformational Future

Cognitive technologies undoubtedly have the potential to transform knowledge-based work. However, in the present, highly ambitious cognitive projects have encountered obstacles and delays, even when substantial resources have been committed to them. It’s important, then, for organizations to proceed incrementally toward the dramatic changes that cognitive technologies and capabilities will eventually enable. Based on a review of over 100 organizations’ attempts to implement some form of cognitive technology, this TED-type talk will describe major areas of cognitive activity likely to be transformed and prescribe steps that most organizations should take today to becoming a “cognitive company.”

Prof. Tom Davenport
Prof. Tom Davenport
Cloud Strategies: The Next Level of Digital Transformation

Every organization must embrace digital transformation to ensure its relevance in today’s dynamic marketplace. At the core of every transformation roadmap is the need to define and implement an impactful cloud strategy. This session will discuss how to prepare and enable your firm for digital transformation through cloud implementation by looking at four key areas of planning: (1) understanding the transformation drivers; (2) defining success criteria for your cloud strategy; (3) understanding the needs of the parties you service, including their location and infrastructure requirements (PLDC – People, Location, Data Center, Cloud); and (4) resourcing to fully support the implementation.

Ryan Mallory
Ryan Mallory
The CIO Adventure: Insights from the Leadership Award Finalists

The MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award honors executives who lead their organizations to deliver exemplary levels of business value through innovative use of IT. For the first time, the Symposium is bringing all the Finalists together for a lively exchange of innovative ideas and best practices.

Dr. George Westerman, Senior Lecturer(@gwesterman), MIT Sloan School of Management will moderate the panel, including:

Dr. George WestermanJulia DavisDavid GledhillDr. Dieter HabanMichael Nilles
Dr. George WestermanJulia DavisDavid GledhillDr. Dieter HabanMichael Nilles
Birds-of-a-Feather Networking Lunch 2017

If you have not selected one of the Lunch Breakout sessions, please join us for a Networking Lunch, on the Main Court of Rockwell. (Enter down the path between the Stratton Center and the Zesiger Fitness Center, see map.) We will have working lunches set up at tables, with “Birds of a Feather” topics posted on signs. Feel free to sit at a table about a topic of interest. Many tables will be facilitated by an ‘expert’ (speaker, sponsor, organizer) who will help lead a lively and interesting discussion. Be prepared to share business cards and get to know other Symposium attendees. It is a chance to network, talk shop and learn something new.

    Expanding the Reach of Digital Innovation

    To compete in sectors where the customer experience is increasingly digitized, companies are scrambling to expand their portfolio of innovations—from new products and enhanced processes to complementary services and new business models. In the process, IT units are figuring out how to share responsibilities with and coordinate the efforts of internal stakeholder groups such as marketing, operations, and R&D, as well as the efforts of external parties such as vendors, business partners, start-ups, and even individual contractors and hobbyists. This panel will examine how companies are pursuing varied portfolios of innovations and how they might assess and enhance their innovation readiness.

    Nils Fonstad, SM ‘96, PhD ‘03, Research Scientist(@NilsFonstad), MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research will moderate the panel, including:

    Nils Fonstad, SM ‘96, PhD ‘03Jim SwansonMichael Morris
    Nils Fonstad, SM ‘96, PhD ‘03Jim SwansonMichael Morris
    Running IT Like a Factory

    As modern IT organizations embrace speed and quality, automate code delivery, and cut costs, they are becoming “factories” churning out digital capabilities. Our panelists will discuss what it means to modernize IT applications, virtualize IT infrastructure, and automate data center operations. They will share their experiences in transforming enterprise software into callable APIs, upgrading databases and middleware, developing with open source, moving to cloud with various lift-and-shift methods, automating delivery with DevOps, and measuring IT productivity with data.

    Steven Rosenbush, Editor, CIO Journal(@Steve_Rosenbush), Wall Street Journal will moderate the panel, including:

    Steven RosenbushSuresh KumarLev Lesokhin, MBA '00Christopher C. Crummey Dr. Dieter Haban
    Steven RosenbushSuresh KumarLev Lesokhin, MBA '00Christopher C. Crummey Dr. Dieter Haban
    Preparing for the Future of Work

    In past decades, technology has replaced many routine tasks with automation. Now AI and robotics are enabling computers to do more complex work that was previously the sole domain of humans.  In addition, cloud, social media, and mobility make many “gig economy” workers as effective as full time employees.  What will the future of work look like? How will automation augment or replace current jobs?  How should CIOs and other leaders prepare their organizations for the changes to come?  In a fast-paced exchange of ideas, our panel of experts will discuss these questions and more.

    Dr. George Westerman, Senior Lecturer(@gwesterman), MIT Sloan School of Management will moderate the panel, including:

    Dr. George WestermanMona Vernon, SM ‘11Cynthia NustadErnest NgDavid Neitz
    Dr. George WestermanMona Vernon, SM ‘11Cynthia NustadErnest NgDavid Neitz
    Navigating the Clouds

    Cloud computing is revolutionizing IT, introducing a bevy of new ways to host applications and deliver IT services. While the promise is great, there are considerable questions to mull regarding everything from the best approach (private, public, hybrid?) to data protection (who is responsible?) and Service Level Agreements (what do the SLAs really address?). This panel will investigate the promise and the pitfalls, and touch on best practices for selecting and managing cloud providers.

    John Dix, Editor in Chief(@JDNWW), NetworkWorld.com will moderate the panel, including:

    John DixNathan McBridePatrick GilmoreDavid GiambrunoFabio Veronese
    John DixNathan McBridePatrick GilmoreDavid GiambrunoFabio Veronese
    Measuring ROI for Cybersecurity: Is It Real or a Mirage?

    Organizations are spending an ever-larger portion of their IT budgets on security. But what does it get them? Risk of a breach appears to be growing not shrinking. What level of investment will it take to bring risk to an acceptable level? Gartner says prevention is futile. So, what should organizations do? It is hard to go to the Board of Directors to ask for more investment when you can’t even measure the impact of current investments. During this session, we will explore the measurement and management of cybersecurity investments and how to steer the board’s expectations and the internal culture to put the organization on a glide path to a steady improvement versus a random walk.

    Andrew Stanley, Chief Information Security Office(@alphastanley), Mars will moderate the panel, including:

    Andrew StanleyIlya Kabanov, SF ‘15Christopher PorterJames KaplanJim Cupps
    Andrew StanleyIlya Kabanov, SF ‘15Christopher PorterJames KaplanJim Cupps
    Who’s Really Responsible for Technology?

    Today, every company is a technology company. Tech has evolved from a tool to be implemented in service of the business to a core component upon which strategies are built. As we all “go digital” where does the tech buck stop? Can a responsible CEO really afford to delegate technology leadership any longer? And, if the CEO is now responsible for technology, what does that mean for the CIO or, for that matter, the Chief Technology Officer, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Marketing Officer?

    Paul Michelman, Editor in Chief(@pmichelman), MIT Sloan Management Review will moderate the panel, including:

    Paul MichelmanAnthony Christie, SF ‘98John PetzoldMichael RelichScott Blandford
    Paul MichelmanAnthony Christie, SF ‘98John PetzoldMichael RelichScott Blandford
    Talent Wars in the Digital Age

    Increasingly, organizations are engaging with talent in new ways. There is a growing reliance on: using freelancers to acquire skills for project teams; contracting to outsource work; buying companies for talent (i.e., “acqui-talent”); and crowdsourcing solutions. Companies are also placing their own people in hubs and co-working spaces (e.g., Fintech Incubators) to immerse them in innovative environments. These new approaches of acquiring and using talent require very different workplaces that respond faster and in more collaborative ways to build value. We’ll discuss how CIOs are winning the talent wars both within IT and their larger organizations.

    Dr. Kristine Dery, Research Scientist(@kristinedery), MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research will moderate the panel, including:

    Dr. Kristine DeryJulia DavisEric SigurdsonAmy deCastroJim O'Neill
    Dr. Kristine DeryJulia DavisEric SigurdsonAmy deCastroJim O'Neill
    Winning with the Internet of Things

    Estimates of the IoT business market are as high $10T, leading to lots of lofty talk and strategic positioning. Some companies are embracing IoT to generate operational efficiencies and to improve customer experience. Other firms are fundamentally transforming their business models. We will discuss how companies are capturing value from IoT by looking at what drives IoT opportunities, the new capabilities required, and the investments that are needed to succeed.

    Barbara Haley Wixom, Principal Research Scientist(@BarbWixom), MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research will moderate the panel, including:

    Barbara Haley WixomEd Abbo, SM '87Mark MeyerMichael NillesJim Poole
    Barbara Haley WixomEd Abbo, SM '87Mark MeyerMichael NillesJim Poole
    You Were Hacked—Now What?

    In this age of mega breaches, as CIOs and CISOs are facing an ever-changing threat landscape and applying "whack-a-mole" methods in their security operations, it is just a matter of time before they experience the inevitable—"we got hacked." Popular wisdom is that enterprises should have a good plan for such incidents as it is a matter of when and not if. Different organizations have a wide range of capabilities and readiness when it comes to response and recovery. This panel, comprised of industry experts as well as day-to-day practitioners, will talk about best practices and methods, and how to ensure business continuity after a breach occurs.

    Keri Pearlson, Executive Director(@kpearlson), MIT Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan (CAMS) will moderate the panel, including:

    Keri PearlsonAndrew StanleyTom CatchingsJames LugabihlEsmond Kane
    Keri PearlsonAndrew StanleyTom CatchingsJames LugabihlEsmond Kane
    IoT: AI at Enterprise Scale

    Silicon Valley legend Thomas M. Siebel shares his vision, based on 40 years of experience in the information technology industry, for the second post-industrial revolution: the convergence of new and disruptive technologies – AI, elastic cloud computing, big data, machine learning, predictive analytics, IoT – driving a new paradigm in the application of information and communications technology to reshape business and social processes.

    Thomas M. Siebel
    Thomas M. Siebel
    Trusted Data: The Role of Blockchain, Secure Identity, and Encryption

    Enterprises are finally taking security seriously and beginning to adopt the next generation of technology: distributed ledgers ("blockchain"), secure identity mechanisms, and end-to-end encryption. These changes have the potential to revolutionize applications ranging from smart contracts to supply chain management, automation, and artificial intelligence. We’ll discuss how these new technologies will transform your business model and change the way you do business.

    Prof. Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, PhD ‘82, Professor(@alex_pentland), MIT Media Lab will moderate the panel, including:

    Prof. Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, PhD ‘82Hu LiangIrving Wladawsky-BergerThomas HardjonoAlanna Gombert
    Prof. Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, PhD ‘82Hu LiangIrving Wladawsky-BergerThomas HardjonoAlanna Gombert
    Designing for Digital

    You say digital… I say technology. But the challenge of a digital transformation is not about technology; it’s about organizational design. Companies must be architected for speed and integration. What does that look like? How do IT leaders make it happen? Jeanne Ross will review research findings from MIT CISR on how CIOs can lead efforts to redesign their companies.

    Dr. Jeanne W. Ross
    Dr. Jeanne W. Ross
    8th Annual Innovation Showcase

    The Innovation Showcase highlights 10 outstanding early stage companies with cutting edge solutions that combine both value and innovation to Enterprise IT.