This pillar is led by Mr Lee Kee Siang focusing on the need for CIOs to demonstrate high level of professionalism to act and lead with integrity despite the heavy responsibility of CIOs to oversee the deployment of technologies in an innovative manner to enhance an organisation’s competitive business edge.

This section highlights the need for CIOs to uphold high integrity to do what is right and be prepared to account for their actions and decisions. This leadership quality is essential to help CIOs remain intact even when facing challenges and crisis.

Under the Integrity pillar in this volume, eight senior Information Technology (IT) professionals from diverse backgrounds spanning public, private and non-profit organisations have contributed their experiences and perspectives on different aspects of Integrity. Beyond personal perspectives, they also share real life cases where Integrity was compromised, their analyses of the damage caused, and suggestions on how appropriate governance can be put in place to avoid such pitfalls. They also share insights on good practices for motivating staff so as to inculcate healthy work environments and promote a collaborative workforce that focuses on shared goals.

This section has the following contributions:

• What is Integrity? by Lee Kee Siang
• The Importance of Integrity by Lee Siew Kit
• The Compass, the Watch and the Lighthouse by Peter Quek
• The NKF Story By Catherine Goh
• The Importance of IT Governance by Geraldine Pang
• Honest and Fair by Kwong Yuk Wah
• The Virtues of Integrity by Puspak Patro
• Integrity with Empowerment by Ong Hian Leong

One of the most challenging aspects of a CIO’s job is to look ahead for opportunities and drive innovation initiatives while managing the day-to- day ‘whirlwind’ of business/IT operations and customer support. This requires leadership ambidexterity, a trait found in the writers and contributors to this “New” section.

This pillar is led by Mr Alvin Ong to focus on Change and Innovation. One of the most challenging aspects of a CIO’s job is to look ahead and drive innovation initiatives while supporting day-to-day operations. Innovation is also fraught with risks and frequently impeded by organisational inertia and status quo. In this pillar, CIOs will share their war stories and practical wisdom gleaned from their transformation journey.

This section has the following contributions:

• “Innovation – A Panoramic Journey through the Years” by Alvin Ong
• “IT Strategy – Preparing for Tomorrow Today” by Yeo Teck Guan
• “Leadership in Innovation” by S Mahendran

Today’s CIOs face myriad challenges of increasing urgency and intensity. Amidst a sea of uncertainty and constraints, CIOs need to navigate with agility, focus and resolve. It goes without saying that a well-conceived plan or strategy is essential in charting a course successfully. As Peter Drucker once said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

It is undisputed that CIOs need to have a better understanding of their businesses’ technology needs, both in the short as well as long term.

They are also called upon to be more effective at driving partnerships and shared accountability with the business.

This pillar is led by Mr Don Yeo on Strategic IT.

The sections in this pillar capture the experience and wisdom of our contributors who are senior IT leaders. Alex Siow introduces the primary role of the CIO while Alvin Tan goes on to describe more specifically the “underbelly” of IT strategy development. Clara Lee then tackles the very current challenge of how IT leaders can effectively tackle digital transformation in their organizations, while I in turn provide my perspectives as a non-technical CIO leading an IT organization and Vijay K Sharma concludes by issuing a challenge for IT leaders to go beyond engagement to business intimacy.

Some key thoughts/ideas expressed in this pillar are:

• Some key thoughts/ideas expressed in this pillar are:
• Just because someone is called a CIO doesn’t mean he is necessarily fulfilling the strategic role that should come with being a CIO
• IT strategies should incorporate the means for adapting and adjusting to future changes in the IT and business landscape.
• There’s a famous story about teaching ducks to fly. “Hiring experts in these areas may be a quicker and more effective way of addressing gaps.”

This pillar, led by Mr Koh Kok Tian, focuses on people who form the basis of leading capabilities necessary to drive any business transformations, such as digital.

Most CIOs will tap on the talents, creativity and ingenuity of their IT resources to leverage technologies in creating competitive differentiation fortheirbusinesses. Today’s accelerated pace of change is non-linear, punctuated by disruptive technologies that create gaps between IT competencies to the right application of technologies. Beyond capabilities,‘People’ is a multi-faceted subject. The contributed segments from CIO practitioners here offer unique perspectives based on their professional and personal insights on ‘People’.

In this section, Glen Francis offers an interesting account from his early career years of how his mentor taught him the importance of respect. Respect forms the basis of sustained relationships and while one focuses on technology, it is important to not neglect the human aspects.

Ng Tiong Gee discusses the managing of people, how CIOs need to understand the differences of A versus B personalities across cultures and nationalities and how each type requires different management approaches in order to be effective.

Tony Yeoh highlights the need for CIOs themselves to transform and manage the paradoxical aspects of Core Purpose, Charisma, Capability and Competency juxtaposed with Reputation, Relationships, Recruitment and Relevance.

Lau Kai Cheong brings back us back to the importance of setting a clear vision and mission, and devise strategies that can be successfully delivered with the right people, right processes and right technology.

This pillar is led by Mr Lim Kuo Siong. It focuses on the need for CIOs to build up a key survival skill with the ability to manage relationship with various stakeholders as a way to influence business strategies. No longer are the days when IT can just focus on keeping the lights on. Differentiating a good technology achievement with that of a great business value delivery.

The authors argue that CIOs are in a position to connect the dots, paint the big picture and thus foster collaboration among various stakeholders.

They should realize the value of building and leveraging relationships that can enable them to deliver on commitments and organisational expectations. As part of their multifaceted roles, CIOs should embrace the relationship dimension which may require them to tap on extended networks to build a strong ecosystem in IT and beyond.

In this way, the CIO’s role calls for a complex yet appreciative view of relationships. Relationships based on loose linkages or superficial ties are like a single thread that will break easily under the least strain. But if we build a web of relationships based on mutual trust, support and integrity, they will be resilient and better able to withstand hard times or future shocks such as technological, economic or business disruptions.

This section has the following contributions:

• “The Power of Building Strong Relationships with Key Stakeholders” by Kuo Siong
• “Relationship Management” by Deny Rahardjo
• “Making Relationships Work for You” by Brandon Phuan
• “Technology as a Business Partner” by Prakash Natarajan
• “Relationship as a 2-Way Street” by Prem Prakash
• “Leadership is a Relationship” by Candice Poh
• “Gaining Cred for IT as Strategic Partner ” by Irfan Iltaf
• “Moving Minds and Changing Hearts” by Hiew Wui Sin, and
• “Taking a 3600 View on Relationships” by Siew Yim Cheng

This pillar is led by Paolo Miranda about exceeding each and every expectation extraordinarily. The authors argue that excellence improves performance to greatly surpass normal standards in achieving a continuously moving target. The original and creative use of technology plays an important part in every organization’s pursuit of excellence for a better world.

For IT professionals, excellence is like a never-ending list of project implementations and enhancements to improve systems and technology for businesses. There can always be better ways to perform or make something especially in the realm of Information Technology where new inventions and innovations are developed faster than ever before.

This section has the following contributions:

• Mayda Lim, who tells us why Good is the Enemy of Great
• Paul Loke, who talks about the DNA of Excellence in the organization
• Ken Yeo, who maps Excellence to Design, Build and Run
• Billy Cheng, who takes us through the ‘hardware’ and ‘heartware’ of Excellence
• James Loo, who cultivates a culture of Innovation and Excellence in his team, and
• Manik Narayan Saha, who focuses on IT Service Excellence in the Digital World

Some key thoughts/ideas expressed in this pillar are:

• “Aim high and yet be humble for if we stumble, the Lord our God will lift us up even higher.”
• “Good’ is enemy of ‘Great’ because if you settle for being merely good when you could actually be great, you’re not doing or being the best that you can be!”
• All it takes is one incident to undo all our previous efforts and records of Excellence
• Translate Excellence into specific, relevant and practical terms and measures for different parties in the organization