Lindsey Anderson is the Chair of the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, a one-day conference that attracts more than 700 attendees each year. This year’s event is titled: Lead Your Digital Enterprise Forward – Are You Ready for the Next Digital Revolution?
Register for the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium and save 10% with code CDO2013.
Question 1: How do you define ‘digital strategy’?
“A digital strategy enables companies to improve their engagement with customers, employees, and other stakeholders. It also enables companies to pursue new opportunities through new business models and digital products. While it still provides a competitive advantage, it is also necessary to defend against the encroachment of other companies. It has a business focus with a technical underpinning. As technology changes the digital strategy must evolve as well.”
Question 2: As the Chairman of the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, what keeps you up at night?
“We have a very high standard for success, and meeting that threshold is of the utmost concern to me and the entire Symposium team. Fundamentally, we must ensure that the Symposium provides the best possible experience for CIOs, CTO’s, and other IT executives, as well as for speakers, sponsors, partners, and volunteers. Part of that is also making sure that we showcase the academic thought leadership of MIT in the best possible light.”
Question 3: What kind of mobile device(s) do you have, and what are your three favorite apps?
“My iPhone is my favorite mobile device and Podcasts is one of my favorite apps. Initially, I moved to a smart phone, in part, so that I could listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me whenever and wherever I wanted to. I’m also a big fan of The Classic Tales and I just finished listening to Something New by P. G. Wodehouse. Twitter is another favorite. Besides keeping up with business trends and IT developments, Twitter enables me to pursue a wide range of interests, such as getting tweets from WWII. Finally, Voice Memos may become my next favorite app. I just loaded the new version of Dragon Dictate on my Mac and it has transcription functionality. I haven’t figured it all out yet, but am looking to follow the footsteps of Thoreau, Emerson, and Louisa May Alcott by creating a journal. I don’t need to physically write anything; I dictate into my iPhone, plug it into my Mac — and voila – I have a transcribed journal. This actually circles back to the digital strategy question. As technology changes, in this case voice recognition, it makes it possible to use an older app in new ways.”
Question 4: Why should people care about and attend the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium?
“It’s a world-class, one-day conference, held on the MIT campus where over 700 CIOs, senior IT executives and MIT academic thought leaders are able to network, collaborate, and explore how innovative technologies and leading-edge research can help address the digital transformation. It’s a unique because it combines the in-the-trenches experience of global CIOs with academia. CIOs can receive actionable information that enables them to meet the challenges of today’s changing global economy. This insight comes from both leading academic research combined with the counsel of successful business leaders.”
Question 5: What advice do you have for aspiring digital professionals?
“Become a business-technology hybrid by understanding both the challenges of business and the opportunities of technology. I suggest being 65% business and 35% technology.”
For more information about Lindsey Anderson, visit the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium website, follow him on Twitter, or check him out on LinkedIn.
Register for the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium and save 10% with code CDO2013.
