I didn't get where I am today...
Three IT directors talk about their route to the top
Simon Clutson, IT director, Axicom, a strategic communications adviser
I began as an accountant - a role that I held for eight years. At the end of the eight years I was given the opportunity to migrate a whole accounting system for Polhill Communications, a financial PR firm, and the IT side of my role grew from there. I've had no formal training, just got my hands dirty and picked up practical knowledge over the last eight years as I've gone along.
Accounting then IT seems to represent a natural progression - both need a logical, inquisitive process-driven mind. Much of my day-to-day work is managerial, liaising between our seven European offices, and we use quite a few consultants for more specialised tasks, so keeping track of the budgets also takes up a lot of my time.
Simon's hot tips
First, I have learned that throwing money at problems generally creates more than it solves. Second, you can't give people too much information when there's a problem.
Barney Flint, IT director, Despatchbox, a software company
I came from accountancy into IT support, first for a small company (30-40 people), then for the National Exhibition Centre (NEC). The six years there gave me the technical background at the blunt end of things, and insight into the business side. Having learned all I could at the NEC, I then decided to move into programming, and went to Dr Solomon's - which then became Network Associates - as a development engineer, where I stayed for five years. Two years ago I started up Despatchbox and took on the IT side here, which is a testing task sometimes, as we handle both internal and external customer IT issues.
Barney's hot tip
My advice to any candidates for this area would be to get as much exposure to the practicalities of what people are trying to achieve as possible. Don't assume you already know. Many IT projects flounder because people forget to focus on what problem they are trying to solve, not what they'd like to solve.
Which skill would I most like to develop? I think my career path is pretty standard, looking at both technology and implementation, but I've missed out on people management skills, so I couldn't swan off to a big corporate.
Tugrul Firatli, IT director, Tibco Software Inc
I came from an applied research and development background, working for Bell Labs back in the 80s. This gave me a good view of both sides of the IT coin, both hardware and software. A lot of IT directors come from either hardware or programming, so they can only see one shade of green in the forest. I then moved to a similar position at Apple, and finally joined Tibco some ten years ago. Most of the IT directors I encounter are PhD level, mainly in the finance field, where the director level tends to be extremely highly qualified.
Tugrul's hot tip
Foresight. Most companies such as ABN Amro and Goldman Sachs have realised that information is at the heart of their strategic decision-making, and so are very dependent on their IT directors. I have seen huge successes and massive failures wholly triggered by the IT director's foresight or lack of it.
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