Stories about: Applied Materials

A company's stakeholders can become their advocates, provided IT staff make up a part of the externally facing customer team, according to Haas School of Business professor, Peter Wilton.

Ask Paul J. Capizzi about his career plans and he'll tell you, "I'm taking the stairs, not the elevator." It's an unlikely admission from the fast-talking New Yorker, who, at 36, has already risen to the number-two spot in IT at insurer SBLI USA.

Hands-on experience leading an enterprisewide project is the best way to get ahead, according to an exclusive CIO magazine survey of 100 respondents identified by their managers as up-and-coming IT leaders.

Last week I asked a CIO roundtable which elements of the CIO Paradox they found most challenging. One item that showed up on every CIO's top-three list was "You were hired to be strategic, but you are forced to spend most of your time on operational issues." I spoke to five of the Council's most strategy-minded CIOs about how they managed to get out of the operational morass.

The thrill of booting up a team never gets old for Steve Finnerty, Applied Materials' vice president of IT and vendor services and a mentor in the CIO Executive Council's Pathways leadership development program. Good thing. The 40-year IT veteran and former CIO for Kraft Foods, Johnson Controls and JM Huber has headed up no fewer than three big new teams in as many years since joining Applied Materials, the world's largest supplier of manufacturing equipment to the semiconductor, display and solar photovoltaic industries.

Within five years of moving into IT management, Jay Kerley found his purpose: working with the business to affect business outcomes and results. And he set his sights on the CIO role when it became clear that the best way to create change and effect a business impact on as wide a scale as possible is to have that executive-level, strategic role. "With a CIO's cross-division view of processes, you are in the position to shift and turn the company," says Kerley, who was promoted to the position of deputy CIO at Applied Materials in 2009.

Since the beginning of the year, doubts about economic recovery have sent markets on a roller-coaster ride, but the IT sector keeps plugging along, showing signs that it is becoming increasingly dynamic.

Outsourcing experts, IT analysts (and optimistic vendors) are predicting an increase in IT services deals during the second half of 2009. They foresee an uptick in outsourcing driven by enterprises looking to increase IT efficiency and cut costs.

CIO Ron Kifer wants to ensure that the outsourcing providers he hires are aligned with his own company's objectives. But Kifer uses more than the usual questions that examine whether the work can be delivered on time and on budget. He looks at social and ethical factors, too.

Opportunities for relationship building occur every moment of a CIO's workday. Whether it's attending meetings, dropping by a peer's office or spending a few days at an offsite, a CIO is constantly in the process of forging ties.