Ask Louie Ehrlich, CIO and president of Chevron Information Technology Company, about the most important things he's learned leading a giant, global IT team through massive change and you get a surprisingly non-technology focused answer: You've gotta scratch the itch, act like a two-year-old, mind the gap and live like you're dying. Those things sound simple, but they're hard-won lessons for Ehrlich, the top tech executive for the nearly $250 billion energy company, whose three-year transformation effort has yielded the better part of a billion dollars in payback for Chevron.

A private economic forecaster has contradicted federal Treasury predictions of the commonwealth budget returning to surplus within three years by casting doubt on the expected level of mining-driven engineering works.

In a fast growing sector, the bottom line is everything