Master Chefs of IT serve up tantalising smorgasbord of ideas

26 January 2022 by in Business and finance

Since its inception, the IT department has largely been relegated to a reactive, functional role servicing the needs of the organisation. But recently IT has made its way up from the basement and its executives – CIOs, CTOs, CDOs – now have strategic roles, with digital technology instrumental in business development, customer relationships and product innovation. This change has been accelerated by the pandemic, as businesses realise the potential IT-led solutions have to transform the workplace, creating virtual offices, enhancing customer–supplier relationships and streamlining processes.

Now CIONET, the world’s leading organisation for corporate digital leaders, has brought the latest thinking on information technology together in a new book authored by IT expert Roger Camrass, CIONET Cookbook: Recipes for digital success. This is a business book with a difference: instead of the customary text book illustrated with graphs and charts, readers are presented with a highly illustrated coffee-table book. CIONET Cookbook takes the analogy of a Michelin-starred restaurant and applies it to business: where a prestigious restaurant has a dynamic and creative Master Chef, the successful business of today must be led by a CIO with vision and energy. According to the book’s introduction: “Traditional enterprises face a new challenge: not just surviving, but thriving in the digital age. As the executives responsible for leading business technology, CIOs will need to meet this challenge head-on.”

The book presents its ideas in three main sections, analysing what a top-ranking digitally led business looks like, what tools make up the best IT kitchens and what is expected of IT Master Chefs and their teams. These ideas are expanded through recipes for success from 25 of today’s most influential IT leaders, and as with all the best cookbooks the recipes are illustrated with tantalising colour photography.

Featured CIOs have been instrumental in the success of global businesses from industries as diverse as food, communications, logistics and pharmaceuticals. While the businesses operate in vastly different areas, all the interviewed digital leaders are keen to point out how significantly the role of IT has changed. Tarun Kohli of reinsurance company Swiss Re sums it up neatly when he says: “We don’t need a digital strategy for business, we need a business strategy for a digital future.” This is not a technology manual but rather a guide to implementing change in business. Common themes throughout the book involve the ideas of openness and the importance of listening, with CIOs agreeing that it is crucial to get buy-in from customers, stakeholders and employees if any strategy is to succeed. As Cindy Hoots, CDO/CIO of AstraZeneca says, “When you focus on the people, you will get the results.”

This beautifully presented book will not only inspire today’s IT executives and those of the future but also make a handsome addition to their office desks.

About CIONET
With the largest membership of corporate digital leaders across Europe, Latin America, the US and Australia, CIONET’s mission is to help IT executives become both more at ease and more successful in their jobs so they do not merely keep up with change but ultimately define it.

About lead author Roger Camrass
A pioneer of today’s internet at MIT in the early seventies, Roger has spent over fifty years helping global corporations harness the power of digital techno­logies. He is now director of research for CIONET International.

CIONET Cookbook is published by Infinite Ideas on 28 January 2022.
ISBN: 9781913022303, hb, full colour, 210 x 210 mm, 160pp, rrp £40.
Also available as an eBook.
Review copies available from marketing@infideas.com; 07802 443957
Buy CIONET Cookbook