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The CIONET Cookbook comprises recipes for success from 25 of today’s most influential and dynamic information technology leaders, across all sectors of business.This is the result of our research and interviews with top Digital Leaders. The CIONET Cookbook uses the analogy of a five-star restaurant to explain the importance of optimally integrated technology.
Meanwhile dive into the next recipe with our Masterchef Erwin Verstraelen Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Port of Antwerp.
Antwerp is Europe’s second largest port. Being able to sustain its leadership position in the face of formidable competition is a constant challenge for the executive committee, 
including the port’s chief digital and innovation officer (CDIO), Erwin Verstraelen. Geopolitical challenges, such as Brexit, and exponential technology growth, create further challenges where the port aims to turn these challenges into opportunities .
To survive and thrive, the Port of Antwerp must have an innovative culture that is embraced by every member of the organisation and the extended port ecosystem. Erwin says this integrated approach is essential: “I don’t believe in an approach where we create a separate innovation team. Innovation should be everywhere, but we must give it an opportunity to surface and blossom. This requires a structured approach to avoid innovation leading to chaos .”
His formula for innovation success includes: transforming the organisational culture into an opportunistic rather than a risk-averse mentality; experimenting constantly with new ideas and technologies; and building strong capabilities and partnerships. Erwin’s Digital and innovation team (DI), which includes the traditional IT department, has provided the vision and inspiration to transform the port as an innovation platform. For the Port of Antwerp, success means working closely with internal and external business partners.
Erwin says his department fulfils as central role in helping to enable an innovative culture to emerge and prosper within the port and across its trading partners is dependent on three preconditions:
As mentioned above, building an innovative team is critical to success – but not sufficient in isolation. IT must take its best-practice techniques, and enable and inspire an innovative culture across the organisation. IT can engender the trust of the business by performing consistently on its core tasks, such as running a complex infrastructure and building new applications rapidly. But IT must also go beyond this remit and support innovation across every aspect of the port’s operations.
There are many ways in which a leading port can apply new technologies to sustain its leadership position. IT can inform the business about the potential that technological innovation holds and assist in setting up proof of values, where the potential of a technology can be sensed in the context of the organisation. Recent examples include:
At the end of the day, innovation has to support the realisation of business strategic objectives, aiming to differentiate Antwerp in its battle against other leading ports and stay competitive.
Since arriving at the Port of Antwerp, Erwin has expanded the digital and innovation capabilities of the port. In addition to digital business solutions and infrastructure services, IT now has four new competencies:
The successful operation of core systems and services is a necessary condition for success in these new areas. Keeping the lights, even in the digital age, is still the foundation for credibility and trust from the organisation, a stepping stone towards authority and impact in the digital transformation
It can be difficult for large, traditional enterprises to attract and retain innovative talent and leaders. Erwin has taken steps to ensure his vision spreads far and wide, both within and outside the organisation. The result? He has encouraged younger employees to join the port.
Erwin recognises that any organisation has four different types of staff – sprinters, runners, walkers, and those “who will not move”. Instead of focusing efforts on the latter two groups, he identifies and enables the port’s sprinters and runners. He has created several new organisational units and functions, such as enterprise architecture, that help to encourage staff and skill development.
One of the most exciting areas of innovation at the port is the harvesting of data to feed predictive and prescriptive algorithms. In 2019, a consortium of leading ports from around the world, called Chainport, came together to conduct a hackathon around several potential use cases leveraging operational data. One of them was a better prediction of the expected time of arrival (ETA) of a ship into port.
The hackathon teams examined how combining different sources of data could improve the accuracy of predictions for the ETA of every vessel entering a port. More accurate ETAs would produce big benefits for stakeholders inside and outside the port. Such joined-up activity shows that collaboration is as critical as competition in helping businesses to maintain commercial leadership.
The creation of an innovative culture is not a one-time task. It requires a continual process of enabling experimentation, strengthening capabilities, and motivating staff. Erwin says digital leaders are instrumental in helping to create a better future for their organisations. They should be visionary and active relationship builders, working alongside their C-suite peers and external partners, such as customers and suppliers.
