INSEAD and CIONET salute three CIO’s for enabling their organisations to thrive amidst austerity

Also Released: 2012 IT Enabled Leadership Report and Broadband Survey

INSEAD, the leading international business school, in partnership with CIONET International, today announced the winners of the 2012 European Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year Award.  Presented by EU Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes, the awards recognise the success of CIOs who have increased their organisation’s competitiveness by using Information Technology (IT) to increase efficiency, and to pioneer new products, services and business models.

INSEAD eLab, the school’s Centre of Excellence for research on the global knowledge economy, and CIONET collaborated to select three winners from a field of 13 prominent finalists, identified by the country offices of the CIONET network. The top three were selected by a panel of judges from INSEAD and CIONET in the following categories: Technology-Driven CIO, Business Process-Driven CIO, and Client-Driven CIO.

The 2012 European CIO of the Year Award winners are:
Technology-Driven CIO: José Manuel Inchausti, Chief Information Officer, MAPFRE;
Business Process-Driven CIO: Pieter Schoehuijs, Chief Information Officer, AkzoNobel; and
Client-Driven CIO: Oliver T. Bussmann, Executive Vice President & Global CIO, SAP AG.

“With the growth of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at the nucleus of organisations’ strategic success, the role of the CIO is continually expanding and becoming more critical,” said Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director of INSEAD eLab. “We are pleased to join CIONET in recognising 2012 CIO leaders. Today's CIOs are faced with the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of massive trends such as broadband, social media, cloud computing and 'big data'. We are proud of contributing to show how, in such a complex and rapidly moving environment, CIOs adapt and lead, and how their respective organisations - public or private - can benefit from a better integration of ICT in their strategies and operations.”

Part of the selection criteria examined how well the CIO adjusted his or her IT strategy to meet the needs of a business; the successful deployment of his or her team to meet business requirements and to effectively manage business priorities.  The final three were selected on the basis of two key factors: the CIO who best represented a specific type of leader in the designated categories and who embodied the diversity of this year’s 13 finalists.

“Once again,” noted Nils Olaya Fonstad, Associate Director of INSEAD eLab, “the findings suggest that any organisation that does not strive to have at least one of the three types of IT-enabled leaders is failing to pursue important opportunities to create value and be competitive in today’s increasingly interdependent and dynamic global economy.”

Concurrent to the CIO of the Year awards, INSEAD and CIONET released the results of two in-depth European business surveys: (1) 2012 IT Enabled Leadership Report, “Three Ways to Thrive: How Chief Information Officers are enabling their organisations to grow and strengthen in today’s challenging economy”; and (2) “Enhancing the business value of broadband: Recent views from Chief Information Officers”.

“Highlighting effective uses of ICT and building future IT-enabled leaders is the shared responsibility of multiple stakeholder groups,” noted Hendrik Deckers, Managing Partner of CIONET International. “These reports are the most recent results of fruitful collaborations between INSEAD eLab, CIONET and the European Commission. We look forward to many more.”

About CIONET

CIONET is the biggest community of IT executives in Europe. Bringing together over 3500 CIOs, CTO’s and IT directors from wide ranging sectors, cultures, academic backgrounds and generations, CIONET’s membership represents an impressive body of expertise in IT management. CIONET’s mission is to feed and develop that expertise by providing top-level IT executives with the resources they need to realise their full potential.

CIONET develops, manages and moderates an integrated array of tools and services from the online CIONET platform – the world’s first social network for CIOs – to a range of offline networking events, conferences, workshops and executive education programmes all tailored to top-level management. CIONET also provides exclusive access to the latest research through regular online and offline publications and a number of value adding partnerships with key players from the academic and corporate worlds.

Faced with the rapidly changing role of today’s IT executive, CIONET not only helps its members keep up with the pace of change but empowers them to take an active role in shaping the future of their field, always challenging them with “What’s next.”

More information about CIONET can be found on www.cionet.com or blog.cionet.com.

About INSEAD, The Business School for the World

As one of the world's leading and largest graduate business schools, INSEAD brings together people, cultures and ideas from around the world to change lives and to transform organisations. A global perspective and cultural diversity are reflected in all aspects of our research and teaching.

With campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and Abu Dhabi, INSEAD's business education and research spans three continents. Our 141 renowned Faculty members from 35 countries inspire more than 1,000 degree participants annually in our MBA, Executive MBA and PhD programmes. In addition, more than 6,000 executives participate in INSEAD's Executive Education programmes each year.

In addition to INSEAD's programmes on our three campuses, INSEAD participates in academic partnerships with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia & San Francisco); the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University near Chicago, and Johns Hopkins University/SAIS in Washington DC.

In Asia, INSEAD partners with Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. INSEAD is a founding partner in the multidisciplinary Sorbonne University created in 2012, and also partners with Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil.

In 2009, INSEAD celebrated 50 years as a pioneer of international business education based in Europe. In 2010, INSEAD celebrated the 10th Anniversary of our Asia campus in Singapore. This year, we mark five years of activity in Abu Dhabi.

Around the world and over the decades, INSEAD continues to conduct cutting edge research and to innovate across all our programmes to provide business leaders with the knowledge and sensitivity to operate anywhere. These core values have enabled us to become truly "The Business School for the World."

More information about INSEAD can be found at http://www.insead.edu/home/

INSEAD Press Contacts:

Europe
Sophie Badré, INSEAD Europe Campus
Tel: +33 1 60 71 2691
Email: sophie.badre@insead.edu

Julia Irrgang, Media Relations Manager
Tel +33 1 60 72 93 34
Email: julia.irrgang@insead.edu

Jayne Brocklehurst, INSEAD Europe Campus
Tel: +33 1 60 71 2634
Email: jayne.brocklehurst@insead.edu

Asia
Janet Loh, INSEAD Asia Campus
Tel: +65 6799 5490
Email: janet.loh@insead.edu

Middle East
Joe Chedid, INSEAD Abu Dhabi Campus
Tel: +971 2 651 5200
Email: joe.chedid@insead.edu

U.S.
Rosalind Welsh Joseph
Roz Joseph Group, New York LLC.
Tel: +1 (718) 710 5181
Message Center: +1 (917) 727 5801
Email: roz@rozjosephgroup.com

CIONET Press Contact:

CIONET International
Nonnenstraat 1
2800 Mechelen, Belgium
T: +32 15 261 600
F: +32 15 261 604
press@cionet.com