There was such huge interest in our last CIO interview that I felt compelled to get another perspective from a high-profile CIO on what it’s like being marketed to by ICT companies. Step forward the fantastic and thought-provoking Tom Ilube, Chief Executive of Garlik and ex-CIO of Egg.

First a bit of background… Tom didn’t take a traditional route to CIO and Executive Committee member at Egg. He started his career in deep technology, as an Assembler programmer at British Airways. He then became a business analyst at the London Stock Exchange. After that, Tom took time to do an MBA and then undertook roles as a management consultant at CGEY/Hoskins and Coopers & Lybrand. He then started his own software company, which he ran for six years, during which time he was involved in the launch of Egg.

A few years later, when Egg was looking for a new CIO, they approached Tom. He sold his stake in the software company and took the role.

It was something of a leftfield appointment: Egg wanted an entrepreneurial CIO, a hybrid character – someone who could fill the role as a businessman as well as in a technical capacity. At this point in his career, Tom had a myriad of useful experiences to bring to bear – from raising funding, to management consulting, to running marketing and HR, as well bringing the deep understanding of technology that was needed.

As a Chief Executive in his own software company, Tom had learned to make quick decisions and live with the consequences. He learned to get decisive, and Egg at that time was looking for someone to take on big change decisions within the business.

As you would expect, Tom was responsible for all things technical within Egg. However, his remit was also to oversee change more broadly within the business. He had 500 staff in the IT department, across multiple locations, a number of which were international.

Tom is now the Chief Executive of Garlik, a venture capital backed technology company specializing in protecting identity and personal information online. I met Tom in London last week – here’s a write up of the interview.

What were your main challenges in the CIO role at Egg?

My main challenges were twofold:

1) Egg has always been an innovative user of technology – it saw the opportunity presented by the rapid emergence of the internet alongside the need of consumers to bank in a different way. Technology had been its point of leverage, its strategic driver, in the early days. As a result, technology had always had a big voice on the executive committee.

However, as the company became bigger and more mature, it had lost some of this strategic view of technology, and had pushed IT back into the role of driving operational efficiency. My challenge was to bring IT’s strategic voice back.

2) As with any rapidly-growing organisation, Egg had become a victim of its own success in some regards. In trying to manage its fast growth, it had layered on too many processes. In some cases these processes had taken over and were slowing the company down. My remit was to bring the nimbleness and agility back to the business.

What did you most enjoy?

What I most enjoyed in the CIO role was the opportunity to get very technical, and yet be able to mix this with the very strategic. As CIO in that kind of technologically-savvy environment, one can impact the direction of the entire company. The variety was fascinating, as was the opportunity through links in the IT industry, to see what was coming over the horizon, and to be able to translate that for the organisation.

Being a target of IT marketing, what were you most interested to receive from suppliers and potential suppliers?

I was most interested to receive updates from suppliers on things that were genuinely relevant. Almost all the material I got was too generic. I would think, “these guys could have done a bit more, they could have tried to understand Egg rather than banking in general.” It wouldn’t have been hard to do – just a bit of research for example – before targeting me.

In what way could suppliers target you better?

Because of its reputation as a technological innovator, Egg attracted smaller, cutting-edge technology vendors. There was a continuous wave of them wanting appointments. These guys universally misunderstood the scale of the business, they would offer solutions that could affect only a tiny proportion of my customer base. For a CIO, that falls into the hassle category. I needed ideas that would have an impact on 20%+ of my customers at the very least.

In general, suppliers need to have thought about my customer base – I want them to have researched the company, or at least have been bothered to ask.

What’s the job of a CIO like, day to day?

A CIOs job is hassle in a lot of ways. 50-100 suppliers, 1000s of people and another 200 suppliers trying to get appointments. The diary was always booked up completely, 2 months in advance.

IT companies need to think, “Why would a CIO even bother to speak to me?” A CIO will be immediately attracted to something that will make their lives easier, but it needs to be genuinely relevant.

Did the timing of the marketing materials you influence the attention that you gave them?

Yes, timing is very important; and for 2 main reasons.

1) Banks’ financial years are critical – if you catch me during a financial year, the most a supplier is likely to get is a pilot project. Suppliers need to be conscious of this and how budget cycles work. If the pilot works, then I’ll put that supplier into the budget for the following financial year but that process can’t be expedited. Especially now, in these economic conditions. Getting anything material in terms of IT spend is going to take at least 18 months.

2) Mostly for CIOs, new needs don’t emerge suddenly from the business. If they do, the CIO will probably be irritated about it, and will need to ask himself what he’s going to stop, or who he’s going to shift around to accommodate the request. When things happen at a time not of his choosing, it will be frustrating. At the same time, it does offer opportunities for the IT supplier, as long as they are in the right place. If a new need comes along that the CIO needs more knowledge of, typically he or she will use his network of advisers. This is typically trusted lieutenants will pop up after the new CIO gets the role, along with some long-standing consultants. If there’s a new need, or the pressure is on, this group’s opinion will be sought. It is possible for suppliers to get into this trusted network over time.

It’s worth mentioning that the CIO may well delegate the “scanning” of this group’s input to someone trusted in his or her team.

What’s a typical CIO “lifecycle”?

CIOs probably last 3-4 years on average. Typically year one is “sorting out the mess from the last guy” – even if there’s no mess to sort out, there is usually that organisational view. Years 2-3 are the years where delivery is all important. Big things are always delivered cautiously by CIOs – they need to trust that it will work. They want to make sure they’ve seen it all working before proceeding.

Ed – it’s worth noting that Tom had a view that CIO headhunters would make an interesting pairing with IT suppliers – people like Spencer Stuart, Russell & Reynolds – these companies know who all the CIOs are and have a database of people who run the UK’s IT. They know what type of people they are and what kind of companies they will fit well at.

Who were the most memorable IT suppliers; who did good marketing whilst you were in the role?

Sun was always excellent – both in terms of what we received from the company, and the quality of the relationship itself. They talked to us about our business in detail – they had insights that we sometimes hadn’t quite thought of ourselves. AIT was always good – its culture came through in its communication and gave you a view of what they would be like to work with.

Culture is extremely important, and therefore a big selection criterion. In an organisation with such as strong cultural identity as Egg, supplier culture needed to be aligned.

Style, content and tone are therefore all very important, as they convey that culture. I would want to know, could I see these people working with my team, with my company?

What role did the PA play in filtering marketing material?

I gave guidance to my PA on what I wanted to receive direct marketing-wise. Anything that didn’t fit the description, or unless the PA knew I was wrestling with that particular challenge, was binned or redistributed to the relevant person within the company.

I would get 3-4 event invites a week, often a number of suppliers would invite me to the same rugby match. But what if I was someone who didn’t like going out much? Suppliers needed to ensure they had the bases covered.

Was it easier for existing suppliers to get to you?

No, existing suppliers don’t get any easier ride – they still have to have something worth saying. In some ways, it might even be harder for them, as if what they were trying to see me about wasn’t around the specific challenge I was working on, my PA would probably send it to the person in the company she knew was dealing with that area.

What role did telemarketing play in getting to you?

It would have been extremely difficult to get through to me on the phone. If the CIOs PA had been PA to the CFO before becoming the CIOs PA, they saw a huge difference in their call-managing role. Literally the phone would ring every 10 minutes. If suppliers did get through to me, they would need to be careful, CIOs don’t like getting jumped. The relationship would have to be there first. I’d rather that suppliers dealt with members of my team for specific and point solutions.

Is networking valuable?

CIOs like to network, but in a controlled environment. It has to be small, private. CIOs want to know there isn’t a threat of getting sold to, of spending the evening with a salesman on each side rather than meeting their peers. They also want access to high value content.

Never assume all CIOs want technical content at events. They want to be able to contribute at the executive table too. Current affairs and themes are always of interest – ie. right now a supplier-run breakfast briefing on the credit crunch given by a noted economist would have got my attention.

All CIOs understand the game – they know that if they attend the event and get value from it, that they would give value back to that supplier by giving them some time face to face later on.

How did you view email marketing?

I got 100-200 emails per day. Due-to-back to back meetings, most would be handled in bulk. Therefore anything from someone I didn’t know or recognise would probably be deleted. Most times the PA would go through and delete marketing emails before I got to them. Sometimes the PA might forward them on to others if they are relevant.

Email works better to other areas of the organisation and my team, where they are responsible for dealing with specific issues.

If someone in my network forwards something on then I’ll read it, or if it’s a recognisable name in the industry, I’ll take a look. But it has to come across as personalised, and I don’t just mean “dear Tom” at the top of it. It needs to be relevant and genuinely applicable to my company and my situation.

The job of suppliers with the CIO in my view is to raise awareness, then market specifics at the budget owners. The CIO of any reasonable-sized company has delegated budget responsibility to people like the Development Director or the Operations Director. The CIO’s job is to create context and then let people get on with the job.

What would you do if you were selling IT to a CIO yourself?

I would do an awful lot of thinking first on what his context is. That particular bank, this particular time. What’s going on in the market? There really isn’t a generic CIO – age, ambition, stage of career, history, their team – it all plays a role. Branson’s CIO will be different to the CIO at the Pru. Suppliers need to understand that to market effectively. It’s about the specific person and their specific environment.

I would assume from the start that the CIOs life is hassle – meetings, emails, cost pressures etc. I would want to believe I had a way of making their life easier in a material way. I’d then look for a relationship or a referral – I’d do something for the CIO that they would then reciprocate.

I’d get an hour at that point, get to know them even better. I’d take time to turn it into business. Discretionary pots of spend are still available for pilots, even in this environment.

If I was a CIO right now, in this climate, what would I be doing?

I would know that I am, or will be, called on to make cuts. I would be proactive about looking at the organisation, seeing where there is flexibility. I would be talking to suppliers, thinking about what is possible, putting together a plan.

I would speak to my colleagues, especially in marketing in finance, to understand their priorities – how are they adjusting their costs and how can I support that? CIOs can easily get trapped fighting a rearguard action against cost-cutting. Once the CEO comes to you and asks you for savings, you’ve had it. You should already have a plan. That way you keep hold of the cards.

I’d want to keep innovation alive, that’s important. Due to budget restraints, it would have to be targeted innovation – a cut here, but perhaps a pilot there. It’s no time for pet projects – I’d want to try and find where my colleagues were putting the emphasis.

If a supplier came to me now, before I’d gone to him, and said “here are some suggestions , some ways I think that we can cut costs for you”, I’d be extremely impressed and want to work with that supplier. What goes down always comes up again, so that supplier might take a short term hit, but they’d hold onto the relationship and would be in pole position with me as the budgets took an upturn later on. If my budgets are being cut, I’m eventually going to have to haul suppliers in and ask them to cut costs anyway. The company who comes to me now, and thinks, “I’m going to pre-empt this, I know that it will come back to me” would be looked on very favourably.

“We can save you X million if you just spend Y with us” offers would not get a look-in in this environment. I would be looking for savings from what I’m spending now. Plus, I would want cuts that will deliver back to the CFO and the company in the current financial year.

What will happen to the CIO role in the next couple of years, given the economic turbulence?

I think the risk is that it might regress back to the traditional CIO for a while (if not in character then in the day to day operation of the role). The focus will be on cutting costs, and/or running IT programmes that support the cost-cutting of other departments in the business. There will be a focus on operational efficiency again.

However, the CIO’s challenge is to stay strategic, keep one eye on the horizon, try to spot the next big technology shifts and in the background start to guide his organisation towards them. For example, over the next couple of years the web itself is changing shape rapidly from today’s web into the next generation “semantic web”. This will impact all businesses that leverage the web quite profoundly and is the sort of fundamental technology shift that CIOs can highlight and spot strategic opportunities for their company.