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After greater than three many years in company IT, together with the final 10 years as senior vice chairman and CIO of Owens Corning, Steve Zerby might be retiring in March, handing over the reins to his longtime colleague and the corporate’s present vice chairman of IT, Annie Baymiller.

Beneath Zerby’s tenure, the $8.5 billion world constructing and development supplies firm has been named one in all Computerworld’s 100 finest locations to work in IT for the previous eight years, rating No. 1 two of these years. His World Info Providers (GIS) group has additionally been acknowledged with six CIO 100 awards. Whereas these are massive footwear to fill, Baymiller’s personal profession journey and willingness to step as much as massive challenges with confidence and a studying mindset have her well-positioned to hold on that legacy and construct on it additional.

In a current episode of the Tech Whisperers podcast, Zerby and Baymiller shared what it takes to develop an everlasting profession as a CIO and easy methods to do management succession proper. After the present, we spent some extra time discussing how they’ve developed an revolutionary, customer-focused IT group that has made tangible contributions to Owens Corning’s continued enterprise success. What follows is that dialog, edited for size and readability.

Dan Roberts: Steve, I don’t assume I’ve ever spoken with you whenever you haven’t talked in regards to the firm’s give attention to the client. How can different CIOs embed this sort of customer-centered method to innovation into their expertise organizations?

Owens Corning

Steve Zerby: In order for you your technical expertise to impression the client, you possibly can’t anticipate a miracle to occur. You possibly can’t anticipate an unknown expertise expertise to point out up at a enterprise president’s workplace and have them instantly say, ‘Why don’t you go spend a while with probably the most beneficial buyer of our firm.’ It simply doesn’t occur that method.

The very first thing you must do is determine easy methods to work your method into extra strategic conversations, and we’ve at all times used service as our gateway to get us there. I feel for lots of CIOs, once they hear service, they assume subservience or servants. However we use service in a really utilitarian method. If I determine easy methods to do one thing for a enterprise or one other operate that looks like I present an excellent service to them, I create a possibility to be within the subsequent one, and the subsequent one. On day one, if they need us to take out the trash, we’re going to go take it out higher than anyone’s ever taken it out earlier than, after which they’re more likely to invite us again in to do one thing else. And the alternatives will get larger and larger.

If you take that type of spirit and mentality round service and then you definitely put lengthy tenure round it, that’s the place our philosophy of constructing roles round folks is so necessary. We construct roles round folks as a result of aspirations for profession progress that don’t occur are one of many three causes folks depart an organization. We at all times need to add to your function in a method that feels such as you’re experiencing profession progress so that you don’t need to go search for it some place else. However we additionally do it very strategically for the good thing about our stakeholders.

Roberts: What are a few of the methods you do this? What does that expertise technique appear like?

Zerby: Annie is an effective instance. She’s been connected to our roofing group for the higher a part of the last decade now, and but she’s executed a thousand different issues, and we’ve executed that by including to her core function as our divisional CIO for roofing by giving her extra staff leaders and extra of us that may start to execute a few of the issues that she needed to execute. Being that tightly knit to a single enterprise like ours for that period of time, in fact over time you get to be in additional strategic issues, in fact they now belief her to have extra conversations with our clients. However you’ve acquired to have a expertise technique that doesn’t rotate your key IT executives away from companies each 24 months. As a result of it takes 24 months to construct that type of belief.

So our expertise technique of constructing roles round folks to offer them the profession progress they need, and on the similar time leaving them anchored to stakeholders for lengthy, lengthy durations of time, is vital to not solely interacting with inside stakeholders, but additionally if you wish to make it to the purpose the place you possibly can work together with the most important clients of an organization. That’s the journey it is advisable to put your staff on.

My recommendation for different CIOs is: Don’t take into consideration your expertise as a strategy to go fulfill some demand; take into consideration your expertise in the way in which that you simply develop them in order that they are in demand and develop them to allow them to really play the place you need them to play. It’s a little bit bit like our D&I journey. The perfect factor we will do as leaders is ensure that that there’s a various group of workers prepared for these challenges, who can go carry out very strongly when given that chance. If you put all these items collectively, inevitably you find yourself in conversations with clients and suppliers and board members, since you’ve knit that complete folks technique collectively.

Roberts: Annie, I nonetheless hear of a whole lot of expertise leaders say they wrestle to get into that first technique assembly and solely get invited later when there’s one thing for IT to do. What’s your recommendation to them?

Owens Corning

Annie Baymiller: I feel Steve mentioned it properly: You simply can’t anticipate a miracle to occur. You must chip away at it a little bit bit daily whenever you’re linked to a brand new enterprise or a brand new staff. For me, it’s at all times anchored again to constructing genuine, trusting relationships, and a strategy to construct that trusting relationship, whether or not it’s assembly 100 or assembly 2, is to give attention to the way you add worth whenever you’re in there. Then, regardless of the consequence is of the session, you’ve acquired to go hit a house run delivering on it. You lose all credibility if you happen to’re fascinating and additive within the assembly after which in terms of the factor that must be executed, you miss the mark or it doesn’t develop into a precedence or the enterprise doesn’t actually imagine it’s one thing you’re able to driving. Executing and being dependable and reliable — that will get you invited again. And then you definitely get invited again earlier and sometimes.

I can think about it being daunting if you happen to’re getting invited in on assembly quantity 10 and you’ll’t determine easy methods to get invited earlier. However I feel if you happen to can simply be the perfect model of your self daily whenever you come to work, good issues will occur. Should you see issues and also you run at them, if you happen to ask questions that you simply assume are for the great of the corporate or the great of the work, if you happen to actually get to know folks in order that they’ll perceive you at your core, then that builds a lot quicker trusting relationships.

A few of that is again to fundamentals. Should you love what you do whenever you are available in and also you do your finest at it daily, a few of these issues simply develop into non-issues over time. However I do assume the supply, the execution in opposition to it, is vastly necessary, as a result of that’s the way you get invited again.

Roberts: With 68 consecutive years on the Fortune 500, Owens Corning has had a remarkably constant monitor document of enterprise and monetary success. Steve, are you able to discuss in regards to the enterprise and what it’s doing to proceed to be well-positioned for the subsequent 68 years?

Zerby: Within the final 24 months, I feel the companies have been leaning ahead into innovation and progress in a totally totally different method. I’ve labored with three Fortune 500 firms, and doubtless the shortest CEO tenure that I’ll have been below might be [Owens Corning CEO] Brian Chambers, and if there’s a remorse I’ve, it’s in all probability that I’m getting much less of his management than I did many others. He simply has a tremendously distinctive method of being difficult however, on the similar time, completely respectful of the opinions of the consultants that work in his firm.

There are a whole lot of CEOs who need to be the neatest particular person within the room, however Brian’s acquired a singular method of placing sufficient folks in a room that the room turns into actually, actually, actually collectively sensible. And he will get extra out of the folks round him than any CEO I’ve ever seen. In order I depart, it’s a little bit of a remorse, as a result of I actually have loved the time in that type of setting. Nevertheless it’s additionally one which I feel goes to proceed to let the corporate be very revolutionary and be on a progress monitor. His fixed consumption of opinions, concepts, ideas that aren’t his however but he can form them and direct them — I feel is a successful recipe that’s going to be excellent for a very long time to return.

Roberts: Annie, how is that driving the innovation in your space, and the way your groups are stepping as much as the problem?

Baymiller: As Steve mentioned, it begins with Brian and the management staff’s dedication to essentially working at what it means to be a digital chief and the way we will go create distinctive capabilities for our clients. And that’s laborious work, as a result of no buyer is strictly like the opposite buyer.

Over the past two years, I’ve seen our enterprise groups actually open themselves up in a method of ideating about what the long run will be — determining how we rapidly consider what some potential alternatives could be and letting them fail quick in the event that they’re not the best factor for our clients or our market, after which taking a look at the way you be taught from a few of the ones that we expect may very well be fascinating.

That may be an uncomfortable course of whenever you’re fascinated about issues that may have relevance years down the street and there’s heaps to do tomorrow. I feel we’ve navigated that basically properly, with folks feeling snug being susceptible in what they know and what they don’t know, but additionally bringing the numerous years of experiences we have now with a few of our leaders throughout the corporate to form that course of.

As we proceed to consider what innovation means for us throughout our merchandise, throughout digital, throughout sustainability, it’s that dedication to it, daily, of realizing that we’ve acquired to proceed to win in the present day, however we additionally need to win tomorrow, and we will’t quit one for the opposite. That’s an fascinating muscle to construct and I’m actually happy with how our leaders have pushed that change for the corporate.

For extra insights from Zerby and Baymiller on their profession journeys and main revolutionary IT groups, tune into the Tech Whisperers podcast.