More than 20 times CIO

Podcast with Pierre Fauquenot

As founder and CEO of Infortive, Pierre Fauquenot's aim is to work with companies to help general management embark on a digital transformation or get through a delicate phase. Here, we take a look back at the countless experiences he's had, and his unique perspective on the future of the CIO profession.

Pierre Fauquenot began his career with Econocom, where he was Sales Director and then Marketing Director of subsidiaries. After a number of similar experiences, and a spell as General Manager of Telma in the USA, he returned to the world of Information Systems, becoming Deputy Group CIO of Labinal, a global automotive and aeronautical equipment supplier.

Since 2002, he has taken on a series of assignments as CIO or CTO of Transition, thanks in particular to Infortive, the company he founded, which specializes in digital transition management and is the largest community of CIOs of Transition in France.

In this podcast, Pierre shares his views on the CIO profession (which he has exercised more than 20 times) and the CIO's behavior, which often needs to be changed.

Enjoy!

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Pierre Fauquenot is an experienced transitional CIO, having held this role in numerous companies, particularly in contexts of digital transformation. His expertise lies in his ability to restructure CIOs so that they are no longer merely reactive, but become genuine strategic levers. With a vision focused on value creation that goes beyond simple return on investment (ROI), Pierre Fauquenot embodies a modern approach to the role of CIO.

Over the last ten years, I've seen a great deal of change, with senior management expecting concrete changes from CIOs.

A significant anecdote

During an assignment for a pharmaceutical group, Pierre Fauquenot presented an ambitious plan to transform the company's IT department. His objective was to transform the IT department from an execution department into a proactive one, and then into a department at the heart of the company's strategy. This involved transferring the R&D/Software team, previously under the industrial management, to the IT Department.

Although reluctant at first, the company's deputy president soon realized that a proactive CIO was a necessary step in taking the company to the next level. This decision enabled the company to modernize its organization and move closer to its strategic ambitions.

Structuring the CIO role

Pierre Fauquenot distinguishes three types of CIO:

1. Execution CIO: Responsible for maintaining existing systems, often focused on optimizing day-to-day operations.
2. Proactive CIO: Able to anticipate future needs and contribute to business agility.
3. Core business IT department: Integrated into the company's global strategy, this IT department has a direct influence on the company's performance and value creation.

New profiles and missions

To evolve from an executing CIO to a proactive, core business CIO, it is essential that the CIO understands the company's economic stakes. Pierre Fauquenot warns against the purely technical CIO, who could miss out on this strategic dimension. Value creation is not limited to ROI, but encompasses broader impacts such as corporate image, customer satisfaction and ecological footprint.

From the moment a CIO wants to create value so that it contributes to the company's development, he or she needs to be sensitive to the business model and the company's agility, while at the same time being aligned with the board of directors' issues.

The transitional CIO

A transitional CIO, like Pierre Fauquenot, intervenes in companies in crisis or undergoing transformation to solve complex problems and initiate profound change. Unlike an interim CIO, who ensures continuity in operations, the transitional CIO builds lasting solutions. However, once his or her mission is accomplished, he or she makes way for a management CIO, better able to ensure the long-term viability of the structures put in place.

Pierre has often been confronted by CEOs who wanted to keep him on, but this is not the philosophy of Interim Management. He prefers to develop a model which, in his opinion, could be one of the keys to the digital transformation of companies: creating a pairing between a "builder" CIO (which is what an interim CIO is) and a "manager" CIO (which is what a full-time, permanent CIO is).

A transitional CIO is someone who has faced similar problems before, so they know what to do, and they're chosen because they've gained experience in solving these problems. He brings speed, security and, above all, a profession in its own right.

Tools and methods for changing corporate culture

Pierre argues that the transformation of a corporate culture, often perceived as a lengthy process (around three years), can be accelerated thanks to software and the evolution of the work environment. By modifying the tools and systems used, it is possible to induce a rapid change in behavior and organizational culture.

Despite the cultural and technological reticence still present in France, Pierre defends the idea that software change is a key to business transformation.

By changing software, we change the user experience. Culture is our behavior in the face of an environment. If we change the environment, we behave differently, and so there's a transition.

Conclusion

Pierre Fauquenot concludes by stressing the importance of the IT department in corporate strategy. The interim manager, as a builder, plays a key role in digital transformation phases. Thanks to his or her experience, he or she is able to support the company in moving towards a core IT department model, through a proactive phase.

His talk illustrates how a CIO can go beyond a mere technical role to become a strategic player in digital transformation, while contributing to the creation of value in various forms.