Charbel Kalayli, Director of Organization and IS at IÉSEG

"Today there's no such thing as a CIO training course, you become a CIO but there's no such thing as a CIO diploma, and there we take various extremely important concepts that we condense into a training course and can apply directly."

Why did you decide to take this course?

"I wanted to do this training course because it's my 1st CIO role, I've been in this role for 3 years, and I've been working in the IT world for almost 20 years, and I wanted to confront my situation with peers and people who had more experience than me, On the whole, I didn't want to confront it with professors who remained in theory, I really wanted to confront my experience with people in the field, and when I saw the portfolio of people who were involved in the training, I said to myself that this could be a very good opportunity."

What do you think of the program and format?

"The program is extremely interesting, you really get to see the whole range of what a CIO goes through in his or her everyday life, you can benefit from the experience of CIOs in the field, you can share anecdotes, real-life situations. The format of 4 times 3 days each time is extremely well suited, because there's this density of 3 days as well as the intermediate work phase where you have time to put things into practice."

What's your favourite module?

"My favorite module was the one on a subject that's particularly close to my heart: AI and data. We went through the whole subject: the history and genesis, the technical and technological aspects, the value it can bring to the company, feedback from people who have experienced it, it was extremely interesting and enriching."

"The other module I liked was the whole part on innovation, because in the life of a CIO you have to devote enough time to this technology watch. One good resolution I made during the training was to block off very specific times in my diary to carry out this technology watch."

What have you already been able to put into practice?

"Something I had already put into practice but improved thanks to the training: the KPIs, I had too many, I reduced my KPI field, I went to the coffee machine display (visual display of the KPIs in a high-traffic area so that the whole team is aware of them), and I can really see the difference now."

"Another thing I discovered during this training course is that the CIO's ego isn't important: if you're not part of the Comex it's no big deal, in the end you have to ask yourself what messages you need to get across and by what means? I used to think that you absolutely had to be on Comex to get your message across, but now I realize that you don't."

Who would you recommend this course to?

"I'd recommend this course to a variety of people, and in the end it's the diversity of profiles in my graduating class that makes it such a rich experience too. I'd recommend it:
- firstly to young CIOs with 2-3 years' experience, to test their positioning against field expertise
- to people who aspire to be CIOs, for example deputy CIOs or those in charge of areas who want to progress to a CIO position.
- to people in direct contact with the CIO, as we don't get too deep into the technical side, and it can enable them to acquire an interesting IT culture, as CIOs."