Developing a Business First IT Culture

Status Go Podcast: Episode 1

“Of all of the leaders out there in all of our industries a full 85% don’t get beyond the self authoring stage.” – Ron West

Episode 35: Developing a Business First IT Culture

In today’s hyper digital era, when gaining a competitive advantage is more dependent on technological advances than ever before, it is crucial that the IT department have a strong connection with the business as a whole; the overall goals, challenges and the road-map for the future. As, David Schacht, who serves as the Simon Property Group SVP and CIO, points out: between the analytical disciplines of technologists and the expertise of their business counterparts, the result is always better together.

Listen now as Jeff Ton walks through, not only how David established such a a strong IT culture around core business needs and values, but how he navigates the balance of upholding these principles while also staying in front of new technologies.

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Time Stamped Table of Contents

0:59 David’s background

2:49 A unique culture

7:06 How to avoid being order takers

8:28 Illustrating the business first partnership

12:39 A balancing act: when to follow crucial principles and when to discard them

16:58 Driving business value

23:53 The impact of cloud on overall strategy

31:41 Action Items

34:54 Summary

David Schacht is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Simon (NYSE:SPG), a global leader in retail real estate ownership, management and development and a S&P100 company. David joined Simon in 1997 as Director of Application Development. He was later promoted to Vice President and named to his current position in March of 2000.

He has served on panels for several industry conferences and has served on the Board of Advisors for the CIO Executive Summit, Virtual World Computing, and currently serves on the Advisory Council for Realcomm.

In 2012 David’s IT Department was ranked 63^rd out of 500 businesses recognized by InformationWeek 500, and acknowledged as one of the Top 20 Ideas to Steal.