As part of our “CIO’s First 30 Days” series, we are speaking to CIOs of various tenure to discuss what their first month in the position looked like; how they approached planning and relationship building as well as their biggest challenges. As Jeff Ton states in the opening of this episode, “The CIO’s first 30 days can be chaotic, yet it is critical to his or her success.”

Andy Harper, began his role as CIO of Southwest Key Programs earlier this year.  He and Jeff start at the very beginning, discussing what the job hunt looked like and why he ultimately chose to relocate his family.  Additionally, Andy and Jeff dive into exactly how he went about building his plan and outlining his key initiatives, such as marketing materials and the potential for re-branding the department.

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Time Stamped Table of Contents

1:52 Andy’s unique career journey

2:57 When & why the position of CIO became part of Andy’s career path

4:16 How vulnerability & empathy work into leadership

6:32 Approaching the job search & the idea of relocation

10:35 Differences between the various job markets

13:55 Getting the whole family on board

15:12 Day one

16:53 The vision six weeks in

17:57 Building out the plan

19:01 Plans for 2020

20:29 Marketing IT as a strategic part of the business

23:15 Branding the IT department

25:32 Interaction with the customer

27:12 The customer’s customer

28:32 Action items