CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7 - 56

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personally, uprooting my family from
our home.
Just three months after I arrived,

wouldn't have taken this job."
There were so many challenges. I
just had to go about systematically

however, I got a call from a much

addressing each one, starting with

smaller company called Purdue

understanding the business needs,

Pharma about their CIO position.

upgrading our talent while building a

I'd never heard of them, and I was

team culture, and finally introducing

enjoying Merck. I loved working for

new technology-skills I'd been

and learning from Stuart McGuigan

acquiring and developing in my years

- now the CIO at J&J - who was a

leading up to becoming a CIO.

phenomenal leader. The company was

The company was planning to

treating me well. I was just getting

implement a part of the legacy SSA

started there. So I said, "No." It was

Business Planning and upgrade the

way too soon. Three months later,

Control System from an AS/400

they called again. And then again.

environment to Unix. I knew it was a

After a year, I decided I would at least

huge risk and not the right platform

talk to them.

for the future. If Purdue wanted to

I interviewed six times with

scale from a $250 million company to

Purdue. At one point, I told the

a multi-billion dollar one, it needed

recruiter to just forget it. If they

to be on SAP rather than fragmented

couldn't decide after that many

legacy systems. It took some time, but

interviews and that much time that

I convinced the Board to make the

I could do the job, I thought, they'd

biggest IT investment the company

never move quickly enough to keep

had ever made. But having gotten

pace with technology changes.

that buy-in, it was critical to deliver.

Luckily, the recruiter talked me off

We couldn't do it alone - any critical

the ledge. He explained that broad

business system implementation

buy-in was part of the company

has to be a partnership between

culture and they wanted to make sure

the business and IT. We created

I was the right person for the critical

a steering committee of business

role of CIO. And eventually they

leaders that closely managed the

decided that I was. I had achieved a

resources and scope month by month.

key career goal - becoming a CIO -

And we jointly delivered, on time and

but quickly learned that was just

under budget. We are still leveraging

the beginning.

that enterprise platform today.

I had been preparing myself to
become a CIO when I joined Purdue.
What I wasn't prepared for was the

Encouraging the CIOs of
Tomorrow

magnitude of the problems I was
inheriting. IT had been underfunded

I've had several opportunities to

and the environment was broken.

leave or make a career change in

Skills needed upgrading. Sixty days

my time at Purdue Pharma, but I've

after I arrived, I told my boss, "If

always chosen to stay. The Board and

I knew then what I know now, I

leadership team have been extremely

What I wasn't
prepared for was
the magnitude of
the problems I was
inheriting. IT had
been underfunded and
the environment was
broken. Skills needed
upgrading. Sixty days
after I arrived, I told
my boss, "If I knew
then what I know now,
I wouldn't have taken
this job".
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7
