Class, below are some CIO’s strategic plans related to their IT investments. We will  cover both corporate strategy and IT strategy (from an economic viewpoint) in our operations management class. Below are real-world examples to supplement your textbook.

CSC develops and maintains strategic relationships with the world’s top technology and business companies. Here’s what some of those companies’ C-level IT executives have to say about managing on-the-job challenges.

Succeeding at Outsourcing…

Bob Worrall, CIO, Sun Microsystems, describes how flexibility, best practices and out-of-the-box thinking have contributed to a flourishing outsourcing relationship.

Chris Coupland, BAE Systems director of IT and e-Business, talks about the need for explicit objectives and commitments.

Ken Hill, former General Dynamics CIO, emphasizes the importance of effective, enforceable policies.

Sherry Browne, Ascension Health CIO, discusses the challenge of blending disparate organizational cultures, while retaining each company’s identity.

Ingvar Soderlund, SAS Group CIO, describes the ideal outsourcing partner.

Working Through a Natural Disaster…

Deborah Hojem, DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations CIO, reflects on how planning and teamwork are key to surviving a crisis.

Transforming Your IT…

Jeff Steinhorn, chief information officer for Hess Marketing & Refining, reveals the value of hiring external consultants to supply industry expertise.

Michael Paravicini, chief information technology officer for Zurich Financial Services Group, talks about transforming his organization from a collection of regional businesses into a unified global company.

Ken Bohlen, Textron executive vice president and chief innovation officer, explains how a networked IT system allows new technologies and innovations.

Bob Ridout, DuPont CIO, discusses how a flexible IT structure is crucial to transforming business operations.

Jean-Pierre Corniou, former senior vice president and CIO, Renault, describes how a new global outlook demands an innovative IT overhaul.

Unearthing Leadership…

CSC chief technology officer John A. Glowacki Jr. explains how he uses a framework of people, processes and technology as the foundation for all strategic decisions.

Many of these articles first appeared in our client magazine, CSC World. For additional information, e-mail world@csc.com.

I’ve commented before on the continuing separation between “band piping” and “solo piping.” It used to be that a pipe section’s ultimate goal would be to play MSRs like a top soloist, and top soloists like John MacFadyen, Seumas MacNeill and John MacLellan would judge band contests, even though they had never played with a World Champion-calibre – or even any – band in their lives.

I think the music continues to drift apart. You don’t hear much in common with the playing at the Silver Star and that at the World Pipe Band Championships. Medleys and drums sections have created a chasm between the two styles, and, to be honest, solo piping has pretty much been stagnant, while band piping has evolved.

And a lot of that also has to do with band judging in the UK. If my count is correct, there are only three piping judges based in the UK – Iain MacLellan, John Wilson and Andrew Wright – on the senior RSPBA panel who have also stomped the boards for a good long time at the level required of the Argyllshire Gathering and the Northern Meeting. The rest are pipers raised almost entirely on pipe bands.

This is perhaps understandable for the UK scene where bands and solos events are, with rare exceptions, separate things. It follows that many pipe band judges will be bandsmen, who don’t have the demonstrated skill and appreciation for the solo style. There are many top soloists playing in top bands now – Peter Hunt, Donald MacPhee, Alastair Dunn, and of course the entire roster of the Spirit of Scotland – but my hunch is that those UK-based guys when they retire from competing will focus on solo judging, if they even want to adjudicate.

In North America, where band and solo events almost always happen at the same competition, it’s much easier for a piper to be both a top soloist and a member of a top band. Young pipers start with the amateur grades and, if they have the goods and the will, progress to Professional. All the solo events are there, so why not play in them? Consequently, non-UK pipe band judges tend to be top-class solo players, too. It’s very hard to do that in Scotland.

That’s evidenced by the RSPBA’s 2005 approval of “international” judges like Jim McGillivray and James Troy to its panel, which already included Bob Worrall – all guys who proved that they can knit together top-drawer solo music, and of course recognize it.

I’ve also said that – for better or worse – so much of what happens in the piping world is dictated by what goes on in Scotland. If the goal is to win the World’s, then non-UK bands tend to do what the RSPBA judges want to hear. And if those judges are mostly bandsmen, then the band style – whatever it might be – will be heard and promoted.

But if anyone wonders why a band plays pipe music in such a dramatically different style from a solo piper, they need look no further than the RSPBA’s judging panel for a possible reason.