1. 149 149148
FRIESLANDCAMPINA
IN MANY COMPANIES, THE ROLE OF IT IS CHANGING
FROM A SERVING TECHNOLOGY SUPPLIER MEASURED
ON COSTS, TO A STRATEGIC BUSINESS PARTNER WITH
A FOCUS ON THE CREATION OF ADDED VALUE. WHY
DO COMPANIES NEED THIS AND WHAT PROBLEMS ARE
ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH A CHANGE? E
rwin Logt has been Chief Information
Officer (CIO) at FrieslandCampina
for the past 12 months. The company
is one of the world’s five biggest dairy
multinationals, with annual revenues of
more than 11 billion euros and outlets in
30 countries. Logt, who previously worked
for Procter & Gamble, most recently in the
United States, is now busy transforming
FrieslandCampina’s IT department, with the
aim of getting more value from IT. He wants
to play a bigger role in helping the orga-
nisation to reach its operational goals and
strategic plans.
INCREASINGG THE VALUE OF IT
Logt explains: ‘In order to remain in control
of your destiny as an IT organisation, you’ve
got to deliver unique value to your company.
If you don’t, it won’t be long before you’re
regarded as a commodity and measured on
your costs. That’s a dangerous game to play,
and it’s not one that many IT organisations
will win anymore, because these days the
commodity side of IT is both easy to con-
tract out and highly price-competitive. What
is more beneficial to a company? An IT
organization that does what is asked from it
(‘IT serves the business’), is reactive, has an
IT IN
A STRATEGIC
ROLE
internal focus and is rewarded for lowering
a company’s IT costs. Or an IT organisation
that thinks with the business and has an in-
novative and external focus. An organisation
that identifies opportunities, assumes respon-
sibility for business problems and is judged
by the value it creates (‘IT enables’ or even ‘IT
drives business transformation’). An IT orga-
nisation whose goal in everything it does is to
help the business generate a higher and more
profitable turnover. The focus here lies not on
technology but on the business transforma-
tion you achieve using that technology.’
THE IT DEPARTMENT: A BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Erwin Logt continues: ‘The question often
arises as to whether IT as an organisation can
be successful in a more strategic partner like
role. Can IT really lead (business) change?
And what gives IT the authority to say what
can and can’t be done, what is best in class
and what has to change? What does IT know
of sales or supply chain management? IT
organisations have a unique advantage. They
are often centrally and/or globally organised.
IT often operates across all business groups,
countries and departments. I’m sometimes
asked by business leaders in a specific country
how another country carries out a process in
the same discipline. An IT department knows
this. What’s more, there are now very few pro-
cesses in which information and technology
aren’t vital. IT staff is executing one transfor-
mation process after another. Finally, external
suppliers are taking IT with them in a world
of best practices. The knowledge IT builds
up this way of the company, its products,
customers and processes, and of comparable
businesses, combined with the latest techno-
logical knowledge, is a unique and valuable
combination. To maximize this, companies
must demand more value and a broader
leadership of their CIOs. On top CIOs must
be given more support and opportunities to
bring their IT organisation out of the com-
modity corner.’
IT STAFF AT MANAGEMENT LEVEL
Logt: ‘A challenge in this transformation often
lies in recruiting or developing new, more
business-centric IT managers. They are nee-
ded to earn that seat at the table and be allo-
wed to play. Next to the increased competition
with peer companies to hire this new type of
IT manager, we will also see more and more
people join IT with a business degree at entry
level. Universities and higher education are
helping this process by offering more hybrid
courses (a mixture of IT and business admi-
nistration). But closer cooperation between
CIOs and the educational sector is needed
in order to change the traditional technical
image which many students still have of an
IT department. Obviously the availability of
commercial investments in innovation and
new solutions is also important. However, IT
professionals can’t entirely hide behind this.
I have seen several IT departments in the
industry deliver considerable business value
by starting small with a group of proactive
innovators, experimenting fast and looking
what really catches on before requesting ma-
jor investments.
Logt says conclusively: ‘Also at FrieslandCam-
pina we are repositioning our IT department.
This is a large scale operation which will
ultimately result in IT being more strategic
and more steering. The IT recruits we are now
hiring and training are commercial, business
minded, have business process transforma-
tion skills, and above all are ‘obsessed’ with
wanting to continuously improve Friesland-
Campina (by using technology and informa-
tion). Sometimes even without a technical IT
background but with a business degree like an
MBA. FrieslandCampina is in the midst of a
change process to become a modern, inter-
nationally operating, commercial company.
In short, room for proactive people who like
to generate (international) added value and
want to lead in their field. With these people
and the new role we are giving IT, we are
helping FrieslandCampina to reach its goal to
become the most professional company in the
dairy sector.’ <
AN IT MANAGER
IS FIRST AND
FOREMOST
A BUSINESS
MANAGER, AND
ONLY THEN AN IT
PROFESSIONAL
Erwin Logt
THEMES
CHANGING THE ROLE OF IT
INCREASING THE VALUE OF IT
IT BIRD’S EYE VIEW
IT STAFF
REPOSITIONING IT
PROGRAMMATORIAL