Ascential CIO Sean Harley improves communications with the executive team by making presentations to the full board and audit committee. This also gives him the opportunity to draw on the expertise of a tech-savvy boardroom.
The global nature of Ascential's business presence another communication challenge. The company operates in more than 150 counties, while Harley's own team is spread across four communicates.
To improve collaboration and ensure they're all updated on Ascential's digital direction, Harley regularly visits each region and hosts a quarterly global call for all staff, which is recorded and uploaded to the intranet for anyone who couldn't make it at the time.
"That gives great insight and alignment across our global organisation, and we're very transparent about what our objectives are and what current activities are going on," Harley told CIO UK.
"For me, being a successful CIO is about the people that you have within your teams and empowering them to be able to make their own informed decisions and not make decisions for them by making sure they've got the right enablement and the support from me at the same time.
"We focus a lot on our people, and what that delivers for us is commitment and desire and opportunity for the people to progress. In terms of culture, we're a progressive company. We've got many examples of people that come in through the help desk, let's say in a tier one role, and are now working in many different teams. It's great to grow people and see the reward in that."