How To Become Successful In IT
Utilize Strategies To Get Ahead In This Always Evolving Industry.

Spring 2009 - By Laura Carolan

Staying on the cutting-edge of technology is not only what it takes to be successful in information technology (IT). According to these successful IT executives, it takes a lot more than just staying current in IT—it takes being a savvy businessperson, knowing how to utilize strategies, and interpersonal communications, among many other skills. More businesses outsource those jobs that were once “IT-only” jobs, urging those in the IT sector to focus not only on technology, but to learn and utilize new skills that will enhance their relationship with other groups within the business, such as sales and marketing. Read on to find out what these senior-level executives have to say about technology in the role of business today, as well as their advice on how to become successful in IT.

Jim Nanton,
Senior Vice President And Chief Information Officer,
Hanesbrands, Inc.

As senior vice president and chief information officer of Hanesbrands, Inc. with global responsibility for the firm’s information technology, Jim Nanton stays abreast of his field by continually educating himself through both traditional and nontraditional methods. After earning his undergraduate degree from Iona College, he later went on to earn a master’s degree as part of an executive program in management of technology at Polytechnic University. Nanton says he "fell into" IT accidentally, while working in operations at a bank at night during school, and has had a passion for it ever since. Fascinated with computers, as well as the love for working with gadgets, Nanton took a programming course and seemed to have a knack for it. He received a series of promotions, first, to production control supervisor, then to programmer. Shortly after, Nanton moved on to a manufacturing company and relocated to the Southwest. Before joining Sara Lee Branded Apparel, now Hanesbrands, Inc., he was recruited by Citicorp in New York. He left the company after ten years as a vice president of systems at the divisional level. Early in his career, his goal was to become a CIO. He is proud that he has met his goal.

Nanton keeps up with technology by having the curiosity to seek out information, reading business and trade publications, visiting Websites pertinent to IT, and attending trade shows aimed at IT professionals. He is proactively engaged by seizing the initiative and by taking ownership of his career. He says, "Take advantage of every opportunity given to you and seek out opportunities as well."

One nontraditional way Nanton suggests that individuals develop and grow is to reach out to younger people. When Nanton first began his career, he noticed that not many people looked like him, in the sense that there were few minorities in senior leadership positions. While he was participating in his company’s recruitment program, he was also struck by the scarcity of African Americans on the candidate lists. "To teach is to learn. This raised my level of knowledge and is an effective way to learn," he explains.

Nanton was an adjunct instructor at Winston-Salem State University, an Historically Black College and University (HBCU), where he enjoyed teaching technology and getting others interested in IT, and in some cases, recruiting students to work for his company. Once part of the mentoring program at Hanesbrands, Nanton still has mentors and believes everyone should always seek out and find a mentor. He has also served as a mentor to others, and enjoys inspiring those just beginning their career.

Another nontraditional way of learning is to speak at technology conferences. Nanton says, "Preparing your speech is a great way to learn. It’s also an opportunity to engage with your peers from other companies and industries, and to learn from them. Getting out of your shell makes it more difficult, but it encourages you to learn." Nanton has been a featured speaker at technology conferences in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He explains, "Time becomes limited the more senior an executive you become, so you need to properly manage your time and leverage your learning opportunities. It is important that employees always learn and explore new ways to do so."

Nanton tells those just starting out in IT, "Seek out information and don’t confine yourself to the information and training available from your company. Have a passion for the field you are in and go deeper to find out more. Find out about all of the opportunities available to you, but make your own opportunities, too. The most important advice I can give is to broaden your background, and not limit yourself to just IT skills. Having strong interpersonal communication skills will help differentiate you in the marketplace, which is important when you need to interact with the business. You will need to understand and translate business requirements into technology solutions. If you don’t have those business skills, it will limit your opportunities. Sharpen your business skills, become a more rounded and informed employee, and improve your overall business knowledge. This will help you to project the complete package."

Nanton warns that basic IT skills are available overseas. He explains, "Firms seek ways to do more with less—they shrink the pool of internal resources by outsourcing and it doesn’t matter where those jobs are physically located." He also reminds those in the IT field that technology changes rapidly and specific tools can become obsolete; knowing only a particular platform of technology can make your role outdated. "Be effective and useful to the business by differentiating yourself. Make yourself stand out. You must have that passion and desire to succeed," he urges.

Nanton is proud to work for a company that seeks to help people across the business understand and value each other’s differences and work together more effectively. As a global company, Hanesbrands is more sensitive to cultural differences both internally as well as externally. Nanton says, "Our definition of diversity has now evolved to be broader and more inclusive than its initial focus on race and gender." Many employees, including Nanton, travel internationally on company business. By making employees more aware of cultural and other differences, they work together more effectively.

Realizing that not many people looked like him in upper management, Nanton was motivated to inspire and recruit young members of minority groups into the business world. He began volunteering in his spare time and hopes to inspire and motivate others. "When volunteering, you learn valuable leadership skills which broaden your perspective about business and the non-corporate world," he explains. "It is also a great networking experience that can lead to interaction with professionals of other backgrounds."

Now, years later, Nanton has seen more young, talented African Americans, as well as people of other backgrounds and experiences, in roles in which they may not have been as well represented before. Nanton enjoys being active in the community. Formerly board chairman of the United Way of Forsyth County, NC, he is chairman of the Simons Green Atkins Community Development Corporation; and chair of the advisory board of the office of international programs at Winston-Salem State University. He is the past chair of the Salvation Army advisory board in his community and has recently been appointed to the board of trustees at Winston-Salem State University.

Sherrie Littlejohn.
Executive Vice President,
Wells Fargo

As the Executive vice president of network services & operations at Wells Fargo, Sherrie Littlejohn has had the passion and drive to be successful in the IT-world. She shares her insight to stay ahead not only in IT, but in your organization and your career. "Reach out to others within your organization and don’t be shy because of their title. Pick up the telephone and reach out to them to find out how they do what they do, and what their story is," she says. Speaking to other members of your organization will enable you to grow and find out all there is to know about the company, the industry, and your peers.

Littlejohn says she continually learns by reading trade journals, magazines, and Internet sites, and attending conferences. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Xavier University in New Orleans, LA. While working part time and earning a full-time salary, her employer, Bell Laboratories, compensated her for her master’s degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she majored in computer science. She also completed the executive business program from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Littlejohn was employed with Bell Laboratories for ten years as a member of technical staff, and during this time became a technical manager. She had always enjoyed the unpredictability of technology and so she recalls when analog changed to digital while working at Bell Laboratories. She worked on a team that created a software language to present information on a monitor that was traditionally displayed by LEDs on a hardware panel to monitor and alert on troubles in the network.

After leaving Bell Laboratories, Littlejohn worked for Pacific Bell for 13 years as a leader of software development, architecture, network engineering, and operations. During her tenure. she became CIO for the voice messaging subsidiary providing solutions for both retail and wholesale markets as well as VP, network engineering and operations for the SBC long distance subsidiary.

She left Pacific Bell and joined a startup company, Yipes Communications. As vice president of information technology, Littlejohn led a team that delivered the IT strategy, architecture, program management, implementation and support of the voice over IP system, desktop, LAN, ERP system, and other related IT management functions. The experience to work in a small company provided insight that could not have been appreciated in a large company. She truly valued the opportunity. However, with the 2001 downturn in the startup market, she was offered another opportunity to work for Wells Fargo. In her current role, she heads the network services & operations group, responsible to provide voice, video, wireless, and data network architecture; planning; engineering; telecom expense management; and operational support for most network components within Wells Fargo.

"Technology is not for everyone. I like solving problems, the change, the challenges and that the field always grows," Littlejohn states. She explains that IT requires not just the knowledge of technology but other skillsets as well, such as how to negotiate contracts, project management, interpersonal communications, and how to make intelligent business decisions. It takes all kinds of people to make a successful IT organization, and so she suggests talking to your peers to find out what role they have in the organization and what they like about what they do. She states, "You will never know everything there is to know in IT, and there are always new ways to do things."

Responsible for a large organization, Littlejohn thinks relationships are one of the keys to becoming successful. Finding out as much as you can about team members within your organization and why their role is instrumental to everyday functions and long-term success will enable you to grow and contribute more effectively to the company. Building relationships with your peers is important, as is selecting a mentor.

Littlejohn has always had, and plans to always have, mentors throughout her career. She remarks, "Mentors are the most critical aspect of corporate success. In every company I have worked, there has been at least one person I could go and talk to who would speak to me honestly about the job that I was doing, and could help me to improve on who I am. It is invaluable to have this resource and you can seek it in unexpected places. Your mentor doesn’t have to be an executive, just someone you can trust to give you the best advice possible. You can learn from your mentees as well. Always be open to learning, listening, growing, and becoming the best you."

Working with people of different backgrounds, race, and cultures, enhances your learning experience and makes you more conscious of your customers’ needs and wants. Littlejohn is proud to work for a company that takes diversity so seriously. One way Wells Fargo sees to it that diversity is so earnestly thought of within the organization is through the conscious and deliberate attention provided by the Corporate Diversity Council and the senior leaders’ engagement throughout Wells Fargo. This attention not only addresses the engagement of Wells Fargo team members whose different opinions are valued and respected within the organization, it also ensures that Wells Fargo’s customers’ needs are better understood and satisfied.

Littlejohn enjoys volunteering and supporting her community. "I like to help others and I do get personal satisfaction out of doing so. I want to do everything I can to make the community better," she declares. Volunteering also enables you to improve on skills in other areas outside of IT. "If everyone gave back to the community, we would be more cognizant of all people," she says.

She is also a member of the YMCA board in her community. She comments, "The YMCA is a place to learn and grow for our youth. It was so important to me to be part of the fundraising team so that I could help raise money to build a building in our neighborhood for our teens and aging community. They deserve to have a place to gather." Together, Littlejohn and her daughter are members of the National Charities League, whose goal is to encourage mother-daughter relationships that give back to their local communities and ultimately strive to get young teens to think more positively about themselves. "I love what I do and I am passionate about what I do. I have enjoyed my journey thus far, and I’ve had fun along the way," Littlejohn concludes.

Daphne Jones,
Vice President And CIO,
Johnson & Johnson

Finishing both her undergraduate and MBA degrees in four years, Daphne Jones, vice president IT and CIO for three operating companies of Johnson & Johnson, is an accomplished IT professional, motivational speaker, life coach, and mentor who fosters a love of learning not only within herself but with current and future IT professionals.

As the world’s most comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of healthcare products, as well as a provider of related services, for the consumer, pharmaceutical, medical devices, and diagnostics markets, Johnson " Johnson has more than 200 operating companies in 57 countries. As VP IT and CIO of Johnson " Johnson’s Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Veridex, and Therakos operating companies, Jones and her diverse IT team enable the $2 billion franchise to achieve and sustain market leadership through the use of technical solutions across multiple functions around the world. Jones also sits on the Ortho Clinical Diagnostic franchise worldwide global management Board.

Since she joined Johnson & Johnson in 1997, Jones has served as director and executive director at several other Johnson & Johnson companies. She was once co-chair and is now a member of the African-American Leadership Council for Johnson & Johnson, which seeks to assist in the career attainment and fostering the excellence of its African-American employees. The council’s main objective is to put programs in place that help drive J&J business outcomes to serve the diverse African-American marketplace, while working to meet the needs and issues of the African-American community, including selling and marketing of products. Jones joined Johnson & Johnson after 14 years with IBM, and three years with Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) Utility, where she reported to the CIO.

Jones’s love of learning started at Illinois State University in Normal, IL, where she received her bachelor’s degree in business administration and her MBA in management. When she joined IBM upon graduation, she attended an MBA-like new employee-training program, learning about business functions and processes, technical sales, marketing, and software engineering. And fortunately for Jones that first exposure to continuous education has continued throughout her career, as she says "I love to learn, read, and am very curious about a lot of things."

Of particular interest to her are nontraditional learning methods such as role-playing, reading books, sponsor/mentor relationships, and recognizing that people are more than one-dimensional. She explains, "This strategy means you should nurture all the dimensions of a person, as it makes a more interesting leader if you develop other aspects such as your spiritual, emotional, financial, and intellectual parts of yourself. As you do that, it makes you a well-rounded individual."

For example, Jones attended the Society for Information Management Regional Leadership Forum that utilizes a process (versus a typical curriculum) to educate members about the total person, including the spiritual, social, intellectual, and financial aspects. Learning about technology or supply chain or sales/marketing is important, but they are only one piece of the puzzle.

Jones knows the importance to keep in touch with her team—nearly 100 employees from around the world plus 90 contractors, who reside in the UK, France, Belgium, Japan, India, and the U.S. Jones does this job in a variety of ways, from holding monthly project status or innovation meetings to updating her and her information technology leadership team (ITLT) on projects, to monthly Town Hall Meetings where her team, located in both the U.S. and abroad, meet face-to-face and through Microsoft Live.

Through a forum called "IT Business Series", she invites business leaders to help give the IT team context about the value of the IT contributions as they talk about the business objectives and challenges. Her direct reports host “Director Roundtables,” which are detailed discussions about each director’s careers, projects, and their personal development path, while she regularly hosts a VP Breakfast, which is a monthly meeting with randomly selected team members to discuss topics of interest. Jones also travels abroad to Europe and Japan each year to meet directly with her global staff. "There is nothing more engaging and effective than face-to-face meetings," Daphne explains.

In order to stay abreast of the latest technology, Jones covers all the bases. She reads business books and various healthcare/IT magazines . She also surrounds herself with people with whom she can learn. "I hire the best people. They know more and are smarter than I am. You never want to be the smartest person in the room. I surround myself with a team full of bright people who have a diversity of knowledge and experience, and constantly teach me." She then, in turn, nurtures and develops other people who seek growth opportunities.

Jones says that many people focus on being a technologist, but they must understand the different aspects of business. They must understand areas such as R&D, manufacturing and distribution, sales, marketing, and not just IT. "If you know only a certain technology, you run the risk of becoming a commodity, and those are the jobs that can be easily outsourced overseas. Instead, be a value-added contributor to a business. Be able to anticipate problems, and be proactive—meet with business partners to understand and help them solve problems. Keep current about what goes on in the world and in business, not just technology."

She adds, "The world is moving, even if you are not. Do stretch assignments and challenge yourself. Try not to be obsolete and re-invent yourself and get out of your comfort zone. It helps the perception about you, if your boss sees that you want to tackle tough assignments and that you are willing to get out of your comfort zone."

Jones offers critical advice for those just starting their IT careers. "There are three important people in business—role models, mentors, and sponsors," she says. "A role model is someone who you look up to, is highly successful, from whom you can get cues about such as how to dress, present, and solve problems. We all need to have a role model, whether you are in corporate America or not,"

When it comes to mentors, Jones’s analogy is that of a flashlight near your feet— "it ensures you don’t trip or stumble or points out obstacles that you might not ordinarily see, and as it shines, you are able to navigate through the organization from this light. You learn from your mentor’s experiences and go farther without making the same mistakes. And finally, a sponsor takes it one step further and shines the light on you.

They increase your visibility and bring your name forward within your organization. You don’t ask someone to be your sponsor; it is someone you can go to for advice. I always say, ‘If you’re not thought about, you probably won’t be talked about, and if you’re not talked about, you probably won’t be considered for that next opportunity.’ Sponsors help make that happen."

Jones augments her professional side with many outside interests. She is currently in the process of writing a book, which she hopes to have completed by June. Having her book published is part of her purpose and passion. She says, "No one should ever have excuses to not achieve what is their purpose—so many more before us have had more adverse issues to deal with and still found a way to be inspired and achieve their life goals."

Jones enjoys getting involved in community work and has been recognized for her achievements throughout her career. She serves as a member of the board of Parker Nursing/Assisted Living Homes, Inc; is commissioner on the New Jersey Advisory Commission on the Status of Women; is a 2009 United Way of New York City honoree; and is a Johnson & Johnson TWIN award recipient. Jones is a member of the Society for Information Management and is a member of Information Technology Senior Management—an organization of Fortune 500 IT vice presidents, directors, and entrepreneurs, dedicated to talent development and the advancement of technology in corporations.

Source: African-American Career World.