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In a predominantly male-dominated field of technology, these women are taking care of business from the very top. From NASA, The Department of Defense to the CIA, learn from these women on how they run our national security, intelligence and defense — and how you can apply it to your business.
Person and Position
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Job Scope Within The Federal Government
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The Pentagon’s chief technologist has a tricky task: disassemble the Networks Integration and Information office and create a small and more focused CIO office. Never mind the fact that DoD is seeking budgets cuts for the first time in years, not to mention the scaling down of two military theaters of operation.
We’d say this seems daunting, but Takai has plenty of experience in tough fiscal environments as her previous two posts as the state CIO for California and Michigan – two of the most cash-strapped states in the country. |
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Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, CIO, Army
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Along with heading a $10 billion IT budget, Lawrence is busy leading the Army’s network modernization effort, a task she has identified as her top priority since taking the post earlier this year.
She’s also overlooking the Army’s shift to an enterprise email system and building up the Army Cyber Command. |
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Susan Swart, CIO, State Department
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Swart is undertaking a network consolidation of her own, creating the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Network (FAN) that will consolidate the more than 45 networks used by foreign affairs agencies into just one.
The project aims to make information sharing among the different foreign affairs agencies easier than ever before – a common theme after she spent the previous few years implementing a new agency-wide messaging system. |
| Lisa Schlosser, Deputy CIO, Federal Government
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Schlosser is well-respected throughout the government IT community, especially for her knowledge of cybersecurity.
As Deputy Federal CIO, she was Vivek Kundra’s pick to help him lead the nation’s IT direction and now she’ll aide new Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel in further implementing Kundra’s plans, along with providing VanRoekel with her deep reservoir of knowledge with his own initiatives.
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Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA
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Cureton has the ever-challenging task of getting NASA’s 10 centers to act as one while trying to make the agency more efficient.
She’s a proponent of cloud computing, but with restrictions as she recently said at a FedScoop event that the technology is not a silver bullet to fix all your problems. |
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Jeanne Tisinger, CIO, CIA
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Its not an easy task being the CIO at one of the world’s most secretive places, but Tisinger makes it work.
Her time these days is spent on data management, trying to find ways to organize, manage and distribute some of the nation’s most secretive data. |
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Mary Davie, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Integrated Technology Services in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service
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When it comes to finding ways to get more for less in acquisition, Davie is the person. She leads a highly skilled and diverse workforce that manages more than 7,000 contracts, totaling more than $3.5 billion in procurement. |
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Casey Coleman, CIO, GSA
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The agency’s temporary headquarters while the old building gets refurbished has turned into Coleman’s playground as she’s gotten to test out a number of wireless and collaboration projects on the space.
She’s also been leading GSA’s push into the cloud, become the first agency to fully migrate its email system to the heavens – a project that will be used as a guideline for the rest of the federal government. |
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Colleen Coggins, CIO, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
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One of government’s true rising stars, Coggins was the Acting Program Manager for the Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office (FEA PMO) at the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Interior’s First Knowledge Officer before taking her current position at the NHTSA. |
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Jill Tummler Singer, CIO, National Reconnaissance Office
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Singer is one of the intelligence communities leaders when it comes to all things IT, especially when it comes to cloud computing, saying it’s a “faster, better, cheaper, and safer” Information Technology solution.
She’s been called by former CIA CIO Al Tarasiuk as one of the brightest people he’s ever worked with. |
The core components for these women in running their companies effectively include information, employee and financial management. Also, what these women have in common is managing hundreds if not thousands of people within their organizations.
While technology represents the work these women do, it is primarily people talent they have to manage on a daily basis. The size of government agencies are enormous when compared to the average small business. However, some of the best practices from large organizations can be applied effectively to manage and scale a small business because people remain the key cornerstone of every successful company– from start ups to government behemoths.
1. Leverage talent – The most successful leaders are those who are constantly able to bring out the best from their team of high achievers. One of the world’s top consulting firm Accenture found that executives who manage high-performance companies view their talent strategies as a top priority in sustaining the superior performance of their businesses.
2. Collaboration and information sharing - Effective management means effective distribution of information. Does your firm make information discoverable and accessible to the right person at the right time to enable improved decision making? If your business is a for profit, start by asking your sales team on what and how in order to make the right information accessible. By supporting the sales cycle and value chain, you are increasing internal productivity and shortening the time to market for your products and services. “Information is our greatest strategic asset.” – Teri M Takai, DoD CIO.
3. Embrace technology – Though it may sound like the most obvious solution, technology alone may not be the solution for all your problems — Only the right ones for your organization are. If you run an organization with a highly mobile staff, providing the team with tablets, developing internal productivity apps and using the cloud for your storage needs would be a more effective solution than creating a whole new internal IT infrastructure from scratch.
4. Empower employees — Technology puts a incredible amount of power and information directly into the hands of your customers. In order to increase and provide the best possible customer experience, every one of your employee should be empowered to engage and solve the problems of the customers directly. Encourage personality and reward collaboration and teamwork openly. “Only empowered employees can solve the problems of empowered customers.” — Forrester Research
Images and job scope profiles of women courtesy of Fedscoop.com
About Luanne Teoh
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Luanne is a senior correspondent for BizTechDay focused on Small Business Tech, Mobile and China based in San Francisco.
In the last 17 years, she has helped launch start-ups and turned around failing operations.
Her international work experience include both public and private corporations in Southeast Asia, Australia and North America. She has previously worked for Oracle Corporation, SonyBMG Music, Universal Music, Catcha Media and SOH Inc.
Apart from a keen interest in technology, Luanne is also and avid explorer of the globe, cultures and people. |
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