Digital transformation in latecomer industries: CIO and CEO leadership lessons from Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc.

MIS Quarterly Executive

Volumn 10, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 141-156

  Kohli, Rajiv ^a   Johnson, Shawn ^b  

^a The College of William and Mary   (United States)

^b ENCANA CORPORATION   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84864562150     PISSN: 15401960     EISSN: 15401979     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. Omar El Sawy, Elena Karahanna and Varun Grover are the accepting senior editors for this article
2. Other authors have identified a CIO role of 'IT Mechanic' that we believe is similar to the toolsmith role
3. See Preston, D. S., Leidner, D. E. and Chen, D. "CIO Leadership Profiles: Implications of Matching CIO Authority and Leadership Capability on IT Impact," MIS Quarterly Executive (7:2), 2008, pp. 57-69.
4. Chen, D. Q., Preston, D. S. and Xia, W. D. "Antecedents and Effects of CIO Supply-Side and Demand-Side Leadership: A Staged Maturity Model," Journal of Management Information Systems (27:1), 2010, pp. 231-272. This paper discusses how CIOs are increasingly expected to play both supply-side and demand-side leadership roles in deploying IT.
5. McKinsey consultants Ruijs, Scheele and van Buuren projected that "Energy and materials companies must also improve their ability to make decisions under uncertainty, which will be plentiful around prices, investments, growth in specific regions, and government policy." in Bozon, I. J. H., Campbell, W. J. and Lindstrand, M. "Global Trends in Energy," McKinsey Quarterly, February 2007, pp. 47-55.
6. The price of U.S. natural gas in 2008 was $10.79/thousand cubic ft. In April 2011, it traded at $3.90/thousand cubic ft. (Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, http://205.254.135.24/dnav/ng/hist/n9190us3m.htm.)
7. More information about Encana's operations is available at http://www.encana.com/operations/
8. From Tait, C., "Encana eyes cuts amid gas glut," The Globe and Mail, September 2011. Available at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/encana-eyes-cuts-amid-gas-glut/article2156196/
9. See www.naturalgas.org for an overview of the gas industry.
10. Holland, D. "Your IT department is not ready," Digital Energy Journal (30), April 2011, pp. 14-16. This paper explores the application of Digital Oil Field (DOF) systems and concludes that the upstream technical side is ill-equipped and inappropriately staffed for companies to take advantage of digital technology's potential.
11. There are four types of unconventional gas sources: deep-basin, low permeability, dispersed and tight, and shale. They are difficult to explore and require specialized drilling equipment and expertise
12. For more information, see Eresman, R. "Future is Unconventional," World Energy (7:4), 2004, pp. 58-60.
13. U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Annual Energy Outlook 2011 with Projections to 2035," 2011, p. 79.
14. Provides outlook for the next 25 years. Available at http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/pdf/0383(2011).pdf.
15. Originally, the CIO sometimes interacted with Executive Vice Presidents rather than the CEO
16. Preston, D. S. and Karahanna, E. "How to Develop a Shared Vision: The Key to IS Strategic Alignment," MIS Quarterly Executive (8:1), 2009, pp. 1-8. This article discusses the mechanisms for developing a shared vision between the CIO and the top management team. These mechanisms are Star, Executive, Confidante, Educator and Underperformer.
17. Fonstad, N. O. and Robertson, D. "Transforming a Company, Project by Project: The IT Engagement Model," MIS Quarterly Executive (5:1), 2006, pp. 1-14. This article proposes that a successful approach addresses two fundamental goals: alignment between IT and the rest of the business and coordination across multiple organizational levels. Encana also operated across multiple levels and adopted the IT engagement model approach.
18. Refers to the lead character music teacher in the movie Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), who "... sharing his contagious passion for music with his students becomes his new definition of success." See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113862/
19. SCADA systems include valves, motors, and sensors that when integrated with software can monitor and control a plant or equipment. Their applications are in telecoms, water and waste control, energy, oil and gas refining, and transportation.
20. Laurens, C. and van der Molen, O. "This is the time to deliver on upstream operational excellence," McKinsey Quarterly, Winter 2010, pp. 26-32. The authors contend that world-class oil and gas producers have superior supplier management and cost control capabilities.
21. Cash, J. I., Eccles, R. G., Nohria, N. and Nolan, R. L. "Building the Information-Age Organization: Structure, Control, and Information Technologies," (3rd ed.) Irwin, Burr Ridge, 1994, p. xi.
22. Gartner's IS-Lite is a concept describing a next-generation IS organization-one that is slimmed down to a "lighter," more flexible organization with a smaller internal staff and more-focused competencies. This transformation is enabled through the outsourcing of many functions such as infrastructure services and the migration of others such as system development to business unit IT groups.
23. See http://www.gartner.com/6_help/glossary/GlossaryI.jsp.
24. In "How Cloud Computing Will Impact the CIO Role" (http://cloudcaboodle.com/blog/article/how-cloud-computing-will-impact-the-cio-role/), Brian McCarthy, CEO of Cloud Caboodle, argues that the resistance to outsourcing has an emotional component emerging from the fears of unemployment. He quotes Forrester vice president Ted Schadler "... cloud computing poses a direct threat to 'blue collar' IT, such as admins and others who simply maintain IT infrastructure."
25. Overby, S. "Hero Syndrome: Why Internal IT and Outsourcing Cultures Clash," CIO.com, February 24, 2011.
26. The Independent Petroleum Association of America's 2008 Oil and Natural Gas Issues Briefing Book (available at http://www.ipaa.org/reports/docs/2008BriefingBook.pdf) forecast that 40% of the workforce in the energy sector would reach retirement age in 2010.
27. In an interview with MIS Quarterly Executive, Peter Keen discusses the evolving relationship between the CIO and CxOs and how IS academics can contribute to expanding the CIO's role in converting inventions into innovations
28. See Keen, P. G. W. and El Sawy, I.A. "Engaging in CIO-CxO 'Conversations that Matter': An interview with Peter Keen," MIS Quarterly Executive (9:1), 2010, pp. 61-64.
29. Carter, M., Grover, V. and Thatcher, J. "The Emerging CIO Role of Business Technology Strategist," MIS Quarterly Executive (10:1), 2011, pp. 19-29. This article positions the CIO's business technology strategy role as designing future possibilities for business, embedding IT in business strategy, defining the company's place in the digital economy and helping align business and IT strategies. In latecomer industry firms, the CIO must first serve as a business technologist who provides technology services with an understanding of the business. The business technology strategist role is likely to emerge later as the industry is digitally transformed.
30. A proverb suggesting that all conditions, good or bad, are transitory
31. Louie Ehrlich, President, Chevron Information Technology Company, and CIO, Chevron Corporation, proposes that to overcome the gap between the IS function's capabilities and the expectations of the business, IS must evolve from a service provider to a true partner
32. (See http://www.ciodashboard.com/leadership/closing-expectation-gap-business-stakeholders/)