The Consultant CIO: Gordon Lovell-Read, CIO, Siemens

The consultant CIO has extensive general management experience, usually in one sector, across a range of functions including sales, operations and IT and is brought in by a company with a long-term change brief.

Brinley Platts, author of the CSC Leading Edge Forum research Building Effective Executive IT Teams and chairman of CIODevelopment.com, says: "The consultant CIO is genuinely skilled in business and IT. They build relationships, don't piss people off and have a clear customer focus. You get that profile by periods in general management."

Gordon Lovell-Read, CIO at conglomerate Siemens, fits that profile having spent 17 years previously at HP in various roles including running HP consulting's client-facing business in the UK, 10 years of selling, being a global account manager, new business selling (Unix and other software), and some business development and work with angel investment.

What you do is you look for an early beachhead - something to slap on the table that's of indisputable value. You have to have the balls and guts to go out and do that knowing if you fail you are dead but if it works you are on the road.

Starting out at ICL as a project manager and operating system designer, Lovell-Read has climbed the ladder and gained vast experience in general management and commercial positions across IT, sales, marketing and business development.

He admits his career has been "pretty unplanned" but said he has always aimed to be the best among the various peer groups he has found himself in.

He says: "If you get your head down and do a good job and be the best among your peers people will come along and offer you opportunities. I aim to use my skills, political judgement and talent and aim to be ranked as high as possible."

Working for large companies has also meant there have been plenty of opportunities to move around in different areas.

Lovell-Read joined Siemens four-and-a-half years ago after impressing the board with his skills on a project that HP was doing at the company.

He says: "I had been doing work around ebusiness with Siemens. I was harsh and I told them straight that the IT function was not aligned with the business. The CFO phoned up and asked me to become CIO."

Now on the main board at Siemens he says the consultant CIO must have elements of the other types of CIO - paratrooper, professional and executive - and be able to adapt and morph.

Lovell-Read says: "To operate in any boardroom of a blue chip company you have to operate in all styles. I have some parts of the company undergoing massive change, some stabilising, others declining, with acquisitions and divesting. It's me that's bringing in people at different phases. When you get to the senior IT job you are no longer susceptible to changes, you are expected to lead them."

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As an outsider coming into Siemens Lovell-Read admits the atmosphere was hostile politically and says CIOs need to be astute, aware and not naive to survive in these roles.

He explains: "As a consultant you are very often faced with rejection and you get that in spades as a new CIO. What you do is you look for an early beachhead - something to slap on the table that's of indisputable value. You have to have the balls and guts to go out and do that knowing if you fail you are dead but if it works you are on the road."

In this case Lovell-Read slung out a "crappy" PeopleSoft-based HR system and brought in SAP. "Now we have one of the biggest SAP HR systems and they [Siemens] love it," he says.

As for the future, Lovell-Read says he's got years of work still to do at Siemens but that he also has "millions" of other things he wants to do as well.

He adds: "I do like to help start-up businesses so something around angel investments or private equity, I want to write some more and develop a couple of books as well as coaching and CIO networks. I want to put some value back into the UK IT industry."