The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards were announced March 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person May 11 at the The Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Virginia.
Next is Chief Information Officer (Government) finalist Raj Iyer, who’s CIO of the U.S. Army. Here, he talks recent key achievements, taking professional risks, primary focus areas going forward, learning from failures and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2021/2022?
As the first civilian CIO in the Army’s 246-year history, I established the office of the CIO reporting to the secretary of the Army. In this new role, I completed a 100-day assessment of the Army’s IT gaps and opportunities that led to the establishment of the Army’s first digital transformation strategy. The strategy aligned the $16 billion annual IT budget against key priorities supporting readiness, modernization, reform and people.
I led a number of portfolio reviews in 2021 that led to the termination, realignment and reshaping of ineffective programs resulting in over $2 billion reprioritized by the Army. I also led the implementation of a large number of digital solutions for the enterprise in 2021 that included accredited commercial cloud platforms in AWS and Azure, and a DevSecOps environment that enabled over 60 projects to rapidly develop and deploy software.
I also led the migration of the Army’s three ERP systems to the cloud — these are considered some of the most complex customized implementations of SAP in the world. Over 70 mission critical applications were migrated in the first year.
I also led the Army’s data management program establishing a number of key initiatives to support warfighting operations and executive decision-making. The Army’s Vantage data platform was leveraged by the Defense Department to track the evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan through a close partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. The data platform enabled over 40,000 users across the Army to develop 18,000 dashboards and analytics products at the point of need. This democratization of data across the workforce has been acknowledged by the DOD as the gold standard.
I also established the strategy and pilots to implement a zero trust architecture for cybersecurity for the Army leveraging a cloud-first approach. These efforts are expected to scale across all Army networks in 2022.
Finally, I prioritized user experience as a priority for the 1.4 million Army users worldwide. This included the successful implementation of the Office 365 software-as-a-solution and email migration within four months across the entire user base.
What has made you successful in your current role?
Every CIO aspires to integrate themselves into the business of the organization and for a seat at the table with the CEO. When I was selected as the first CIO of the U.S. Army, one of the key principles I wanted to establish for the new office was that it needed to be front and center supporting the business of the Army — namely warfighting.
Having advised many CIOs in my role in the private sector, I was cognizant that it was easy for CIOs to be quickly relegated to back-office functions. To accomplish this objective, I set out to aligns the mission and functions of the new office to Army priorities. I acknowledged that the Army was in its largest campaign of modernization in its 246-year history and it was critical that the Army leverage digital technologies to achieve overmatch against our adversaries in a future fight.
I demonstrated for senior leaders in the Army why it was necessary to address data and interoperability requirements upfront in the acquisition of new modern weapon systems, and how the cloud could play a critical role in helping process large volumes of data through artificial intelligence at the edge. I built tremendous credibility and trust as a CIO with the warfighter and senior Army commanders by showing how IT can be a game changer for them and not just a back-office function.
What was a turning point or inflection point in your career?
A big inflection point in my career was transitioning from the private sector where I co-founded a software startup company to civil service when I joined the Army in 2002. Over the next 10 years, I learned and appreciated the duty to serve the nation and what it meant to be a public servant. I gained a greater understanding for the selfless service of millions of other public servants that often goes underappreciated in our society.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
The ability to be part of this largest transformation in the Army’s 246-year history, and to shape the future of U.S. national security for decades to come. With the CIO front and center to leading this digital transformation, we have demonstrated that digital technologies is how we will establish strategic deterrence in future, and if needed, overmatch against over adversaries. This is hugely gratifying and humbling to be part of such a transformative effort.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?
My primary focus is to implement the secretary of the Army’s objective to establish a data-centric Army. The Army Digital Transformation Strategy was established to support this vision. We are currently implementing multiple priority initiatives through three subordinate plans — cloud, network and data. This year, we plan to operationalize and scale our cloud efforts to tactical warfighting use cases as well as establish capacity outside the continental U.S.
Our efforts to unify and modernize our warfighting network will enable us to achieve resiliency in contested and degraded environments by fully leveraging commercial transport from the terrestrial to the space layer. Integrated across each of these plans is our approach to building in a zero trust cybersecurity architecture to achieve security and resiliency in our architecture. Another top priority is to enhance the user experience across the Army especially as we continue to operate in a hybrid work environment.
How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?
My philosophy is to empower our future leaders to own their outcomes. It’s very important for me as the CIO to set the vision and high-level strategy, but to not step into the implementation. I believe that leaders should allow their senior managers to take some calculated risks, and to learn from the lessons learned.
With younger leaders, I see a growing hunger for more hands-on experience and I try to provide that to my staff to the extent feasible. By doing so, they can see the fruits of their action and that brings a great deal of self-appreciation for their skills, as well as become role models for others.
What’s one key thing you learned from a failure you had?
Never give up. Being a change agent is hard and there will be very few times you will succeed on the first attempt. Consistency in messaging, building coalitions of supporters and establishing a groundswell movement for change is critical.
Which rules do you think you should break more as a government/industry leader?
Questioning the status quo is critically important to bring about transformative change. There are hundreds of excuses and reasons (rules) that may be used to detract you, but it’s important to ask “why?” In my role as the CIO, I routinely come across people claiming that policies existed that prevented them from innovating, and yet, none exists in reality.
Where valid policies do exist, I often see people trying to come up with workarounds rather than questioning the validity of the policy. Our muscle memory invariable takes us down the path of least resistance, but we need to change culture to enable greater out-of-box thinking in order to innovate at scale in our Army.
What’s the biggest professional risk you’ve ever taken?
The biggest professional risk I have taken was to leave my comfortable management consulting career in the private sector to become the Army CIO. Establishing the new office of the CIO and building irreversible momentum for the future was always a daunting task, but I challenged myself when the opportunity came along, and I am thankful I decided to accept it.
Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the leaders that I have been able to develop over the years who till today see me as their role model as a transformative change agent.
What was your biggest career struggle and how did you overcome it?
As a change agent, I am often targeted by naysayers. This is only natural and I remind myself that it is not personal. I have also come to realize the importance of organization culture, and the need to align your career interests with the organization’s priorities. If the two don’t match, then it’s time to move on to something else.
If the organization culture is not one that supports transformation and there is no buy-in from senior leaders, then being the lone change agent there can be very frustrating. It’s important to decide what is worth staying and fighting for.
What’s your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
Never hesitate to try something new in your career. There is so much to learn in every opportunity, so many great friends and relationships to build along the way and so many new experiences and opportunities to serve society. Try something new and challenge yourself to excel at it. That is how we grow.