PROFILE
L
ibenson’s role as Global CIO for data
giant Experian over the past four
years has involved managing the
company’s global infrastructure footprint
so that all systems serve the company’s
employees. Libenson and his team are also
responsible for information security, as well
as the architectural standards by which
the company builds its products inside the
organisation. Libenson works to ensure
Experian has a consistent approach to how it
builds technology so that its customers have a
consistent experience when they interfact with
the company’s various product offering. Here
he offers an insight into the daily challenges
and highlights he encounters within his role:
Challenges faced as a CIO
When I first joined Experian, the company
had a somewhat decentralised approach
to technology so what I often say is that
we’d never met a database we didn’t like,
we’d never met a programming language
we didn’t like, we’d never met a piece of
hardware we didn’t like. You name it, we had
it. That worked very well for the company
because there was a lot of accountability
down to the business unit level. But the larger
you get, the more difficult it is to maintain
that type of approach because you lose a lot
of synergies by not having common platforms
and a common approach. So, one of the
biggest challenges was moving everybody
onto a common set of technology platforms
around the globe so we would have better
capabilities to reuse technology and better
capabilities to leverage the human capital
across the company. The biggest challenge
was deciding on a common approach for how
we’re going to do things technically across
the enterprise.
Discussing management style
I have a philosophy of trying to hire the
smartest people I possibly can. I find that
the better the people you hire, the more
they do. If I had a choice between hiring
one world-class best-of-breed top of the
line developer, versus three middle of the
road developers, that one high performer
will exceed expectations every time. I have
a very open-door policy – I believe great
ideas come from all parts of an organisation,
not just the leadership team. I always try to
create a forum for the exchange of ideas.
I wouldn’t ask anybody to do something
on my team that I wouldn’t personally do
myself and that’s served me well. Hiring
really qualified people generally always gets
good results.
On the biggest cyberthreats currently
facing organisations in Europe
For us, there’s a number of forces in the
UK and in Europe in particular that have
IF I HAD A CHOICE
BETWEEN HIRING
ONE WORLD-
CLASS BEST-
OF-BREED TOP
OF THE LINE
DEVELOPER,
VERSUS THREE
MIDDLE OF
THE ROAD
DEVELOPERS,
THAT ONE HIGH
PERFORMER
WILL EXCEED
EXPECTATIONS
EVERY TIME.
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