IMLP Latin America Champion Interview - João Lencioni

Here we are with one more episode of our interview series with GE Leaders! Have not read the previous editions? Check them out:

Matt Brooks - IMLP Global Program Manager

Beth Desormeaux - Manager for Learning and Development at GE

Tommy Tang - IMLP China Rep

Credits: Márcio Bruno - Photographer

 1. Could you give us a quick overview of your career (before and within GE)?

My background is in Electronics Engineering and I have a post-graduation extension in business. For about 10 years after graduation I was very involved with the design & integration of various types of computing systems in industries like Telecom, Aerospace and Automotive. Then I migrated to Financial Services to develop systems and solutions for banks till I joined GE in Brazil in 1998 to start-up GE Consumer Finance operations. In GE, I have worked for GE Capital and Corporate in the USA, Latin America and Germany. Since 2006, I have led Corporate IT for Latin America and since 2009, I accumulated Indirect Sourcing responsibilities as well.

2. What are the key differentiators of being an IMLP for an IT employee at GE? 

Like other leadership programs in GE, IMLP provides the opportunity to accelerate your learning by exposing the trainee to different businesses environments, leadership styles, and business problems during the course of the rotations. This is a great opportunity to learn how to adapt quickly into a new environment and deliver under tight time constraints. People know that IMLPs went through those hurdles and therefore trust their capacity to take even more stretch challenges ahead.

3. What attributes are required for someone to apply for IMLP in the region?

 Great education background and academic performance and willingness to get yourself immersed into very dynamic and matrixed business environments that will stretch your capabilities. A prospective IMLP should also have a lot of initiative and like technology and how it can be applied to improve business results.

4. What is expected from an IMLP during and after the program?

 During the program: do not get satisfied with a glass half full! Ask for more stretch goals if you are not challenged enough. Push back if you see things that do not make sense. Put your thoughts out there… don’t be afraid to bring in new ideas.

After the program: Understand that you will not be CIO first day out of the IMLP program. It is certainly supposed to be a career accelerator but you still will have to go through jobs and experiences before getting there. Continue to stretch yourself into more challenging positions each time and continue to learn how to leverage technology for business results. There are many fantastic experiences and people you can leverage throughout the organization.

5. What are your thoughts on how to deal with young professionals usually willing to go abroad while the growing Latin America region needs more leaders?

Latin America is a great place to be these days. It is one of the top growing regions in general for GE and can provide excellent opportunities for personal career growth. When, and if necessary, that path will also connect with opportunities abroad. GE will continue to promote the exchange of talent when it makes sense for the company and for careers.

6. How does IT at GE compare to other companies?

GE diversity is hard to compare with other companies. In many areas, some of GE’s challenges have no easy parallel with other organizations. Our massive size and business diversity make some of our problems uniquely complex. But with the GE IT Growth Playbook (GPB) we are now able to provide a common perspective across the various GE businesses on what our priorities are and how we will address our imperatives of Process Excellence, Simplification, Collaboration and Security & Compliance. There are various areas where GE could provide solid best practices and areas where we can learn a lot from other companies. And we always try to do that.

7. How do you think the current trend of regionalization/localization will change the responsibility of the IT professionals?

Regionalization will drive more local decision making at the regions. In certain cases this will mean more localization to meet unique customer needs that are critical to do or grow business in the rate we need. IT professionals must be knowledgeable about their business, understand how their businesses make money, serve the customers, differentiate from competitors, etc. And in an increasingly digital world, they should continue to pursue new, better ways to use technology to improve their business processes and provide better information for decision making.

8. Between formal education and experience, in your opinion, which one is more important for an IMLP?

In the beginning of your career formal education has more weight as experience is still slim. But the ability to continue to learn through whatever means are available will be critical throughout your career. As you go through cycles of decisions and learn their impact, you start to build your experience. However, it is always necessary to be humble to understand that there is more to be learned and seen anywhere you look, regardless of how experienced you are.

9. How is the GE competitive landscape expected to evolve over the next five years? In your opinion, how should GE position itself in a case of irrational competitor behavior?

There are some big trends forming in the business landscape that will affect most companies, GE included: the pervasiveness of information and its impact in pricing formation, the value of services over the “things built”, the value of data and all the business models that can come up from its use, so on and so forth. In this landscape, competitors may come from unexpected places… companies will behave as competitors or partners in a more complex web of business relationships than before.

10. IT is constantly associated to “expenses” not “investment,” what are your thoughts about it and how can we change this perspective?

In one extreme, certain services provided by IT will always be measured in terms of “money for value.” These are areas where you will have to continuously strive to provide good enough service at the right price. But IT can add a huge amount of value in improving processes internally and with customers and partners interchanges, as well as allowing information for decision making anywhere it is needed. At the other extreme, in a digital world innovation will require increasingly amounts of IT and technology and even new business models could come up from smart usage of IT assets.

11. IT complexity is a critical business issue. What should we seek in order to drive unnecessary complexity out of IT?

Complexity always creeps in if left unattended in IT business environments. It is usually driven by lack of a comprehensive view of the IT landscape and business needs, plus a lack of processes and standards or of their enforcement. While exceptions may make business sense in specific situations, it is necessary to balance them with a longer-term view of implications to avoid complexity from becoming unmanageable. The GE IT Growth Playbook has Simplification as one of its imperatives to reaffirm the importance of driving complexity reductions.

12. We usually see various companies where the IT function is only working on “fire extinguishing” projects. What do you think are the main roadblocks that prevent an IT function from being strategic?

You cannot run if you cannot walk. The business will not let you even start discussions around more strategic points if your IT lacks the performance in basic capabilities. Deliver solid basic services first, and be ready to demonstrate that you do with metrics that business people can understand, and then go up the value chain for more and you will be welcome.

13. To finish off, what are your blog/website/reading recommendations?

I recommend an excellent book called “The Real Business of IT” as a very insightful perspective on how to organize, to sequence and balance the IT services in an organization. Edge.org and TED are good sites for out of the box thinking. I read peer publications and blogs in CIO, CIO Latin America, IDC and other industry magazines. Gartner is also good source of industry information.