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Flexible Future
Given the uncertainty of the future, IT needs stable yet adaptable systems that can evolve with the company. "Change is constant. You always keep change in mind; you really build for change," says Eric P. Meyer, a French native with degrees from Purdue and Brown universities.
Actually Meyer, 42, has a pretty good crystal ball. At the age of 33, he shook an industry to its knees, co-founding Netflix Inc. in 1997 and changing the way we rent movies. At Netflix, the push was to build architecture that could evolve, he says. "We spent probably 30% of the engineering time overall initially in making sure we had a scalable infrastructure. It was a penalty we chose to pay to be able to grow."
That doesn't mean building everything to last five or more years, cautions Meyer. It's a balancing act. Sometimes the best solution is to build for the next few months. "It is perfectly fine to build something that will last only three months," Meyer says. "But you spend the maximum amount of design time in things that, if they have to change later, are expensive to change. Then you don't worry a lot about the architecture of things that are easy to change or short-lived, because you think, 'OK, I am going to throw that away; it doesn't matter if it isn't the best piece of code.'"
Flexibility isn't just with technology. Meyer left Netflix after four years and is now chairman, COO, and de facto CFO and CIO (whew!) of Be Jane Inc., an online home improvement forum for women do-it-yourselfers. Ultimately, Be Jane will hire a CFO (and maybe a CIO too), and Meyer will happily give up the CFO role. But for now, he relishes multiple jobs.
"In a young, fast-growing company, you do not want to be stuck to functions; you want to be able to move quickly between functions to where you are needed," he says. "We try to bring a lot of creativity to it." Creativity is a driving force within a fast-growth company -- and the CIO's job ultimately is to make sure technology doesn't douse the fire but fuels it.
When Deckers' Sowa talks about the pride he and his team take in "trying to understand the business," you can hear the excitement in his voice. Similarly, DWR's analytical Joe Martins gushes about the "togetherness" at his company. "We have a great culture," he says.
There's no question that a CIO of a fast-growth company must above all be excited about taking advantage of immediate opportunities as well as planning for the company's rosy future. "When I work, I tend to be a workaholic," Meyer says. "I am passionate about what I do. That is why I do it, and so I do it a lot."
Linda Tucci is senior news writer for SearchCIO.com. Write to her at ltucci@techtarget.com.
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