Jody Davids: at Cardinal, bringing execs and the IT team into closer alignment.

‘My passion is delivering business solutions,” says Jody Davids, executive CIO of Cardinal Health, Inc (Dublin, OH). “Information technology is just one of the elements we use. As a matter of fact, we often find that the people, organizational and process aspects of the business are just as important and may be harder to implement than the technology pieces.”

As CIO, Davids is responsible for supporting all the company’s business functions – operations, purchasing, sales, marketing, human resources and finance. As executive CIO, she reports directly to Jim Millar, president and CEO for healthcare products and services.

Cardinal Health is a leading provider of products and services supporting the hospitals and health systems, drug and medical-device manufacturers, pharmacies and labs, surgery centers and more that make up the healthcare industry. It’s a $44 billion company with 54,000 employees. Of its fifteen business units, the largest is pharmaceutical distribution, which wholesales drugs to distribution centers.

Meetings, meetings
Pursuing the people aspects of her work, Davids feels that face-to-face meetings are essential. “Communication is a key element in the success of our team,” she notes. “We talk about long-term strategy, goals and the objectives we’ve got in place for the year.”

Until this March, Davids was CIO of the pharma distribution unit. She met with the 657 people in her organization four times a year. Each session involved two separate mega-meetings, since essential services like the support desk can never, never be left unattended.

Her manager team of sixty people met three times a year. Her expanded staff of thirty got together every six weeks. And the eight people who reported directly to her met weekly for operational updates and strategic planning.

She intends to be just as communicative in her new role as executive CIO.

Business partners
Clear communications all around includes the people who are the real clients of the IT operation. In the pharma distribution unit, that was the business unit president’s staff.

The IT team has formed a sub-group called “business partners,” Davids’ creation to bring execs and the IT team into closer alignment. The business partners are an essential element of the IT equation. “It’s their job to understand the strategy of their executive counterparts and make sure that IT plans and resources are in place to meet their needs,” she explains.

Finding her niche at GE
Davids grew up in San Jose, CA and started college as a vocal music major. When she got married in 1976 and began looking for a job, she found that “Vocal music was a better hobby than a career.” So she started as a secretary at General Electric in San Jose, CA.

She noticed that the programmers she worked for did more interesting work and made a lot more money, so she got into GE’s “phenomenal after-hours training program.” She learned Fortran and was given an entry-level programming job in GE’s nuclear energy business group when she completed the course. Almost by accident, her IT career had begun.

Then came the Three Mile Island incident. “We didn’t sell many reactors after that,” she says. “It wasn’t a happening place to be.”

On to Apple
Apple Computer (Cupertino, CA) was. She joined the company as a programmer in 1982, moving into the MIS group to do Cobol programming. In her first two years at Apple she also completed an evening-school BS in business admin at San Jose State University. She eventually spent ten years in Apple’s Asia Pacific group, starting as a programmer/analyst and rising to director, in charge of all IT for that division.

As director, traveling to the company’s Asian operations took up a third of her time. To accommodate her job requirements, her husband, a general contractor, segued to taking care of the home and their two young sons. “My husband was game, so we did it,” Davids says. “Having him home has given me the flexibility I need to really focus on my career.”

She was also able to complete her MBA through Apple’s program with San Jose State. “I sent in my assignments by e-mail,” she says. “The airplane trips gave me good time to read.”

Davids went on to a corporate level job, eventually responsible for global supply chain reengineering, which included an SAP implementation. “That was a huge step,” she says.

The move to Nike
During the SAP implementation, Nike (Beaverton, OR) called. The idea of moving north, away from Silicon Valley, was attractive. Better still, the job would give her experience in IT infrastructure.

“At Apple, all my IT experience focused on application delivery,” she explains. “But I was already thinking about a CIO job, and Nike offered a match with my career aspirations and our personal goals. It turned out to be a great move.”

Her major innovation at Nike was to outsource all the IT infrastructure functions she managed. The entire Nike IT infrastructure team became part of the outsourcing company. It was an attractive initiative with a strong business case, and allowed her to focus on the strategy, planning and business alignment aspects of infrastructure delivery.

Cardinal calling
“When I got a call from a recruiter looking to fill a position at Cardinal Health, I initially resisted. While it was a great opportunity at an incredible company, Columbus was a long way from my West Coast roots.” Although Cardinal Health offered a start on the CIO position she’d been working toward, Davids and her family had never lived away from the West Coast. “I had to look up Columbus, Ohio, on a map,” she says.

But when she visited Cardinal Health, she knew it was the right place. “It was just incredibly impressive – 20 percent growth, year over year, quarter over quarter,” she says. “I was extremely impressed with the leadership team.

“It’s been a very good move for the family,” she says. “It’s a good place to raise the kids” – who are now teenagers.

Delivering the solutions
Although her colleagues in Apple’s Asia Pacific operations were relatively forward-looking, Davids’ travel to Japan increased her awareness that competence isn’t the only attribute considered in the workplace.

“I’m just confident in myself,” she says. “I know my capabilities and I’ve developed a lot of credibility in the three years I’ve spent here at Cardinal Health. I don’t think about my gender, I think about delivering the solutions this organization needs to grow effectively.”

Davids is looking to the future, for Cardinal Health and for the IT profession. “An important part of my responsibility includes building an organization that will outlast me. As I think about the next-generation IT organization, I see a need for constant diversity of ideas and perspectives.

“This doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional action and a willingness to make change. Part of that change is happening through Cardinal Health’s diversity council, of which I am a charter member.

“Most of the time I’m still the only woman in the room,” she admits. “But I’m committed to changing that mix.”

D/C

– Kate Colborn & Christine Willard