PHIL JORDAN - SAILING CLOSE HAULED
PHIL JORDAN IS known in the global CIO community as an agent of disruption . The European CIO of the year 2016 doesn ’ t come across that way ; unfailingly affable and accessible , his demeanour is that of a benevolent uncle , and for someone with the future digital capability of a € 40 billion organisation depending on his decisions , he is surprisingly relaxed . This belies intellectual rigour and the twin passions for IT and for communication that have marked his time as Global CIO of Telefónica at a time of , yes unprecedented disruption .
Maybe more than most industries , telecommunications service providers – or telcos – like Telefónica that used to be communications monopolies controlling fixed line networks in their own territories , have been shaken up by the internet . True , they quickly moved in to colonise the mobile space , and added services around TV and cable , but audacious upstarts like Twitter , Skype and WhatsApp have thrown such a large spanner into their traditional business model that they have all had to start transitioning to a new , digital model , and that has
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