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325: In this interview, Diane Schwarz discusses World Class IT Principle One, People, World Class IT Principle Three, Project & Portfolio Management, World Class IT Principle Four, IT and Business Partnerships, and World Class IT Principle Five, External Partnerships. Some of the topics discussed include: How IT is structured within Textron, and how dual reporting structures are used to enable business-unit IT and enterprise-level IT effectively collaborate The criteria that business units use to find a balance between shared services and specialized solutions How Diane’s strategic plan – which focuses on (1) advancing the business, (2) making IT easy, (3) protecting the enterprise, and (4) succeeding with talent – keeps the business units moving in a coordinating direction while allowing variability for specific strategies How Diane uses ideation events and hackathons to drive innovation across the business and provide the environment for employees to grow outside of their comfort zone How IT is made easy by emphasizing communication and maintaining comprehensive knowledge bases on IT tools Diane’s career progression, and why she advises aspiring CIOs to gain experience both inside and outside of IT Eye on the trends: the diffusion of technology through all business functions, and machine learning and artificial intelligence