Mark Lilien, 2014 Honoree
- Title
- Senior vice president and CIO
- Employer
- Things Remembered
- Location
- Highland Heights, Ohio
- How are you turning your IT department into a services organization?
- By emphasizing our cross-functional IT governance process, IT staff gets deep into business strategies and business people learn how they can benefit from IT evaluation and development processes. Every major initiative is neither an IT initiative nor a business initiative: it is a combined initiative.
- Coolest current project:
- Because almost everything we sell is custom-manufactured to our own designs, our 3D printing initiative will enable rapid prototyping in silver and other metals, glass, ceramics and plastics.
- How do you evaluate emerging technologies?
- We sign test contracts, with one-sided (our decision, not theirs) options for multiyear production at fixed prices, only assignable if price and terms are adopted by any successors. Several of our leading-edge suppliers were acquired by folks with higher pricing.