David J. O'Brien, 2014 Honoree
- Title
- Director of enterprise technology
- Employer
- Karl Storz Endoskope
- Location
- El Segundo, Calif.
- How many times have you had to reinvent yourself in your career?
- Reinventing myself is a continuous process. I am constantly adjusting, adapting and altering my approach to solving our organizational challenges. Early in my career, I was more operational- and tactically-oriented; today I am focused on strategically leveraging IT's capabilities and resources to achieve our business goals.
- How are you building an IT department for the future?
- Two ways: by changing how IT is perceived by our business partners and by altering IT's self-perception of its role within the organization. By raising our support levels and delivering on projects and initiatives, we are earning a level of trust and credibility from our business partners. Maintaining this level of trust, we are now transforming the roles of our IT team members from just service providers to valued business partners. This is a completely different approach for IT and requires us to work closely with our resources and business partners.