Learn Today! Online Class - Leading Digital Transformation

IT Leaders Can Learn to be Game Changers

The Feld Group Institute (TFGI) is a leadership development organization with one mission: To help complex, enterprise-scale, legacy corporations achieve IT-enabled business transformation. The Institute provides training, mentoring and comprehensive support from a network of experienced IT operating leaders and management strategists. Together, we serve executives with a special focus on current and next-generation IT leaders and their technology teams. We pass down and share our first-hand knowledge of how these transformations should be planned, led and executed.

Start Working With Those Who Share Your Beliefs

In his very popular Ted Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, Simon Sinek says, “The goal is not to do business with everybody that needs what you have. The goal is to do business with everybody who believes what you believe.” We know that almost any large business with a history and a build-up of legacy systems and processes needs the knowledge and the framework we have. However, our focus is on finding, and working closely with, those leaders and companies who share our belief that the great leadership needed for IT-enabled business transformations can be taught and learned.

Great Leaders are Game Changers and Vice Versa

In our recent blog post, The 30 Game Changers in Your Organization, Charlie defined what we call Game Changers as “…leaders that are willing, and in a position, to help you not just play the game better but to help drive change…those few game changers really own, lead, drive and influence others.” We are teaching IT leaders that they should be Game Changers, and we’re teaching them how to do it. We are teaching them What Great Leaders Do Great – setting the agenda, building a great team and delivering with consistency.

Building the Next Generation of Great Leaders

The Feld Group Institute has created a unique program for the development of next-generation IT leaders. Our Transformation Leadership Development (TLD) program starts with a class that’s designed for enterprise-scale CIOs/CTOs and their direct reports. It’s a very thorough four-day class, with the curriculum drawing heavily upon The Feld Group Institute’s leadership insights, operational experience and time-tested strategic framework for enterprise success. Completion of the program is then followed by an ongoing relationship with The Feld Group Institute and the community of peers from other companies that have also completed the program.

About TFGI’s Transformation Leadership Development Program

We started offering the program in 2016, and as of this post in November 2018, we are completing our 7th cohort. We’re proud to have included CIOs, CTOs, VPs and Directors of IT. We’ve even included some business partners from great companies such as FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Bank of Montreal, Rent-A-Center, Vistra Energy, Baxter International, Volkswagen, York Risk Services, Vanguard, Fossil, Cummins, Schneider Electric and others. So far, we have over 100 graduates who are applying what they’ve learned in the program at their companies, and these folks are now part of our community of peers that share knowledge, challenges, successes and new discoveries.

We’re Here for the Leaders so They Can Be Here for Their Business

From it all, we’re incredibly proud of the impact we’ve had on these graduates. Here’s a small sampling of what these leaders have learned in, or taken away from, the TLD program.

  • “A logical approach in developing the multi-year plan and the architecture for an ever- growing and changing environment.”
  • “A fabulous synthesis of years of experience condensed into a four-day program.”
  • “A dynamic framework built to support a dialog between IT and our business partners.”
  • “Understanding your history, helps you paint the picture for how you got where you are and define where you are going.”
  • “We need to make the time to Zoom Out (think bigger picture).”
  • “It is my right and duty to drive innovation.”
  • “We must shape the agenda before it shapes us.”
  • “I really liked hearing about other companies and the issues they face.”
  • “An excellent network of experienced and curious professional technology executives.”

If you’re a business or IT leader who wants to make a big impact on your company in this modern, digital era, please join The Feld Group Institute in this journey by participating in our Transformation Leadership Development program.

Author: Jon Feld, COO, Principal
Connect with Jon Feld on LinkedIn

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Russell Villemez

Affiliate, The Feld Group Institute

Head of Technology Strategy, Dialexa – a Feld Group Institute partner

Highly regarded CTO and change agent with IT strategy and enterprise architecture expertise.

Russell Villemez is an Affiliate with the Feld Group Institute and the head of Technology Strategy at Dialexa, a Technology Research, Design and Creation firm that works with organizations on initiatives such as Operational Transformation, Business Growth, and New Venture Creation.

During 17 years in operational roles and 15 years in consulting roles, Russell has worked across a variety of industries in both executive leadership positions and as a subject matter expert. Russell thrives on the scale and complexity of leading major change agendas in large corporate environments.

Recent consulting clients include AmerisourceBergen, the American Automobile Association, Brinker International, Cubic, Equifax, and Cox Automotive. A common thread is the client’s need for strong leadership during a period of change—whether motivated by acquisitions, spin-offs, competitive pressures, or other factors. Clients also benefit from Russell’s expertise in enterprise architecture, agile development, application portfolio rationalization, technology and architecture strategy, as well as business strategy and commercial software product development.

Recognized as a versatile IT executive, adept at solving complex problems with innovative solutions, Russell’s capabilities and achievements span a continuum from business-strategy formation to hands-on IT solution development. His extensive career achievements include pioneering the first use of relational databases in high-volume transaction systems in the ‘80s, applying voice recognition DSPs in public intelligent network services for consumer markets in the ‘90s, and leading large-scale adoptions of open systems, object technology, and middleware frameworks in complex business environments, often in advance of commercially available software products.

Prior to joining Dialexa, Russell served at HP as Enterprise Services Chief Technology Officer for the Americas, leading a global capability for embedded Account CTOs in large enterprises. Russell began his career at Accenture, where he first crafted his consultative problem-solving approach, later honed at A.T. Kearny and the Feld Group. Russell’s deep telecom experience is built upon numerous director and enterprise architect positions at AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Telstra, US West, Pacific Bell, and Sprint, and as V.P. and CIO for WebLink Wireless.

Russell has a BS in Business Administration from Louisiana State University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. In his spare time, Russell participates in amateur auto racing, and is a driving instructor with the Porsche Club of America.