Cranfield IT Leadership Programme
Following Cranfield’s IT Leadership Programme, Sven von Glinski now feels all set
for his new role as Head of IT at retail real estate company, Redevco. ‘I’ve been
working in IT for the past ten years, most recently as Information Manager at
Redevco, but when the position of Head of IT materialised, I realised that I would
need some in depth preparation for that role,” Sven explains.
“While I’ve worked in IT for a decade, it’s always been in a functional context,” he continues. “And I came to Cranfield basically wanting to learn what managing IT is all about. I thought it would be a great opportunity to take my learning onto the next level and gain the tools, techniques and theories I would need as Head of IT.
"Some of what I learnt at Cranfield such as portfolio management and shaping strategic direction was completely new to me and pretty eye-opening. But equally useful was the focus on developing the personal capacity and awareness, and leadership skills required to improve the effectiveness of IT in any organisation. People are very different and it’s important to know how to deal with the differences between them.
"I’m already using the portfolio analysis techniques that I learnt on the course and I made many notes on the course which I will have to hand when I start as Head of IT in January 2009.
"Primarily what I gained from the course is confidence. I think perhaps prior to Cranfield I had some concerns about the breadth of my experience. But now I’m very confident in the knowledge that IT is not about wires and cables, but about how best to align IT with the business. And the course has provided me with some deeper understanding of just how to do that."
Sven von Glinski, Information Manager, Redevco