Last year's CIO 100 leader Stephen Kneebone is as firmly ensconced in the business transformation driving seat at Nissan Europe as he is behind the technology steering wheel, cruising along a medium-term route that plans to take in 88 business breakthroughs and 5% market share in Europe. Job titleCIO vice president corporate information systems and business transformation. When did you start your current role?1 April 2012. What is your reporting line?Renault Nissan global CIO. Do you meet with and discuss business strategy with the CEO every week?Every month. Are you a member of the board of directors?Yes. What other executive boards do you sit on?Investment board (capital investment review) and business transformation board (cross-functional change). Does your organisation have a CDO?Yes. What different responsibilities does the CDO have?Global CDO Renault and Nissan respectively are responsible for driving a global initiative to consolidate and improve the digital platform to enhance the digital customer journey. What non-technology responsibilities do you have in the organisation?In addition to CIO responsibilities, I'm the vice president responsible for organisational development (includes the programme management office and business process improvement). I'm driving a portfolio of business breakthroughs including order to delivery, digital customer experience, manufacturing expansion, vehicle distribution and business intelligence. They are key capabilities to deliver to 88 mid-term business objectives, make us no.1 Asian brand, and win 5% market share. How many employees does your organisation have?In EMEA, the regional I am responsible for, 14,000+. Does your organisation carry out significant trade in the EU?Yes. What number of users does your department supply services to?12,000+. How do you ensure that you have a good understanding of your business and how your customers use your business's products?Having responsibility for both technology and the business transformation office is a distinct advantage in leading and collaborating across the whole business to deliver a transformation agenda. It demands keen insight into the strategic and operational priorities of the business. Nissan has a strong ethos of continuous improvement, execution and delivery. Product quality and customer experience are key pillars of our business strategy and consequently drive functional priorities including those of corporate information systems. Understanding how customers perceive Nissan products and services and ultimately our brand is fundamental. I personally contribute to cross-company, cross-functional brand, business transformation and technology initiatives that engage directly with customers. Nissan Europe technology strategy and agenda Is your organisation being disrupted by the internet, mobility or technology-oriented start-ups?Yes. Are you empowered by your organisation to disrupt from the inside?Yes. What major transformation project has been recently completed or is under way at your organisation?There is an ambitious portfolio of business and technology transformation. Vitesse (an acronym that embraces value innovation, technology simplification and service excellence) is the global Renault Nissan IS strategy that underpins the current mid-term plan. Value innovation is about delivering to the business the breakthroughs that our operations demand. Current initiatives include order to delivery, digital customer experience, manufacturing expansion, vehicle distribution, commercial aftersales and business intelligence. Technology simplification is about streamlining our infrastructure to improve performance and deliver further efficiencies. We are establishing an alliance IT services organisation to further consolidate and leverage synergies with our alliance partner Renault. There are also specific application convergence initiatives to support further collaboration and efficiencies across manufacturing, engineering, purchasing and HR. Service excellence is about delivering the service our employees deserve and our customers demand. We have initiated a significant programme of consolidating and transitioning IT services, application support and development to adopt an integrated approach to service delivery. How has your leadership style contributed to the outcomes of the transformation project?There are three key aspects to my leadership style: • Being an ambassador: engaging and aligning the business and technology change agenda across the organisation.• Driving transformation and change: identifying an ambitious and compelling case for change.• Motivating and empowering: providing direction and the environment for teams to develop and deliver. What key technologies do you consider enable transformation?Successful business transformation is fundamentally secured through organisation, people, process and systems. Technology often has a key role to play, but if it becomes the focus at the expense of other dimensions, change will be short-lived, benefits will not be realised and one more IS project failure case study will be able to be cited. Are you expanding the number of cloud applications or infrastructure in use at your organisation?Yes. What is your information and data analytics vision for the organisation?Information management and data analytics are the cornerstone for any organisation that seeks to truly deliver on quality product and services and the end-to end customer journey. The ability both to leverage data sets that are traditionally functionally driven and owned across an organisation and to connect with external data sets across the enterprise will be paramount. How is mobile and social networking impacting operations and customer experience?A mobile and social-enabled digital customer experience is fundamental to our business. Nissan aims to deeply engage consumers in our brand by delivering an innovative and exciting customer experience. Describe your strategic vision towards shadow IT and BYOD. How do you influence and engage executives and employees around choice?We have a systematic enterprise-wide initiative harnessing business process management and enterprise architecture capabilities to formally align core business processes; the technology that enables this specifically includes shadow IT. We are fully leveraging BYOD while supporting it to a limited scope and population. Nissan Europe IT security and budget Has your organisation detected a cyber intrusion in the last 12 months?Yes. Has cyber-security risen up your management agenda?Yes. Does your organisation understand the potential cyber-security threats it faces?Yes. Has this led to an increase in your security budget?Yes. What is the IT budget?€150m+, which equates to 0.55% revenue. What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?Delivery of the Vitesse strategy. Are you finding it difficult to recruit the talent you need to drive transformation?No. Has recruitment and retention risen up your agenda as a CIO?Yes. Are you looking for recruits in the EU to fill the skills shortage you have?Yes. Does your IT organisation operate an apprenticeship scheme?Yes. Nissan Europe technology department Explain how you’ve supported and developed your senior leadership team to support your overall objectives and visionStrategy: collaborative development and shared ownership of Vitesse strategy, assigning sponsorship of key themes with clear commitments and delivery targets. Leadership team: secure a balanced and diverse group of individuals motivated to operate, develop and deliver as a team. Communication: openly engage and communicate success and failure with the whole team, provide the support and environment for success and achievement of 'stretch' objectives. Insights: improved self-awareness, understanding behavioural preferences and a keen sense of personal and professional development. How many employees are in your IT team?260+. What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff?Currently 30-40% in-house, 60-70% outsourced, including value innovation project delivery and service excellence operations support. Does your team include key skilled workers from the EU?Yes.