The Business Impact of Participating in Gartner C-level Communities

Stuart Hughes, Chief Digital Officer of Kerry Group – a world leader in the food, beverage, and nutrition industries – has long recognized the value of connecting with his peers to drive business impact. One of the founding members and currently a Governing Body Co-Chair of the UK and Ireland CIO Community, Stuart was among the first executives invited to join and was introduced to the community through his Gartner Executive Partner. 

Stuart quickly saw the benefits of engaging with like-minded, C-level technology professionals facing similar challenges. In this piece, Stuart shares how participation in Gartner C-level Communities has provided him with practical insights that have directly influenced his day-to-day work and impacted his organization.
 

Gaining Practical Solutions from a Community Executive Summit

At the UK and Ireland CIO Community Executive Summit, Stuart attended a session led by a peer, who was discussing the successful implementation of AI-driven technology to enhance service desk operations. The other UK CIO community member shared how, by introducing a conversational AI tool, his organization freed resources from a traditional external help desk with an automated chat system. 

This system understands user intent and automatically categorizes requests in ServiceNow, improving accuracy and efficiency in ticket routing. The benefits included 24/7, multilingual support and freeing up staff to focus on higher-value tasks.
 

Because it's [another] CIO, you're able to say with authority that this is a product we should evaluate.

“That [session] was a really useful conversation because CIOs know there is something out there where you can add a chat bot and put it in front of your contact center, but none of us knows which one,” Stuart explains. “Because it's a CIO, because it's somebody you trust, you're able to say, ‘It must be a good idea.’ This is not a sales pitch – it's a guy who's just done it.”

Stuart adds that he easily looked up the main competitors to the vendor, in order to put an RFP together, and he created a business case for his own use. He says, “Within the time it took me to listen to him, plus 10 minutes, I've managed to understand the opportunity. I’ve narrowed it down to a vendor that’s being recommended by somebody who's not being incentivized to do it. I'm able to look at competitors in that group to be able to put an RFP together. Plus, he gave me a financial model of how much he saved – so, I've got the base elements of a business case.”

That's the impact – I’ve got the bare bones of a business case from this session.

Stuart continues, “I spent an hour, I learned about a topic, I learned about vendors, and I was able to find one that's already got a great reference. I've got the start of a business case, which allows me to go to my team, who are busy doing other things, and say, ‘I think that if you had a chat with this vendor, you'd be able to reduce your cost, go 24/7, and allocate people to more valuable tasks.’” In fact, Stuart and his team are in the process of adopting the tool, thanks to learning about it at the Executive Summit.

This insight was not the only time Stuart discovered a solution that impacted his business at a community event. At another UK & Ireland CIO Community Executive Summit, Stuart and his Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) explored solutions for extending the lifecycle of IT equipment, a key concern for Kerry’s plants that aim to minimize new technology investments. 

After getting to know multiple solution providers onsite, they were inspired to research and ultimately pilot a solution that enabled the reuse of out-of-warranty laptops by providing virtual desktop access. This approach not only supported Kerry’s sustainability goals by maximizing the use of existing assets, but also offered a cost-effective alternative to purchasing new devices.
 

The Value of a Peer-Driven, C-level Community

Participating in CIO community events has not only provided actionable solutions for Stuart, but has also led to some “aha moments.” In one session on cybersecurity, Stuart recalls that the speaker asked everyone to put their hand up if they hadn’t had a cybersecurity incident in the last 18 months. “And one person put their hand up,” Stuart says. “Which is probably the one person who doesn't know that someone is in there stealing all of the data, right?”

It was like an epiphany moment.

For Stuart, this moment underscored that security incidents are no longer a source of embarrassment, but a common challenge across organizations. “For years before, I had been saying to boards that cyber incidents are inevitable, and they would look at me horrified,” he explains. “Now, when you say cyber incidents are inevitable, and it's about how we deal with them when they happen, there's much more of an acceptance that it’s true.” 

Stuart continues, “Because of attending events like this, having conversations on cyber security and hearing from other people that these things are common for nine out of 10 people, I have the confidence to say what I'm saying with vigor.” 

This realization has even changed his approach on cybersecurity. He shares, “Our strategy has to be as much about resilience as it is to stop people from getting in.”
 

It can be quite lonely at the top of IT – there's only one CIO.

In general, Stuart finds value in both “the human part” of participating in the community, as well as “the technology part.” Building relationships with his CIO peers helps him “realize that we often have the same problems.” He adds about the Gartner CIO Community: “It’s finding your tribe, finding people like you.” 

Stuart now has a network of CIO peers that he can casually call with a quick question. “When I joined Kerry, I felt there was an opportunity to optimise our networking investment in improving the overall service,” he shares. “I was able to send a text message to a peer and say, ‘We spend roughly this much, how much do you spend?’ Because I know from meeting him in the community that we have comparable companies.”

He calls it “the most unofficial benchmark ever,” but also “a very quick way of letting you know how far off you are.” They followed up with a call with their CIO teams to discuss the networking costs and share some best practices on cyber resilience. 

As Stuart says, “That’s both the very human part of it and the technology side.”

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