Critical Analysis of National Geographic’s CIO Strategy: A Case Study

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Critical Analysis of a Chief Information Officer’s
(CIO’s) Strategy

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Overview of the National geographic recent IT history prior to the interview...............................2
Theme section..................................................................................................................................4
Issues and problems.........................................................................................................................8
Future strategy and direction...........................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
The growth of chief information officer (CIO) suggests that senior management have the formal
recognization of information that is the valuable resource and must be managed at the senior
level within the organization. Current essay is presented regarding the interview of CIO of
National Geographic mainly named as Marcus East. The perception of the CIO in the business
is currently increasing and senior management is mainly developing trust on such officer to
manage the organizational information (Bryan Glick, 2018). The objective of the research
investigates issues and problems that are being faced in the business that is related with the
interview of Marcus East. The Essay is being divided into different sections that cover overview
of the National geographic and themes with reference to the story of CIO. In addition, essay also
covers some of the issues and problems that are identified by the CIO in the current interview.
Along with this suggestions and future strategy of CIO is pursued.
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Overview of the National geographic recent IT history prior to the interview
National Geographic is an American media digital cable and satellite television network that is
mainly owned by Walt Disney through National geographic partners having the partnership with
national geographic society. This business is progressing across platforms mainly in the virtual
reality that has enabled to receive many Titles with having the excellence in media from website
and social presence to video content and advertising. Business is reputed with having the
excellence in best use of photography, accurate data visualisation, attractive home welcome
page, perfect use of videos and moving image and also have innovative and trivia categories
(Masser, 2014).
Currently, National geographic is working on improving the technology and bringing innovation
with the open source and server less technology to enhance digital commercial officers of the
firm. The business is offering worldwide services and is reputed with high use of innovative
technology. For this, senior management believed to hire the CIO to achieve modernisation and
engage with more customers with exploiting channels as outlet.
Recent IT history
Over the past years, communication with the customers was not effective. No such technological
tools were being used to manage the business information and also to maintain relationship with
the customers. Earlier the communication was through the local channels or through the written
method. Earlier photographers just aim to display the pictures and no such effects and editing
was made that gain the attention of the customers (Switzer et.al. 2012). In 1900, pictures were
displayed in black and white colour and people think that the images are scary. It was difficult
for the photographers to interact with the customers.
Prior to the hiring of CIO in 2016, the channel was rebranded as the National geographic
dropping the channel from the name. For years, CIOs of National geographic used security
requirements as one of the important reason for the flow of technology in the office and business
unit managers always rely on the fact that employees are doing well with the technology. No
such innovation taken place in past years. In 2017, CIO, Marcus East was hired and in the
exclusive interview, he gave the statement that consumers are needed to be considered as the part
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of communities that make them to interact with the brand. He believed that consumers must be
provided the best of the experience. For this, it is required for the business to switch towards new
platform of technology, recommended by East (Angelica Mari, 2018). He believed that National
geographic need to be competitive as efforts by other businesses are currently not visible. In an
exclusive interview, He gave the statement that ‘we need to communicate more and more with
the customers’.
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Theme section
Three pillars by Marcus East
In his exclusive interview, he believes of involving customers into the communities and mainly
maintaining the interaction with them. To make that happen, National geographic aims to bring
the positive change in programme of the technology and adding innovation in the services.
However, the new chief technology officer (CTO) has the perception of relying on the three
pillars that includes
 Building a new underlying platform, Redesigning the digital experience And developing community products that allow consumers to develop interest in
exploring those areas.
However, the CTO resembles the character traits of having highly dedicated leadership to bring
positive change in the business. Resembling the trait of being passionate, Marcus had an aim to
bring innovation in the current services and also offering high quality of experience to the
customers. It is effective to search for new approaches and technologies and with years National
geographic have the standard way to interact with the customers effectively. For this, it is
effective for National geographic to open up ideas and think strategically to add to valuable
experience of the audiences (Angelica Mari, 2018). With this, Marcus have suggested on the
basic two solutions that includes going server less and having the open source programme. This
idea is mainly developed on the three pillars suggested by Marcus with the hope that
technological transformation in the business will aid towards growth.
Going server less
To find development, first technological change is based on applying the main features of cloud
first approach with the parent company such as 21st Century fox. National geographic with the
parent firm is designing the server less architecture platform under an initiative dubbed Cohesive
Intelligent Platform (CHIP). Current system was hosted mainly at the traditional health centre
and capabilities with the public cloud environment can be migrated (Roberts and Chapin, 2017).
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On the infrastructure, East commented that there is no need of building the data centre capability.
In addition, server less environment is needed to be created offering with the native mobile
experiences.
Marcus East mainly aims to have the server less infrastructure and also suggested that resources
are needed to be used properly and application to be used cost effectively. East suggest that with
the help of mobile experience, services can be expanded to different countries by developing the
app on Amazon web services (AWS) without spending huge cost on the infrastructure (Ishakian
et.al. 2018).
In addition, team believes that there are some of the challenges that can be faced by the
organisation with handling the CHIP programme and it is complex to handle the large content.
With response to this East suggested that National geographic is one of the best firms in
storytelling. He says that team need to be expertise with the use of AWS. However, results are
still not obtained from the AWS but East considers this as one of the opportunity for developing
confidence of the team and to grow in the application of technology (Baldini et.al. 2017). He also
believes that it would definitely help to gain the competitive advantage from rest of the media
firms.
Embracing open source
Adopting the open source platform is one of the important highlight of National geographic IT
transformation that has use of more than 10 bespoke systems and the alternative available that
include Adobe AEM, Drupal and Word Press. However, in National geographic regular analysis
is being performed regarding the workflows of photographers, the clicks made by them and also
the processes that are being carried out at the firm. For instance with the adoption of open
sources such as Drupal will mainly increase the effeceincy of the team and IT portfolio can be
managed in more cost effective way (Pearce, 2012).
Mainly east suggest that application of the open source will add to more benefits of content
management and increase the flexibility of managing the operations. However, with this National
Geographic will be effectively integrated with the media technology community with the
application of open source software (Caulkins et.al. 2013). For instance, organisation is
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increasing the capability of adopting technology and overcome the challenges that can be faced
in the competitive market.
Customer interaction projects
Business has the objective of focussing on maintaining the interaction with the customers and
enhancing the level of engagement. For this, website redesign is one of the appropriate solution
and with this business carried out tests regarding user experience considering the aspects of
navigation, structure and design. For this, Net promoter score is one of the effective solutions to
measure consumer engagement. East had the satisfaction as consumers is positively responding
on the website and they are getting engaged online. East also says that more focus would be
make on the developing the interaction of the customers (Angelica Mari, 2018).
Possible solutions are also carried out with launch of new website that would gather new
consumer feedback and optimise the site. Along with this NG1 mobile app is also being
launched for the purpose of having high engagement and interaction with the customers.
With this, East says that it is better to act in Smart manner with offering personalised services to
the customers. Moreover, Artificial intelligence would be optimally utilised that would look
after consumer preferences and their response regarding their usage. This would attract more
photographer community and it is also believed that it is necessary to develop the user
experience. On this East responded that it is necessary to analyse the preferences of the
consumers and take actions whatever it is effective (Angelica Mari, 2018). In addition to this,
east also aims to improve the premium membership capabilities by offering consumer the ad free
experience with the use of app. Moreover, East commented that the team of National geographic
would invite the future digital footprint as the part of redesign efforts. Team would measure the
increasing number of followers and accordingly the channel or website would be redesigned.
Optimum utilisation of workforce
High integration of the technology and achieving the positive results is possible with having the
high support of qualified and skilled workforce. East recommends on the strength of the business
that National geographic have the mixture of highly skilled people that would lead to interesting
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results. East have the confidence to achieve the high redesigning of the technological
programme and only the challenges can be faced is regarding working with the new resources.
Team have the fear to have the corrective IT skills and access in the working workforce. But East
passion and confidence to state that organisations with whom they are working will help in
transferring the knowledge and build capabilities that is really effective. East recommends that it
is better to work with few senior and experienced people for having the high performance
technology function (Lee et.al. 2013). East always had the confidence to be best in hiring and
making the competitive team that would deliver out the best possible results.
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Issues and problems
As per an exclusive interview of Marcus East, it is being identified that some of the issues are
being clearly visible and some of them east had wrong perception. Going server less is good
idea, partnerships with the technology vendors can sometimes lead to give wrong results. It can
be complex for the team to work according to the regulations of AWS and handling it
effectively. East might have overconfidence regarding the team as he is finding easy to achieve
the actual expected results (Bryan Glick, 2018). As employees are prior needed to be trained and
monitored before giving them the technical work.
Challenges from the competition can be identified that can cause risk for the business to succeed.
This is mainly unidentified by the East and he is having the blind trust on the effeceincy of the
team. Open source also have some of the technical challenges that are left unidentified. Within
open source, there are more developers that can lead to more risk and less security (Baker, 2012).
It is necessary to have the standards of code submissions with acceptance of the common license.
In this, no such confidentiality would be observed as community would be grown and it leads to
huge spread of confidential information.
In addition to this, having the access to IT skills is one of the biggest problems faced by many of
the businesses. As with emerging tools and approaches, other competitors are also trying to use
the same. On this East might have the overconfidence on the team regarding they will manage
the risk and handle the challenges. For this it is necessary for having the experienced and trained
workforce to overcome mainly the fear of the competition. Moreover, it is necessary to maintain
the interaction with the customers but also it is very important to maintain the security that the
business would use (Baker, 2012). This is necessary to optimize the security in effective manner
with having access codes and passwords. Also the content on the website is also necessary to be
secured with having the private access link. Team resistance to change is also another problem
that is needed to be managed.
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Future strategy and direction
Team efficiency
East had the hope that coming years would observe the positive technological impact and
transformation for National Geographic. Also it has one of the objectives of increasing more
customer engagement and developing more consumer experiences. Directions are clear for the
East that would result in reliable experimentation and accurate outputs (Ishakian et.al. 2018).
With the dynamics nature of the business, media is changing but with the current three pillar
solution it would support in responding to the change in the business also with the greater
support of team efficiency.
App adoption
East believed that consumers are needed to be increased with the adoption of App. East
contributed to business financial bottom line to make the real splash in the market place. Expect
have the high expectation of providing the mobile experience to the customers. With this, the app
would be contributed to different parts of the world to have the profitable year and increasing
number of followers. Along with this it would increase the level of satisfaction of the customers.
With this, East confidence is good for the business but is necessary to strictly monitor the
progress and have the monitoring of the technological use (Laudon and Laudon, 2016). East
decisions and technology transformation is effective but employees are needed to be trained with
taking help from the other sector executives. This would help in meeting with the directive
objectives.
With this, east mainly recommends that this is not actually the technology the business is
transforming. It is mainly the innovation that business would take place that help National
geographic to be the successful leader in terms of storytelling and also consumer would be
highly entertained. Future direction of the East aims to improve the consumer experience and
providing them information about the real world. National Geographic strategy is based on being
the successful leader in terms of using the technology for positive output. It can be also
recommended that training can be offered to the employees and management need to have
positive monitoring towards operations of the business.
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Future strategy for National Geographic is based on providing the best experience and quality to
the customers. Three pillars must be followed that are suggested by East and the results are
needed to be monitored for next 3 years and then future strategy or directions can be planned. In
case if the strategy is not responsive it must be discontinued and more appropriate strategy could
be planned to meet the satisfaction and needs of the customers.
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