Aon's CIO Straddles Worlds

In his approach to IT/business alignment, Baljit Dail, Aon's (Chicago) new global CIO, begins with himself. Having retained his duties as chief administrative officer, Dail remains head of one of Aon's business units. "As I think through the decisions that I'm going to make in the corporate CIO role, I see the flip side of the implications of that from a business unit perspective," he comments. Dail brings to Aon's technology organization a combination of business perspective and technology roots — he began his career 20 years ago as a programmer — and a track record of execution at a diverse set of firms including Starwood Hotels and Resorts, JP Morgan, Ford Motor Company and McKinsey & Co. Dail says he will continue to drive an existing focus on improving efficiency within the IT organization and investing strategically in systems that can fundamentally change the company's competitive position. "The focus is reducing the lights-on spend so that we can create some headroom in the IT budget to invest," he relates. Another priority will be the development of a globally oriented IT leadership team. While there is excellent collaboration between some parts of Aon's global technology organizations, in some cases, he says, "there's still very much a focus on 'my part of the world.'"