A different kind of IT leadership is required in the digital age. New leadership styles and maybe even new leadership capabilities are needed to capture the business advantages of cloud, mobile, social, analytics and the InterNet of Things. This is now a team game, that cannot be won by individual star players alone. We will discuss how to lead multiple influencing networks and how to collaborate and challenge orthodoxies across organisational boundaries. Don’t ask if you need a CDO, ask if you have the right existing CxOs and if they are working together as digital leaders.”

1. Save the Children
Using digital to set a new ‘Ambition for Children’
Andy Williams
June 2016

2. We are a $2 billion organisation with a challenging
mission
OUR VISION is a world in which every child attains the right to
survival, protection, development and participation.
OUR MISSION is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats
children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

3. Some of our IT work is done in very challenging places…

4. We also have a complex organisation in over 85 countries,
with a diverse set of cultures and IT capacity…
30 x Save the Children
national fundraising and domestic
delivery organisations
Save the Children
International delivery organisation
National members lead relationships with
governments & drive fund raising
International team leads global campaigns and drives
programme delivery with local NGO & community partners
55 countries of varying
Size and maturity
7 regions
4 global
advocacy
offices
“One Save the Children
Association“

5. In 2015 we created a new ‘Ambition for Children 2030’
5
WHAT
HOW
WHO
SURVIVE
No child dies from
preventable causes before
their fifth birthday
LEARN
All children learn from
a quality basic
education
BE PROTECTED
Violence against
children is no longer
tolerated
We will focus on the most deprived and marginalized children
We will work to achieve the rights of all children but we will put the most marginalised and
deprived children first in our own work and advocate for others to do the same. We will
judge our and others’ success against our ability to reach these children.
Build and share knowledge
of how to achieve impact for
children
Catalyse impact at scale
through our theory of
change and programme
excellence
Be the humanitarian
response organisation for
children
Be a truly global
organisation
Secure sufficient resources
to support our priorities
Be the foremost
campaigning force for and
with children
Empower children as
agents of change

6. We identified our 2016-2018 strategic priorities
6
Build and share knowledge of how to
achieve impact for children
Be the foremost campaigning force
for and with children
Empower children as agents of
change
Secure sufficient resources to
support our priorities
Be a truly global organisation
2. Build our humanitarian capability
4. Build our advocacy and campaigning capability*
6. Drive stronger, more diversified funding (with a
focus on unrestricted income)
7. Build a high-performing organisation
8. Attract, retain , develop capable & diverse people
9. Develop truly global governance, structure &
culture
3. Develop global knowledge culture, capacity, and
systems
1. Increase our thematic focus
Maximise use of
our knowledge
Create a
movement of
millions
Be truly global
Achieve results
at scale,
especially for
the most
deprived
Ambition for Children 2030
Strategic Goals
3-Year Strategic Plan
Pillars 2016-2018 priorities
Note: The entire strategy will focus on strengthening future leaders (members) across these priority areas.
*Including pilot of the children’s movement.
5. Roll out global brand

7. We now have our CEO & Board setting the pace for digital…
As we look toward 2030, we recognize that digital technology has the potential to change the way the world
reats children and the way that children interact with the world. Smart phones alone are changing the world
y 2020 80% of adults worldwide will have a smartphone. We will need to monitor these changes closely and
aintain a constant ‘digital mindset’ if we want to continue to be relevant as the world changes. This is a
ultural challenge more than a technical one.
e have outlined how investments in and use of digital and information technologies can help us deliver our
pecific strategic priorities. However, there are a few general technology objectives that apply across our
riorities:
evelop a strong analytical capability to process the data that we are collecting in all our work –
programming, advocacy, campaigning, fundraising.
uild technology partnerships to develop and amplify our existing technological capabilities.
nsure that all our technology systems are linked so we can simplify our IT systems and maximise accuracy
and reuse of our data. 7

8. This led to a new shared global ‘Ambition for IT’
ur shared IT purpose is to provide information & communication tools and
technologies to enable our colleagues and delivery partners to
• improve the scale of our / their impact for children and generate additional donor funding
• maximise the scale of advocacy impact and generate knowledge and insight from trusted data
• drive more efficient and effective support services from Finance, Supply Chain, HR and Legal
• Enable employees to hold productive social connections and collaborations, within and outside
the organisation
o achieve this, we will
• collaborate with our colleagues and delivery partners in an agile way, with ‘online-first’ thinking,
but recognising capacity and connectivity constraints wherever we find them
• be thought leaders in the use of IT in humanitarian development programmes and fund-raising
• buy or build IT services which are explicitly either common or bespoke to a specific country
need
• provide these services at agreed cost and quality, whether common or bespoke
• pool our resources wherever it is beneficial to deliver the goals of our colleagues and delivery
partners
• build scale partnerships with external organisations who have the IT skills and capabilities we lack
• operate our IT processes in such a way that they meet the service and cost needs of our
colleagues and delivery partners, for both common and bespoke services
ULTIMATE
GOAL / PURPOSE
GLOBAL INTERNAL
IT COMMUNITY &
PARTNERS
COMMON OR
BESPOKE SERVICES
BUSINESS PARTNER
& VALUED ADVISOR
COMMON
IT PROCESSES
WHERE VALUABLE

9. Knowledge Management
Fund raising &
Donor relationship
management
Proposal
Development
Award
management
Humanitarian
response
Programme
Operations
Support
Thematic
Programme
Leadership
MEAL
Beneficiary
Service delivery
& Tracking
BeneficiariesDonors
Advocacy
Strategic Planning & Reporting
Board
Members
Our Ambition for IT requires that information flows across our
entire enterprise… from donor to beneficiary and back again…
Finance, HR, Legal Functions
Governments
& agencies
Local
Partners
KEY DATA FLOWS
Supporting
activities
Primary activities

10. Global Priority Role of information & digital technology
Thematic focus • Updated thematic coding in all IT systems and an online results framework globally
Humanitarian
• HR ‘resource management / roster’ tool across all members w/ significant humanitarian surge
capacity
• Global MEAL1
system fit for humanitarian contexts
Maximise use of
knowledge
• Common knowledge management system in SCI and members, based on OneNet
Advocacy &
campaigning
• Pilot of a shared digital platform to facilitate campaigning
Focus on unrest.
income
• Continued deployment of shared fundraising platform for some members; global digital fundraising
platform
Global brand • Shared digital platform to facilitate global brand awareness
High performing
organisation
• Common core systems in finance, HR, IT
• Online project management and MEAL system for SCI and members (PRIME)
• Supply chain management procurement and logistics system in SCI and large domestic programmes
• Strengthened AMS 2.0 system and roll out to non-IP members
People
• Global learning management system
• Digital e-recruiting system (for SCI only 2016-2018)
Governance,
structure, and culture
• Digital overview of all technical expertise across Save the Children, and mechanism to match supply
and demand
• Create a common experience for Save the Children staff through shared technological platforms (e.g.
email, social networking platform, intranet), & more joined up internal communications
10
The key information & digital technology opportunities are
prioritized in our 2016-18 Strategic Plan
1. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning

11. We have created a ‘Shared IT Strategy’ based around convergence
to ‘10 core shared IT & digital platforms’
Note – To achieve this, we had already agreed that we must
converge our processes & information standards
Global Priorities
Ambition 2030
SURVIVE LEARN
Thematic Areas
BE SAFE
Child
Protection
Education
Child
Poverty
Health &
Nutrition
Child Rights
Governance
Advocacy&
Campaigning
UnrestrictedIncome
HumanitarianCapability
ThematicFocus
GlobalBrand
KnowledgeCulture
High-performing
Organisation
AttractandRetain
People
Culture,Structure,
Governance
Technology Convergence & Digital Integration
Process Convergence and Shared Functions
Shared prioritisation, decision making and governance
Enablers
HR
Digital Brand, Campaign & Advocacy
Finance & Supply Chain
Award Mgmt. Programme Mgmt & MEALDigital Fundraising
Reporting & analytics
Knowledge mgmt
Common IT identity & Communications
IT

12. We are also adopting a new set of CIO and IT leadership
behaviours …..
Traditional leadership Networked leadership
Positional, authority-based Role-based, behaviour-driven
Individual Collective
Control-driven Facilitative, collaborative
Directive Relational, connected, influencing
Top-down Peer-peer, bottom-up
“ the Collaborative Influencing Officer” ..

13. Key takeaway – responding to disruptive digital trends
requires disruptive and influential leadership from all CxOs

14. Discussion