CIO With a Conscience

Prof. Mohamed Ridza Wahiddin, deputy rector for research and innovation of International Islamic University Malaysia, became the first speaker on the second day of the CIO Leaders Summit Malaysia.

His topic was an engaging presentation of facts, ethics, values, and reasons for the need of CIOs to have excellent business and technology acumen in order to succeed. It was clear in his talk that having a balance between conscience and technological needs can result into a having a business that makes money. Aside from CIO’s working on linking physical to digital, Prof. Mohamed emphasized the need for conscience which according to him is the voice of the soul.

The presentation was divided in 3 parts: To be or to do, knowledge prosumer and IIUM experience. He explained to the audience that effective leadership actually requires both interpersonal skills and business acumen. People talk but they don’t communicate. Even the most dynamic leaders sometimes struggle especially when they lack overall business sense. This is because without an understanding of how their business works, the goals they set are likely to be unrealistic. Some leaders are sometimes lost between knowing the difference of information and data and when to use wisdom and not tested knowledge.

In his session, summit delegates were able to learn how to capture the benefits of strategic intuition and how to apply it to real-world business innovations. He added that once people fully understand how strategic intuition works, they can start identifying opportunities that they might otherwise have missed out by following the four step method: examples from history, presence of mind, a flash of insight and resolution.

In conclusion, Prof. Mohamed told the summit delegates that by combining ideas from history, psychology and neuroscience, strategic intuition when used properly, can definitely help in identifying and capturing opportunities for the business.