Catching up with Tony Costa, Senior Vice President/CIO of Bumble Bee Foods, LLC.

This month,CGT's Executive Editor Kara Romanow sits down with Tony Costa, senior vice president and chief information officer, Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, to talk about the company's recent SAP initiative. Plus find out his take on the contemporary role of the CIO.

What keeps you up at night?
COSTA: The future is now. I am constantly looking for opportunities to differentiate our company either through technology, processes or relationships. I firmly believe to remain competitive in today's business environment you have to continually challenge the status quo and look at alternative or creative ways to drive growth. I see many companies today continue to focus on traditional and proven business practices.

I believe the companies that will end up "winning" will have a focus on innovation not replication. The greater differentiation between you and your competition will dictate your future success. Complacency will kill a company. One of the challenges with driving innovation is how to measure the effectiveness and remain committed to continuous improvement. To be effective, innovation and change management must be a core value of your company and supported from the top. This becomes part of your culture and assists in future decision making processes.

How has the CIO role evolved over the past several years?
COSTA: The core responsibilities for a CIO have remained fairly stable over the years, but the expectations of the CIO role have evolved as a more trusted business partner versus a technology expert. The CIO is still responsible for providing stable, reliable and secure solutions ' but the means and options of providing those solutions have changed. It is important that a CIO align the value of the IT organization with the goals of the corporation's strategic plan.

It is also important to define the IT core competencies that will support, enhance and grow with the company. Each company is typically unique in some way or another. It is the CIO's responsibility to provide the right structure, skills and leadership to complement the corporate culture and direction. Although technology is very important and in many cases a differentiator, I don't believe there is as much emphasis for technology from the business community as there was years ago. Computing solutions have matured significantly over the past decade and the pressure for the business to provide efficiencies is even greater. Being able to collaborate on our company challenges and provide a road to success for my business partners is where I realize my greatest sense of accomplishment.

How do manufacturers and retailers better collaborate?
COSTA: I feel there are traditional ways that have provided success in the area of manufacturer/retailer collaboration, like EDI, data synchronization, broker networks, etc., but looking outside of the existing protocols is where I believe the opportunities reside. There needs to be a renewed focus on a balanced collaboration that drives efficiencies for all parties involved. You could argue collaboration was dictated in the past that was designed to drive efficiencies but accomplished the complete opposite for some manufacturers ' for example, RFID. It is critical to create a value network of your brokers, retailers and vendors to solicit feedback and define a mutual plan that drives benefit throughout the partnerships. Ultimately, the companies that understand their customers and successfully find creative ways to reach out and develop customer specific experiences will be viewed as leaders in the category.

How has your recent decision to implement a corporatewide SAP solution impacted your company?
COSTA: We are using this initiative to reevaluate all of our current business practices to reduce complexity and increase efficiencies with one major goal ' customer satisfaction. The emphasis is not on the software or technology as much as it comes down to business process and people that will make the difference. This project has given us a platform to engage our brokers and retailers to collaborate on simplifying our working relationships and go-to-market strategies. It is too easy to be focused on the day-to-day business activities and forget to evolve your business. We have used this project to reenergize our company to align our values and goals for the future. Additionally, we have taken this opportunity to educate our company on best practices and focus on value added activities. We plan to leverage standard functionality for non-strategic core functions and devote most of our energy on identifying and implementing competitive differentiation. CG