Students

Fender CIO hits high notes in presentation to student group

Scottsdale-based Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has been making the famed Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars since the 1950s. But IT plays a major role in the day-to-day operations and its success as the world's leading guitar maker. Michael Spandau, Fender's CIO and senior vice president of global information technology, addressed students at the 2014 Association for Information Systems Student Chapter Leadership Conference and Competition at the W. P. Carey School recently.

2014-04-07

When most people think of Fender, IT probably isn't the first thing that pops into their minds. It is more likely that they will think of Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars, the Scottsdale-based company's top-selling guitars since the 1950s.

But while manufacturing and selling guitars and amplifiers are the reasons the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation exists, IT plays a major role in the company's day-to-day operations and its success as the world's leading guitar maker.

"We keep the lights on," said Michael Spandau, Fender's CIO and senior vice president of global information technology. "We make sure that the every single day the company is able to operate. We make sure our ERP systems and Websites function, management reports are provided and critical communications tools are available such as e-mail, computers and phones."

Spandau and five members of his IT leadership team presented an overview of Fender's IT operation during the Association for Information Systems 2014 Student Chapter Leadership Conference and Competition, held March 20-22 in Tempe and hosted by the W. P. Carey School's Department of Information Systems.

Spandau, who addressed the students on Saturday morning, said that the IT department serves all of Fender's operations, which includes its Scottsdale headquarters, several manufacturing facilities, and sales offices around the world. He said that one of the biggest challenges facing his department is aligning the IT strategy with the company's business strategy. That requires communicating effectively with their peers in other departments, including supply chain, marketing, sales and operations.

"We need to figure out what they want and what they need," he said.

Spandau said a major part of the IT team's job is to focus on mitigating risk because of the increasing dependence on technology and the growing sophistication of hackers.

"It's absolutely amazing how dependent our lives are becoming on IT in general," he said. "If we are separated from out smart phones for half an hour, it feels our lives come to an end. The same holds true for IT systems in a corporation. Many of our systems are mission critical for business operations."

Consulting is a smart way to go

Spandau was born in South Africa to German parents. He lived there for 12 years before his family moved to Germany, where he received a degree in computer science and business economics from the Hochschule Reutlingen. Spandau's career included 11 years working for Deloitte Consulting, leading complex international ERP implementations and IT initiatives for a diverse international business clientele.

He told the students that working as a consultant can be a good career starting point because you learn methodology and the firms provide good training. Consultants also get experience working for a variety of companies and industries. "You see the good, you see the very good and you see the not so good," he said.

But Spandau also pointed out that consultants work on a billable basis, meaning there is a great deal of pressure to produce value. "You don't necessarily have that in a corporate environment," he said.

Overall, however, Spandau told students who are considering going into IT consulting that they were making a "very smart and good move."

Spandau's job as a consultant is what led him to his position at Fender in 2005. The company contracted with Deloitte to assist with the stabilization of its SAP system. Spandau was assigned to work with Fender on the implementation, and afterward the company offered him the CIO job.

He explained that Fender's IT operation includes about 60 employees in five key areas: Infrastructure, Applications, PMO and Security.

Infrastructure team plays a dominant role

The infrastructure component includes about half of the company's IT team, said Jason Bredimus, Fender's Vice President for IT Infrastructure. His department oversees all of the physical aspects of IT, including servers, networks, data centers, communications systems, laptops, mobile devices and routers.

"We configure them and keep them running," Bredimus said. "It can be a high-stress environment."

He said that his position requires a wide breadth of IT knowledge and understanding, which he also gained as a consultant earlier in his career.

"You also have to be deep in a few key areas," Bredimus said. "You want your employees to take you seriously because you understand technology. It helps build their trust. It also helps keep vendors honest," he said, because you can use your knowledge to challenge their claims about products.

Bredimus said that IT infrastructure managers also need to have business skills. "You need to understand supply chain, marketing, sales and finance to understand what their challenges are. At the end of the day, we are a cost center, not a profit center, at Fender. We have to make sure we are serving our customers and meeting their needs."

Bredimus said that because keeping the company's infrastructure can be a high-stress job, he makes sure that his team also has fun. Some of the team members, including Bredimus, play guitar and jam together. "You have to have fun, otherwise work is a four-letter word," he said.

Bredimus said the he likes his team to operate like an escalator, which people don't notice unless it isn't working and they have to walk up it. "We want to be lying under there, just working and humming along," he said.

Because the service the IT department offers to the company is so important, Spandau has implemented an annual employee survey to measure how well that service is provided. He said that while such a survey would seem to be common among IT departments, Fender's use of the tool is actually unusual in the industry.

Essential functions of Fender's IT department

In summing up the function performed by his department, Spandau said that there are five essential functions IT performs at Fender. They are:

• Supporting existing systems
• Working on projects that increase revenue, reduce costs and improve efficiency
• Management reporting
• Security
• Complying with internal and external audits

Spandau also offered some advice about the IT profession to the students. "It is not for the faint-hearted," he said. "It can be very stressful so you need to have thick skin."

He said that the IT profession is going to get more and more challenging, with huge changes occurring all the time. Students shouldn't be surprised if some of the things they learned in college have completely changed by the time they enter the profession.

On the positive side, Spandau said that the IT profession will continue to grow and offer opportunities to graduates in the field, especially for women, who make up only about 10 percent of the IT workforce.

"My advice to you is carpe diem, seize the day," he said. "Work hard. Be the best you can be. And only focus on the stuff that you can control."

KnowIT Managing IT Career development