Day in the life of...Mark Bramwell, Chief Information Officer, Saïd Business School - University of Oxford. 

We caught up with Mark to find out about the exciting projects he is working on and what digital challenges he sees for business schools in the coming years.

Please describe your job. What does the CIO at Saïd Business School do?

The role of CIO at Saïd Business School – University of Oxford is an incredibly privileged and rewarding one.

Supported by a fantastic team, I am accountable for the strategy, direction, delivery, support and maintenance of all the School’s IT and AV systems and services, to all of the School’s students, faculty, staff and guests.

The role is incredibly important for the successful operation of the School, as it is one of the few ‘customer’ facing roles that is truly holistic in supporting every person in every department.

In doing so, our aim is to enable everybody to be as efficient and effective as they can be, whilst identifying, connecting and providing solutions to business and technological challenges, ideas and opportunities.

What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role? What did you do before this role?

Increasingly the role of CIO is about building, fostering and maintaining strong business relationships, balanced with a need for great communication, influence, trust, honesty and integrity.

Results, customer service and delivering against promises are of course a given, and vital in being able to establish credibility as a trusted business partner.  

Prior to my role at Saïd Business School I was Head of IT at The Wellcome Trust (a £20bn not for profit biomedical research charity) for years, having spent 16 years at WHSmith Limited (the High Street Retailer) where I was Head of IT Development, and I graduated from Sheffield in Business and Finance.

Tell us about a typical working day.

In providing support, service and innovation for 4.25m website views, 1,300 students, 500 staff and faculty, 40 global multi-national executive education clients, VIP guests and visitors to the School every day of every year, genuinely no day is ever typical.

Literally every day is different (some planned, some unplanned) as a result of the projects being delivered, the support services being provided, the customer and stakeholder collaborations and issues that can and do occasionally occur (technology is never 100% reliable).

However, it is this variety and diversity that drives and energises me, and generates the passion and enthusiasm for customer service, continuous improvement and change which gets me out of bed every day.

What do you love about your job?

I am incredibly fortunate to be able work with a great team and amazing colleagues as part of a world class Business School.

It is incredibly diverse and interesting to be able to meet and talk with so many great and renowned people from different departments every day of the week, and from whom I continue to learn and develop (no good leader ever has all of the knowledge or answers).

However the biggest personal pride and satisfaction is knowing that the projects and services we provide as a team, helps to underpin the quality of teaching, support and service offered to our students in ultimately producing the next generation of world class entrepreneurs and responsible leaders.

What don’t you like about your job?

Working within an innovative and entrepreneurial ‘hot bed’ such as the Business School, it is sometimes challenging to keep up with the aspirations, ambitions and innovation of the School with the resources and budget available.

This can sometimes lead to competing priorities, difficult conversations and tough decisions.

However, an important part of my role is to provide overarching governance, whilst ensuring business ownership and providing fact based evidence to help support, resolve and agree this.

Can you share some of the exciting projects you’re working on now at the school?

The School is constantly changing, improving and evolving, leading to many new and exciting projects.

As a simple snapshot of some of these, over the next 12 months the School will be:

• Extending its Office365 deployment to staff and faculty (it is already available for every student)
• Implementing Marketing Cloud to complement the current Salesforce CRM solution
• Progressing new system solutions for Admissions and Exam Results
• Re-launching a new School website
• ‘Experimenting’ with several new digital initiatives in relation to on-line learning, blended learning, virtual classrooms and teaching innovation
• Launching a brand new capital building project for the Oxford Foundry. 

What do you think are the key digital challenges which Business Schools globally will face over the next 2 years?

Undoubtedly all Business Schools will face challenges presented by the 4^th Industrial Revolution and growth of digitisation.

Whether it be keeping up with ‘consumer’ demands for on-line, blended or flipped learning in a 365x24x7 device agnostic way, or the challenges presented by the changing teaching styles and pedagogy required by these new channels and media, no organisation will be immune.

However, each challenge also presents an equally distinct opportunity for Business Schools to broaden their reach, engagement, participation and motivation of learners, and in doing so provide competitive advantage and differentiation.

For Said Business School, this challenge may be unique in ensuring and providing quality befitting of the University of Oxford name, brand and experience, but this in itself is another opportunity.

The Business Schools (and Universities) that succeed will be those that embrace digital and not fear it.

What advice do you have for people aspiring to be CIO one day?

Absolutely go for it.

The holistic role of the CIO is becoming increasingly prominent, important and influential within organisations, with many CIO’s moving on to become future COO’s and CEO’s.

There is however no secret recipe for success, with hard work, honesty, integrity and transparency (no surprises) key.

But the single biggest consideration is to build strong business relationships, listen to your customers to understand their challenges and requirements (we were given two ears and one mouth in those proportions for a reason) and then deliver against your promises.

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