Centralizing IT at Jackson with CIO Michael Hicks #shorts
About Michael Hicks
Michael Hicks, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Jackson Financial, discussed the company's technology strategy in a September 2024 interview. He stated that Jackson's technology organization is primarily centralized under "Jackson Enterprise Technology (JET)" to drive standardization, with a few minor exceptions for federated teams. Hicks noted that Jackson maintains a model of segregating duties between the CIO and CTO, with the goal of allowing the CIO to focus on innovation and business value rather than day-to-day production. He also said the company has fully transitioned to Agile delivery and runs quarterly planning events to align with strategy. Hicks described Jackson's customer focus, stating that the company treats financial advisors as customers while respecting that advisors own the relationship with end clients. He said customers in the industry are demanding easy-to-understand solutions and that the company is competing with recent digital experiences from companies like Amazon and Netflix rather than past insurance experiences. Hicks also commented on the role of CIOs, saying they must be prepared to lead conversations during technology disruptions such as generative AI, and that building authentic relationships and understanding business strategy are key to success.