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I spent 18 years as a CIO in manufacturing and then became a CIO in the banking industry. But very seldom have CIOs risen to the chair and CEO position. I think that’s because they tend to focus on technology instead of business. I’ve always taken the business approach first. Everything starts with the business — and technology is not the answer to everything. In any event, my background is very unusual, and it’s given me a perspective on what we’ve discovered about work locations as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

Hardware and software have evolved, along with increased bandwidth, to create an environment where you can truly simulate your office at home. My desktop at home looks like my desktop at work, and I can create a realistic work-at-home environment. Because we had already planned to have the right software and, more importantly, software licenses in place, it didn’t take long for Fifth Third Bancorp to spin up 15,000 to 16,000 people to work from home. Within a week, we were fundamentally good to go.

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