Tim Jones was one of the co-founders of Auto Trader’s digital business in 1996, and went on to transform the company from one that turned over £900 in its first year, to one that turned over about £220m.

He eventually became CIO of Trader Media Group, but Jones wanted a new challenge outside of the media vertical, and 18 months ago he took up the role of CIO of Moneysupermarket.com.

While he has enjoyed the first 18 months of his new role, he has had to revamp several key areas within the business to ensure that the organisation remains competitive. The first thing he wanted to change was the way the company viewed its IT department.

“It was quite traditional in structure, and one of the first things in trying to increase the velocity of the business was to reposition technology from a service to making it a central pillar to the business,” he told Computing.

He rebranded the IT department as the technology department, as well as splitting it into other divisions such as product engineering, and has put forward a strategy to move the business forwards.

Inspiration from the internet

Jones explained that he had to build a strong leadership team by retaining the best talent he had and hiring others based on the skills and culture that the organisation required. Then, he took on board several concepts from other internet companies in order to change the way Moneysupermarket.com worked.

SOURCE: computing.co.uk