Like many other people in his field, Bill Farrow, CIO for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) did not envision himself in his current role when he began his career. In fact, he wasn’t even sure that he was destined to be in business.

“I was looking in a book at salaries and trying to project how much money I thought I needed to live and pay back student loans,” said Farrow. “The Chemistry number relatively speaking was so low and the Business number was so high, so I said ‘why don’t we try business?’ I ended up taking the GMAT and applying to two business schools. I applied to UC (University of Chicago) and Northwestern, not knowing that they were good schools and ended up going to Northwestern.”

Many of today’s future business men and women would love to stumble onto that path as well, but it is much easier said than done. Needless to say, Farrow benefited from his decision and his strong university pedigree.

By the time he was 30 he found himself working with many of Chicago’s premier businesspeople and on a career path that would lead him through many different fields. However, he always felt that no matter what field he was in, he had a universal idea of how it would operate.

“I had moved around and into technology, into M&A, into strategy, into sales, back into technology, but there was always this common theme of how do you capture technology’s power and make business strong,” said Farrow. “The theme has always been technology and enabling business through technology.”

However, because of his leadership role it is not so much the technical aspect of his field that he must be on top of, but rather the organizing and the management of it.

“The question is do I see myself as a technologist?” he asked. “Not really. I am an architect and I am an architect that uses technology and business process in our performance teams to enable something. And I always describe myself as not a point A to point Z person. I go from point A to point Q and then the business has to take it from Q to wherever it wants to go.”

Farrow has been in the business world long enough now to watch an older generation begin to find its way out and to see a new generation usher its way in. And just as business has changed so has the way that these two generations approach it, he said.

The new generation is defined as “event driven,” meaning that they are going for a specific event in their career and not going for a certain company or a certain career path, he said. The older generation he identifies as having an approach that is much more career-focused and based on company loyalty. “The older generation wants to evolve through the hierarchy and eventually be IT manager of some function that they have probably been familiar with for the last 25 years,” he said.

Because of these age related differences, defining what a leader is has changed as well. Farrow describes today’s leadership as “cowboy entrepreneurial.” It is the idea that today’s leaders may not be focused on a long-term vision or goal, but are instead focused on immediate rewards.

“There is that assumption that there is no tomorrow for the younger generation,” said Farrow. “So leadership in their whole lexicon is ‘what's that bright shining object?’ It’s ‘let’s get that and obtain that bright shining object.’ Now it is the ability to constantly lift that object off and lead in the direction of that big shining thing. However, that means less loyalty to a company.”


Because of this, there is a lack of vision in today’s young leaders, he said. “That’s why I actually think that most leaders cannot create a vision any more,” he said. “Because what is actually the vision? What is the vision of a big financial institution like a bank? How many business leaders have been able to articulate that now? Most of them can't. If you look at our annual reports most of them can’t articulate a business vision.”

This also makes identifying leaders a bit more difficult today, he said. Planning out and following a vision takes a certain amount of risk. However, it seems that in today’s business world, too many are afraid to take the risks that would allow them to stand out.

“Trying to find a leader means you got to find somebody of character, who is willing to take a risk, and taking a risk is creating a vision and selling your vision and being able to articulate a vision and to ride the difficulty out of the goals of that vision,” said Farrow. Now it seems like it is not worth the risk of being a visionary leader. “Think about it, how many teams can actually create a vision? A vision has to manifest itself to an individual.”

Part of that risk entails going against the grain and not bowing down to the group mentality. It often means having the courage to challenge peers or even supervisors. Often times management likes to have their hands in everything and constantly pulls the strings in order to make the team stronger, but instead it makes them dependent and weak, Farrow said. “The best thing you can do is ask a question and get the facts out on the table,” he said. “You can’t fulfill your responsibilities as a leader if you cannot question your peers.”

Another important aspect of being a leader is leading a balanced existence, rather than excelling at only one thing, he said. Farrow believes that someone who cannot relate to having a family and doesn’t understand that there is a balance between community and business, could be detrimental to a business. It is important to a business that its employees are involved in the community, he said.

But most importantly, it all goes back to the time tested advice of finding what you love to do and doing it, he said.

“Try to find something that you love to do because if you love it, you make money and if you hate it, you probably won't make money as you won't be inspired,” said Farrow. “Just be receptive to change and be receptive to working hard and find who you are as a person, because if you are looking for the world or business environment to validate you it’s not going to happen. You have to validate yourself.”