John Bowen is Director of International Operations for Computer Aid, Inc., responsible for managing CAI's global IT solution centers and for expanding CAI's international presence. John served for nearly ten years as CIO of PPL Global, the international division of PPL Corporation. In that role, John was responsible for IT management and operations in eight companies in five countries in Latin America and Europe and lived for several years in Argentina and Chile. John has more than 35 years of IT experience including executive leadership, project management, scientific and business application development and operating systems programming. John authored an acclaimed project management methodology and established PMOs in multiple companies in the US and Latin America. He developed and delivered project management training to more than 300 IT professionals in five countries in Spanish and English. You undoubtedly see John's work every month; he invented the algorithm for the first electricity customer bill usage bar graph, code still used by nearly every electricity distribution company in the world. John is a magna cum laude graduate of DePauw University with degrees in mathematics, computer science and symbolic logic. John has taught international business, information engineering and project management for MBA programs at eight universities.

Learning is...Endeavor

Why did you choose the word endeavor?

For many years, I would travel from Pennsylvania to different countries in Latin America. Almost all of my flights went from the Allentown Airport to the Atlanta International Airport. In Terminal E of the Atlanta Airport at Gates 1 and 2 there is a work of art on the wall. It is six feet tall and 120 feet long. It spells out a quotation from Propetius, who was a Roman poet who lived in 50 BC. And the quotation is: “Let each man pass his days in that endeavor wherein his gift ifs greatest.” The first time I saw that I stopped - quite literally because it is a philosophy I have felt internally my entire life. Basically what it says is - find out what you love to do and become the best at it that you possibly can. What is intriguing about this particular work of art is that when you walk up to it you find that it is comprised of 14,000 individual business cards. Each business card reflecting the dreams and aspirations and life work of an individual. My philosophy of education is twofold. Number one - learn as much as you can about the breadth of human endeavor as possible, so you can find that one thing that you love to do more than anything else. Once you have found that endeavor use education to become the best at that endeavor that you can possibly be.

Why is lifelong learning important?

Because I honestly believe, that if you do what you most enjoy you will literally never have to work another day in your life. I believe it is everyone's responsibility to become as proficient at his or her chosen profession as is humanly possible. I think the way to do that is to constantly learn as much as you can about what you love to do.

What have you learned recently?

Recently, I became aware of the philosophy or concept called Blue Ocean Strategy. Blue Ocean is a concept that says you don't want to compete with others in an ocean that is already bloodied red with the carcasses of your competition. That ocean is full of sharks who are out there to devour not only your clients but you. Blue Ocean Strategy says - find an ocean where there are no sharks, where there is a completely open field where you have a solution or a product or a service that is unique and therefore there is no competition. Differentiate yourself from everyone else and thrive in the Blue Ocean.

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