Editors’ Note

John Swainson was named CEO and President of CA in February 2005. During his tenure, he and his team have successfully transformed every aspect of the company, including major changes to the sales force and to the financial and business processes. Prior to joining CA, Swainson worked for IBM for 26 years. He holds an engineering degree from the University of British Columbia.

Company Brief

Founded in 1976, CA, Inc., is one of the world’s largest software companies, providing products and solutions to help its customers govern, manage, and secure information technology (IT) services and systems in highly complex computing environments. Employing more than 5,300 software developers worldwide and headquartered in Islandia, New York, the company (NYSE: CA; www.ca.com) has customers in more than 140 countries. CA serves the majority of the Forbes Global 2000 – including the top 10 conglomerates, banks, and telecommunications companies – as well as government organizations, educational institutions, and thousands of companies in diverse industries worldwide.

How has CA’s culture of corporate responsibility and giving back evolved over the past year?

We’ve tried to make it more of a team effort and include personal participation as well as cash and in-kind giving. We’ve made it much more inclusive – thus the name CA Together – to not only help us reach out to the communities in which we live, but also to act as a force for cultural change within the organization. We do many things, from supporting organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs and Teach For America to supporting causes such as Habitat for Humanity.

Do you focus on areas that align with the business and in which you can make the most impact?

We decided that we could not be effective as a random donor. We had to channel our efforts into things that would make a difference. Our themes have been children and education, with a technology bias. That’s what corresponds to our business – giving back to the community and helping people use technology responsibly.

Is it important to look at those efforts from a business point of view and to track their impact?

The quantification of impact is not as robust as it is when you’re investing in a new product. We have limited resources that we can make available, so we try to maximize their impact. We look at the efficiency of the organizations – how they really use the money we give them – and we look at the impact on our community and the number of people from CA who are effected by these things. A lot of this is done as part of our effort to build the culture of the organization – to make people feel good about what they do and the company they work for. We do try to measure that. Later this year, we’re going to take a lot of these things and quantify them in our first sustainability report so that people can understand how much we’re really doing. It’s important to be able to share that internally as well as with our investors and customers.

Is giving back something your employees rallied around, and was it important that it become a key part of CA’s culture?

Very much so. We’ve had almost 1,000 employees in 31 offices in 11 countries participate in almost 70 projects. Those are only formal projects we’ve tracked; it doesn’t include things such as matching gifts programs. Our goal is to increase the percentage of employee participation. It’s not unreasonable to think that we can double the number of employees who participate in this type of a company-sponsored program.

Do private-sector business leaders have a major role in helping to improve education, and do you worry that there will be a shortage of future math and science leaders?

I think we have a role but we can’t do it by ourselves. Our ability to continue to have high-paying, rewarding jobs in a community is very much tied to our ability to recruit people with the right skills, and that’s very much tied to the education system’s ability to generate those people. The statistics are clear – we are a net importer of math- and science-trained people in this country. There are many people from India and China who are coming to our industry because they have the skills that we’re not able to find domestically. It’s an area of great concern. I think there are both supply-side issues and some cultural issues we have to address. As a father, I’ve had to deal firsthand with the cultural biases the school system tends to place on math and science, particularly for girls. It is pervasive.

Have you also been focusing on green initiatives?

Yes. About a year ago, we kicked off a task force. One thing that resulted was an amazing outpouring of creativity from CA employees about all the things we can do to make ourselves greener and to help our customers make themselves greener. The software business is not a huge consumer of carbon. On the other hand, we do have large buildings, we use a lot of computing equipment, and there are clearly responsible ways for us to use carbon-based fuel. IT is becoming a much bigger piece of the overall energy consumption framework, and we have technology that allows people to manage their information technology environments much more efficiently. By helping people make more efficient use of IT, we can help them reduce the amount of energy they spend. We have a series of initiatives in that area.

Do you feel that there is a growing awareness of the importance of being employed by a socially responsible company?

I think that it’s growing, but I wouldn’t say it’s their top concern. We believe that it’s an overall social responsibility we have as a company. If it helps us attract employees, so much the better, but that’s certainly not why we do it.

How important is it to have a diverse workforce and a culture of inclusiveness?

Our business is about finding the best people – regardless of sex, color, gender, or orientation – who can help us build and sell our products to our customers. In doing that, I think we have created a very diverse workforce.