Popolano starts the afternoon with a meeting on Internet initiatives with the chief financial officer, a divisional CIO and business executives. That's followed by a status report on deliverables for the domestic brokerage group, with 23 executives on hand. Then there's a budget/strategy update for the personal lines division with that group's CIO, the CFO and other business executives.

The first three months of the year are spent planning, both for the year and long term. In the succeeding months, short-term tactical deliverables become the key areas of focus. And at year's end, the process restarts and rolls into the next year.

Popolano has 13 direct reports who are either senior vice presidents or divisional CIOs. Another nine CIOs at AIG member companies also check in. The IT organization is "mapped to how the company was organized," Popolano notes.

"We created hierarchical structures," he says. "It was much more granular at one point. Now we have a series of senior people that have taken consolidated roles."

Although AIG is moving closer to a centralized model, it's currently a highly decentralized organization, according to Popolano. That has necessitated a "federated" approach for setting up compliance, governance and deliverables with the company's various divisions and 31 member companies spanning 130 countries.