In the last one month, there have been a few surveys conducted by a few research companies as well as IT publishing houses attempting to find the CIO priorities for the future, what drives their agenda and does their reporting relationship has any bearing on the outcome. The research primarily focused on US CIOs. I came across these reports and findings courtesy of some IT newsletters and the editorial board of the publication on their visit to the mecca of IT outsourcing (India).
The survey clearly demonstrates the skew in the responses from CIOs based on whether they report to the top honcho (CEO/Chairman/Board) or to another CXO (even within this there were some variations, though not significant). It was amply evident that CIOs reporting to the CEO have priorities better aligned to business outcomes whereas the others were struggling with operational IT issues and continued to remain technology focused.
The meeting of about a dozen odd Indian CIOs with the publishing house editorial team was a big surprise for them. Some way through the presentation/discussion, it was evident that the Indian CIO has climbed the maturity curve quicker driven by the fact that the CIO reporting into anyone apart from the CEO is almost unheard of (yes, there are exceptions). Turning the US CIOs priorities almost upside down, it was an eye opener for the guests that a show of hands on who the audience reported to, it was a unanimous CEO/Board.
What is the underlying message to the Global CEOs ? If you believe that you do not have the time, energy, or disposition towards spending time with the CIO or managing his/her portfolio, then IT will deliver exactly what you deserve. Innovation will rarely be seen and the IT organizations will continue to suffer, thereby not providing the competitive advantage or even sustained advantage that IT can deliver. Yes, there are exceptions even in the US, but that's what they are even in todays hyper competitive age with slowdown written all over.
The key message to CEOs and CIOs is to stop looking at IT as just a technology play, when your business cannot even imagine working without it. Your business deserves a lot more, so do your employees, shareholders and customers.
Concluding on a lighter note, an executive search company recently attempted to interview a few marquee CIOs for a role in a large conglomerate. All of them declined since the position reports to the CFO !
Showing posts with label CFO to CIO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CFO to CIO. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Thursday, May 10, 2007
CFO and CEO as CIO ! Wow !
This has been an eventful week for me to say the least. I came across two instances of other CXOs moving to take a CIO role. This is a big paradigm shift from the earlier trend where the role of the CIO was rarely up for grabs within the enterprise with other peers wanting that job.
In the first instance, the CIO quit without appointing a successor. She was fairly successful with what she did to transform the IT setup and bring in technology which the business benefited from. Her abrupt departure put the CEO in a spot. Not having visibility into the IT Organization's talent, he decided to take on additional responsibility as the CIO to understand the team and hopefully appoint someone from within. Few months into the role, he is helping the group understand the role of the CIO and also conducting his own review of possibilities within the team. The option to hire from outside always existed. So far he is doing a reasonably good job of holding the technology fort :-)
In the other instance, the CIO moved to another role within the company, and one of the business unit CFOs has taken up the role of the CIO. That should be an interesting one to watch for. One of the edits of a publication mentioned the challenges faced by the business leaders when the CFO became the CEO; most of the leadership team departed over a period of time as the mindset transition did not happen along with the role.
Lastly an enterprise I know has been attempting to fill the CIO position for the last 6 months with little success. Another one has the position vacant now for more than 12 months ! What does this bear for the CIO ? Is the position really important for an enterprise ?
If yes, how can a company continue the direction set by the CIO, which they agreed to, forward ?
If no, then maybe we need to bring back Nicholas Carr back !
In the first instance, the CIO quit without appointing a successor. She was fairly successful with what she did to transform the IT setup and bring in technology which the business benefited from. Her abrupt departure put the CEO in a spot. Not having visibility into the IT Organization's talent, he decided to take on additional responsibility as the CIO to understand the team and hopefully appoint someone from within. Few months into the role, he is helping the group understand the role of the CIO and also conducting his own review of possibilities within the team. The option to hire from outside always existed. So far he is doing a reasonably good job of holding the technology fort :-)
In the other instance, the CIO moved to another role within the company, and one of the business unit CFOs has taken up the role of the CIO. That should be an interesting one to watch for. One of the edits of a publication mentioned the challenges faced by the business leaders when the CFO became the CEO; most of the leadership team departed over a period of time as the mindset transition did not happen along with the role.
Lastly an enterprise I know has been attempting to fill the CIO position for the last 6 months with little success. Another one has the position vacant now for more than 12 months ! What does this bear for the CIO ? Is the position really important for an enterprise ?
If yes, how can a company continue the direction set by the CIO, which they agreed to, forward ?
If no, then maybe we need to bring back Nicholas Carr back !
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