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Wed, Dec 19, 2007 12:28 EST
What CEOs Want from CIOs
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Posted by: Thomas Wailgum in Best Practices Topic: Enterprise ManagementBlog: Web 2.0 Advisor
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I received a lot of thoughtful responses to a blog post I wrote in early December. The title of the article was: If IT Isn't Aligned with the Business By Now, CIOs Should Quit or Be Fired. (So much for subtlety, huh?)
In the post, I ranted about the fact that we still have to hear about CIOs' "alignment issues." My main contention was that we’re at the end of 2007, and this should all have been solved by now. But it hasn't.
Days after I posted my alignment rant, I received a newsletter from Cathy Hotka & Associates, a retailing and IT industry networking company. In the newsletter were 10 pieces of CIO advice from Jack Groban.
Now I had never heard of Jack Groban, or his eponymous search firm, or the fact that he had spent more than 25 years working in executive search firms, with a heavy emphasis on placing CIOs (and working with CEOs who were looking to hire a CIO).
But after reading his advice on "How CEOs Define Success in Their CIO," I was impressed by the cumulative insight that Groban offered. These nuggets just weren't rehashed stories laced with clunky metaphors and tired cliches; they were straightforward, actionable pieces that every CIO or IT leader in training should print out and tape to their office wall. (New Year's is upon us, and there are always resolutions to be made.)
In fact, these CEO insights were just the antidote for the alignment ills that had confounded me a week earlier. And, I think, if you listen to and follow these 10 items, alignment will never again be a problem for you. Here's the list.
Everything works all the time. Forget long-range IT strategies and mega-transformation projects. Credibility is directly proportionate to reliability. Ignore the basics at your peril.
They think, talk and behave like they're running a P&L. Line management has to believe that you understand their business, that you worry about the same things they do, and that IT resources are being applied to make them more successful. You need to understand and use their jargon. They don't need to understand IT-speak.
I know they'll tell it to me straight, always. Projects can be fixed, character can't. While projects need to be well-managed, fudging the truth on costs or timelines, or the worst sin of all: 11th hour surprises are deadly because they create doubt about both your competence and your credibility which generally can't be repaired.
They're proactive about ways to apply IT. If you're a top-tier CIO, chances are you get up every morning and ask yourself "What can I do today to add value and make my company more successful?" Be among the 1 percent of CIOs who go to their CEO saying, "I'd like to recommend some process changes that could create competitive advantage/streamline distribution/improve customer service/reduce expenses."
They don't whine about reporting relationships. Seriously, folks, it doesn't matter whether you report to the CEO, COO, CFO or CAO. If it bothers you, check your ego at the door. The only issue worth addressing is, "Do I have a seat at the table?" Beyond that, credibility is achieved through deeds, not org charts.
Their objectives seem to be in synch with the needs of the business. Unless you're in the auto, music or mortgage industries, driving down costs is an objective, not the objective. Cost-effectiveness is. Providing systems that support growth and profits is. Providing perceived
alignment, ceo, IT leadership
These ought to be no-brainers but sadly aren't in too many cases. I agree with everyone of these save one and only partially with that item. The one I take a bit of an issue with is the reporting line.
If you signed up to report to the CFO, then no whining. That said, where you report foretells the kind of goals and objectives you are likely to have to adopt. Not 100% accurate but certainly a leading indicator. There are certainly CFO's who are very good at focusing not just on the cost side of the equation and who don't see IT as simply a cost to be squeezed. So I start from the position that given a choice, I want to report to either the COO or CEO. The focus will tend to be more balanced with plenty of opportunity to impact top line growth because you are expected to get involved there. There's going to be less resistance. Becoming strategic, having a "seat at the table" is doable regardless of where you report if you add value. It's that simple but it's much more work depending on where you start.
The other key in this list is: make the trains run on-time, all the time. There's no way you'll get to talk about strategic investments, growing revenue, etc if the current portfolio of systems and infrastructure aren't reliable.
This is good and straight forward.
One thing we as outsourcing firm(for us our clients become a CEO and we are CIO) always do is keep our client posted with realistic time line rather then overpromise.
This step has always kept our credibility and given customer more confidence with us.
I guess for CEO same way if CIO gives a right time line(one of main point i guess) then it would make things more easier...helps to gauge the cost and taking decision if you are aware what is most likely to happen..and lets not forget CEO are their to take decisions just like customers!
Abhishek
Elegant MicroWeb
http://www.elegantmicroweb.com
Every CEO I have worked with expected their lines-of-business managers to be thoroughly up to speed with IT issues impacting their businesses. They wanted IT issues included in strategic business planning sessions, monthly business reviews, financial reports and even at water cooler chats. Good CIO's enable their business managers to deliver the IT message to the CEO. Information Technology ends up with far more "Air Time" if it is the business managers delivering the message. It becomes the ultimate compliment to the CIO and the IT organization if the CEO perceives that more time is being spent with the businesses than ceaselessly trying to get face time to preach the value of IT in the organization. CEO's expect to see it and taste it, rather than to hear it.
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Current day CEO's are more driven towards Globlization ; Virtualization concepts. I think too large these CEO are compelled to expect the Out of Box Fixes, solutions by CIO (and his team) to give quick start to newer business initiatives.
Information Technologies of today expected to deliver larger than life services in the current business models.
Most CEO's expect few basics from every CIO are
1. Business focussed - Develop and Demonstarte Planning competencies; Planning is the one common area between CEO & CIO. Keep eyes; ears close to business plans and develop IT plan in alignment with business plans
2. Governance - Consistency ; Reliability; Self Mgmt
3. Colloboration; Content Mgmt ( Single Reprository) ; SImple work flows; Un-inttrupted Information flow
4. Value For Money - CIO are expected to measure the IT budgets as business investment; thus need to come up with Smart Balancheet on spending and value creation to organization.
5. Business Language - This is another area that CEO are eyeing to see rapid development of Cross Functional team within IT domain to be able to speak, interpret business Signals and customize the IT solutions as Business Solution than IT fix.
What CEOs really want is to abdicate responsibility for IT to the CIO. The role of IT is too important to be delegated out of the boardroom. In my view there are two important initial steps. Firstly find a boardroom-ready CIO and then make her primary task to ensure that her boardroom colleagues understand their IT-related responsibilities.
I get into this in a big way in my new book - The IT Value Stack - A boardroom guide to IT leadership. More details can be found at my blog - The IT Value Stack.
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