It’s an interesting question – and after a 30+ year career with over half serving in the CIO role – I believe it is critical to answer this question to help us understand what we need to do as a profession to become true trusted partners with our executive peers and business colleagues. In this blog I’m going to be covering some of the pitfalls that CIO faces in achieving this objective.
Taking a page from history, the most senior financial executive used to be the controller, who was seen principally as a “numbers person”. The bean counter added up the numbers to explain past performance. The role was not considered strategic since the controller was usually an introvert who didn’t really understand sales, marketing, customers or even production. Few business executives perceived the controller as a business partner but instead a role that they needed to endure.
The CIO faces a similar set of issues when the role is defined as the “head techie”. Keep the computers and applications up and running; support the vast array of desktops, lap tops and more recently mobile devices; keep IT enabled projects on schedule, under budget and delivering the expected outcomes; etc… In this context, the CIO’s role is to mitigate risks and deal with disasters if and when they occur. It’s purely a tactical role and not strategic.
So how did controllers become CFO’s and what do head techie’s need to do to become CIO’s?
Role definition is critical. CFO’s perform much more strategic roles. They explain the numbers and their impact on the future. They finance the business and communicate business results to the Board and to external analysts. Most importantly, they are active participants in almost every strategic aspect of the business including planning and budgeting.
CIO’s should take a page from the CFO’s book. First, delegate day to day IT operations to a competent IT executive and get the CEO to support your assuming a more strategic role in championing the use of technology to enhance the performance and productivity of the organization. You need to be part of the governance process for all strategic initiatives to assure the CEO and the Board that optimum use of technology is being applied to the business. If there is a capital budgeting process for the organization, you definitely need to be part of the executive team making capital allocation decisions. The CIO should be part of presenting the capital budget to the Board.
There are a number of other interesting problems for the CIO. For example, what other executive position provides services to every other aspect of the business and what’s the implication of this unique role? What are the drawbacks of the change agent role and being seen as principally having a project focus vs. a business focus? How can your expertise in ROI analysis be exploited within the organization? Does renewed focus on risk management provide an opportunity for the CIO? I’ll be discussing these and other topics in future posts.
What the Center for CIO Leadership and I need from you is to become engaged. Provide a brief comment on this blog, provide your insights, and let me know other topics you would like for us to explore and comment upon. Send a tweet with a link to this blog. If we’re going to address the issues we all face, we need to be engaged, collaborate and stimulate an active discussion of the issues. I encourage your comments.
Bill
William A. Crowell
wcrowell@asuret.com
twitter: billcio
LinkedIn: Bill Crowell
My Blog: https://bcrowell.wordpress.com/
Bill Crowell's Blog 
