CIO = BIG JOB
CIO = BIG JOB
What other role collectively keeps the world running?
Have you noticed the number of recent announcements for CIOs in a new role? It is an exciting way to start the New Year well!
In my work with senior IT leaders aspiring to be a CIO, the most common questions I ask are:
Why do you want to be a CIO?
What does being a CIO mean to you?
What challenges do you believe CIOs face?
It is easy to take technology for granted. If you stop to think about it, what other role collectively keeps the world running? The CIO role is a big job!
In reality, the CIO faces pressures from all sides.
Did you know that 50-60% of newly appointed executives fail within the first two years of their assignments, and these statistics have persisted for years? That outcome does not need to be inevitable. Success requires architecting for success, preferably before you are in the role. The good news is that it is possible to catch up.
What drives anyone to want to be a CIO? It is a big job. It is a hard job, and it is also a great job. In my opinion, it's the best job. In what other position can you have as deep and broad an influence as in the CIO position?
Let's look at the history of this position. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) previously led the data processing and IS (Information Systems) departments. The focus was on transactional and operational processing. The measures of success were system availability and mean time between failure.
Today, the job is very different. The skill set and responsibilities are worlds apart from what they were a decade or two ago. The role continues to adapt to the changing face of the modern business enterprise. What do CIOs bring to the table in today's tech-focused, competitive business environment?
Today's CIO holds four key roles:
enable business productivity and keep the company running
protect the company information
build and lead an effective & efficient IT team
partner with the CEO and peers to drive technology innovation.
Today's CIO role enables business capabilities and is pivotal in driving innovation alongside their business peers. They may be the only executive role that has the opportunity to partner with the business in discovering new approaches and processes that can be directly tied to business results. The depth and breadth of IT's influence are limited only by the CIO's creativity and the IT team's capability.
I can say, without gambling too much, that everyone reading this article with a CIO title has unique job requirements. The CIO job title tells us it's an executive position dealing with the IT needs of a company. A CIO title doesn't have the same role as an IT director in a small firm that deals with the day-to-day tasks of keeping the lights on.IMid-market CIOs need to distance themselves from operational responsibilities, but that does not mean they aren't accountable for them. CIOs in large firms have a slightly different set of focus areas, quite often at the board and external client levels.
Give me a shout if you are curious about what it takes to make the CIO your career goal.
Until next time, have a great week!
Mary