The role of the CIO (Chief Information Officer) as a given company’s most senior technology executive responsible for IT (Information Technology) has only grown increasingly complex over the past several years. From the introduction and widespread implementation of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to the rise in accessibility of remote work, CIOs have been tasked with learning a lot of new information and strategies in a relatively short period.
The launch of digitalization initiatives ushered in an initial driver for CIO strategic engagement. Digitalization made CEOs and boards realize that technology would be a driver of business success. This prompted a deluge of invitations to CIOs to attend strategic meetings, even though no one knew exactly how and what CIOs would contribute. Ultimately, it was left to CIOs to define their own strategic business roles.
These factors have contributed to many companies’ overarching desire for their CIOs to be more hands-on and involved in corporate strategy. Yet, as most CIOs have found out the hard way, they must carve out their own strategic roles within the established framework to be successful.
How can one most effectively accomplish this? While the idea of the CIO playing such an integral role in a company’s overall strategy is relatively new, there are some hard and fast guidelines that CIOs can abide by.
Rule #1: CIOs Contribute by Defining Their Own Strategic Roles
CEOs know they want the CIO at the strategic roundtable specifically because technology has become a major factor in conducting business. In today’s world, no successful large-scale business can operate without a successful IT division.
However, the extent of CEOs’ desires tends to start and stop with wanting the CIO involved. CEOs and boards expect CIOs to establish their own strategic identities and worth. To do this, CIOs must first completely understand the company, its functions, and how it currently works to better understand how they can enhance it.
CIOs who are defining their strategic identities and the value they bring might choose one or more of these approaches. However, one common path they all travel is role definition, for no one else in the organization can do it for them.
Rule #2: Contributions Grow When You Persevere
While there are CIOs who have established themselves as master data architects and can satisfy their board and CEO by doing so, they are outliers. Most companies want their CIOs to transform the business for the better by focusing on the business itself. To do this, CIOs are building their business chops by studying finance, operations, marketing, and sales because they understand that they must get up to speed on how their companies operate and thrive above and beyond technology.
These CIOs analyze revenue streams, income statements, financial ratios, borrowing costs, customer behavior, and stakeholder concerns. They address these topics head-on in strategic meetings, which helps them gain business respect from their peers in the C-suite, stakeholders, board members, and the CEO.
Rule #3: C-suite Teamwork is Essential
CIOs are at their most strategic when they collaborate with other C-level executives on a digital transformation project that closely aligns technology with the business.
A prime example of this would be a new CRM system that gives everyone a 360-degree view of the customer experience with the company, whether they work in customer service, sales, marketing, product development, order fulfillment, or finance. Ensuring that systems and data across all functions are operational and consistent isn’t enough; CIOs must also have the enthusiastic backing and participation of the executives who use these systems to orchestrate widespread synchrony in the name of harmonious success.
Rule #4: Go for the Home Run; Don’t Just Get on Base
More than anything else, CEOs and boards desire a CIO who is willing to take big swings and try to achieve massive accomplishments in the process. To simply coast by as a CIO is foolish and warrants little praise.
An example is the CIO at a well-known financial services company who developed an IT product and proposed a separate for-profit business for it. The board and the CEO approved this, and the CIO became the CEO of a new subsidiary. This is an extraordinary example of where high-risk, high-reward strategic business leadership can go, but if the shoe fits, go for it.
