As we no longer live in an environment that remains stagnant, but in an environment where changes occur in the blink of an eye, especially in the business world, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is under more pressure than ever. With the modernization of industries and the changing competitiveness of industries, the guise that CIOs should move from maintaining technology to increasing business value through technology has gone from a suggestion to a mandate. New technologies with mobile-first behavior, algorithmic decision-making, and many more are disruptive business models and markets. Today, technology is at the core of a firm’s operations; thus, companies cannot afford not to be innovative and technological.
Nevertheless, although this is a critical change, the IT strategy survey conducted by McKinsey in 2018 indicates that 79 percent of companies are still in the initial stage of digital transformation. Thus, the obstacles to change are immense; these include such factors as the complexity of legacy systems and the amount of change needed. However, one of the challenges is that many CIOs are still not ready to leave cost and performance control behind and take the role of ICT as the crucial enabler of business growth and value creation.
Three Vectors of Transformation:
To grasp the expectations of the contemporary CIO, one has to understand what real technological change means. Far too often, yes, changes are driven as standalone IT projects undermining goals and objectives. For a tech transformation to yield tangible benefits for the business, it must be comprehensive, requiring a radical overhaul of the company’s technology approach. This transformation is understood through three key vectors:
Reimagine the Role of Technology:
Technology instead of remaining a residual organizational asset needs to become a strategy enabling innovative organizational growth. This implies architectures of new digital, creative, and value-generating business ideas, deconstructing organizational structures, and creating much better and more seamless customer experiences.
Reinvent Technology Delivery:
Flexibility should emerge as the new generation operating model required in IT operations, including automation, cloud, and partnership flexibility. Creating lean teams with leading engineers is essential to the success of the planning phase of project execution.
Future-Proof the Foundation:
The best way to handle such a rate of technological growth is to ensure that the company’s structure is as fluid as possible, data are always accessible to the relevant parties, and the company’s IT systems are protected behind a strong security net.
CIO’s Five Main Attributes of Change Agent:
To spearhead such a transformation, CIOs have to transform themselves and possess new skills that are compatible with a wider business-oriented role. In working with hundreds of CIOs and their analysis, five characteristics can be identified as success indicators.
Business Leader:
Effectively oriented overall, transformative CIOs know how organizational technology goes hand in hand with business plans. This includes constantly engaging with business people, customers, and users to gain a rich understanding of business facts. These CIOs assume accountability for revenue-driven undertakings and assess the progress of such ventures in terms of business returns rather than accurately IT performance indicators.
Change Agent:
A radical technology integration makes CIOs carry technology across all organizational processes and activities. Building mutually beneficial connections with business executives and explaining the many benefits of using new technology, like cloud computing, can help win support for the shift in the firm.
Talent Scout:
Recruitment and retention of high-caliber employees are imperative. Today’s top CIOs primarily focus on hiring the right technical personnel and creating a conducive creative environment. Internal talent pipeline management includes upskilling programs followed by offering jobs in multiple organizational divisions, preventing the company from losing the talent race.
Culture Revolutionary:
Leading CIOs, therefore, ensure that their organizations operate in an environment that embraces innovation, especially within engineering departments. Implementing cultural activities such as hackathons or so-called tech spotlights, which set up inspiring environments for the tech talent to minimize bureaucracy and foster knowledge sharing, prevents demotivation.
Tech Translator:
Last but not least, a strategic CIO needs to share information with two parties: the technology side needs to see what the business requires, and the business side has to see what technology can offer. By providing leadership teams with information about technological choices and consequences, better decisions are made and, thus, improved business results are achieved.
The evolving role of the CIO is clear: companies dependent on IT are no longer viewed as managers of IT infrastructure but as key players in the creation of business solutions. By accepting this new role and promoting the IT-business approach, CIOs are not just reinventing information technology but are preparing themselves as future CEOs capable of leading organizations globally with continuous technological advancement.
