Wake Up, CIO
In most organizations, CIOs are being asked to define in plain terms disruptive trends like IoT, Cloud, Big Data, Analytics and others. CIOs are also expected to figure out what these trends mean to their organizations and go the last mile of transforming these inevitabilities into real business opportunities.
But you, our CIO, are just the IT guy right? You make sure the lights are on in your datacenter, don’t you? Is there enough bandwidth? Are your colleagues having an uninterrupted user experience within the enterprise? I wish your life and mine could stay that simple! You and your team are no longer the “back office”; the pace of change is happening so fast, the snowball is rolling. Businesses assume a lot more from IT today, yet give them so little in return. Your input is expected to add commercial value to your organization. You are at the heart of this transformation.
When a CMO is being pressurized by technology empowered customers -whose knowledge of the company’s products might exceed his- digital business enablement becomes the CMO’s main strategic imperative, and if he doesn’t do it, chances are customers will leave. In this scenario, the CMO has a choice, turn to the CIO, or get external help.
Let’s look at the top 5 things contemporary CIOs must stop thinking about, and must start doing immediately to continue being relevant to the modern engaging organization:
Accept and own
The debate of whether today’s successful organizations need to have a solid digital strategy is gone. So accept it, own it, and drive it. Who else, better than you, knows how to bridge the silos in your organization’s functional departments, create a seamless customer digital touch points, and eventually, build an omni-channel experience that delivers a consistent, world class customer engagement platform? I know you have a solid ICT business strategy which details how to efficiently use current technologies, now go ahead and own the digital strategy, it starts and ends with the customers. How else can the corporate experience top-line growth?
Have an open mind
Let’s re-examine how effective your unit is: what are your CMO’s objectives? What about Finance? It is not all about cutting costs you know! The CFO is a great negotiator, and will be convinced if sustainable growth and profitability patterns are proven. Your job is more than just pushing eDM campaigns, or requesting more discounts for your IT projects. You need to understand, align, and drive the realization of the big picture in every strategic function of your organization. In the Economist’s report “The strategic CIO: risks, opportunities and outcomes”, it states that this digital era is making the role of the CIO more strategic than ever. However, in the same report, a survey amongst CIOs showed that only 37% of them consider incorporating new technologies in their businesses a “high priority”. While being risk averse is not always bad, it can severely impact innovation. So take the thinking hat off, and start navigating your organization towards its absolute objectives.
Create “business engineers”
You have a team of engineers and bright minds who know their stuff and look up at you for mentoring. Coach your team to transform and advance them into your new world. In fact, look around your organization and find advocates for change. You will be amazed by how much you can teach, collaborate and eventually become the change agent for the digital transformation. Keep in mind, for transformation to happen, it takes collaboration and changing of mindsets of those on the desks next to you, and in your regional offices overseas. It is now the time to create advocates; creating business engineers makes this change almost effortless.
Consider an “Advisory Board”
Gary Wimberly -the CIO of Express Scripts which is ranked 20th on the Fortune 500- thinks that having few external “trusted advisers” will enhance throughput and increase innovation. Gary believes this allowed the creation of a highly skilled subject matter experts which led to lowering the cost of IT across the board. However, you need to choose your trusted advisers carefully and wisely, and evaluate these relationships regularly. In a research done by CIO magazine, less than 50% of CIOs considered their vendors as being “truly strategic partners”. This was taken from the magazine’s Strategic Partner Index which defines a strategic partner as an "important vendor that has gone beyond effective delivery of systems and services to become a consistently transparent, responsive and trusted collaborator”. So go ahead and elect your “advisory board” who you can always rely on to support you in realizing your vision, but re-elect when necessary.
Believe in You
Change is inevitable, and if not managed well, the repercussions would be catastrophic. Who can understand and create value from all these expensive IT investments? People talk about the digital transformation, they can draw their customers’ digital journey all they want, but the only person who is capable of acting on the digital business and drive this disruptive change is YOU CIO. Kapil Dev Singh in his book “CIO Leading Change in the digital economy” thinks that only the CIO can “crystallize the perspectives, thoughts and practical frameworks related to the digital initiatives”. In a white paper release by Ernest and Yung titled “Born to be digital: How leading CIOs are preparing for a digital transformation”, it states that CIOs are the most capable to handle the digital change, why not if they already service many business units, from marketing and HR to the supply chain?
Contact us today to learn how to transform and adapt to the ever changing world around you and how to remain, not only relevant, but an essential asset to your organization. We have built a track record in helping CIOs and organizations transform. Drop by and have a chat with the AcceMind team; we bring the coffee, it is up to you to wake up.
