State of the CIO 2008: What Kind of CIO Are You?

CIO —

Summary
Based on the data compiled by the "State of the CIO" survey and insights from the CIO Executive Council, we can make a set of recommendations to leaders who want to match their focus and skills to the needs of their business now and going forward.

A parallel set of recommendations applies for companies that want to gain the value that each type of CIO is suited to bring—particularly the Transformational Leader and Business Strategist CIO (see "What Kind of CIO Does Your Company Need?").

1. Know yourself. Determine what kind of CIO you are based on the activities you currently spend most of your time on:

• Managing IT crises
• Developing IT talent
• Improving IT operations
• Improving system performance
• Security management
• Budget management

• Redesigning business processes
• Aligning IT initiatives and strategy with business goals/strategy
• Cultivating the IT/business partnership
• Leading change efforts
• Implementing new systems and architecture
• Mapping IT strategy to overall enterprise strategy

• Developing/refining business strategy
• Understanding market trends
• Developing external customer insight
• Developing business innovations
• Identifying opportunities for competitive differentiation
• Reengineering or developing new sales and distribution channels

2. Know your skills. Determine if you have strengths in the executive leadership competencies that map most closely to the activities you are engaged in (the competencies that are underlined below). (See definitions for each competency in the list above.) If you have a need to develop in a particular competency, seek executive coaching and mentoring:

• IT function expertise
• Team leadership
• People and organizational development
• Results orientation

• Change leadership
• Collaboration and influence
• Strategic orientation
• IT function expertise
• Team leadership
• People and organizational development
• Results orientation

• Commercial orientation
• Market knowledge
• External customer focus
• Change leadership
• Collaboration and influence
• Strategic orientation
• IT function expertise
• Team leadership
• People and organizational development
• Results orientation

3. Are you in the right place at the right time? Determine whether the activities you are engaged in (and thus the type of CIO you are) map to the current needs of your business. If not, reevaluate your actions or the fit between you and your business. Here is a starter checklist:

• Chaotic IT organization needs fundamental rebuilding, cost discipline and right sizing—Function Head
• Systems performance needs major improvement—Function Head
• Security and compliance need to be addressed—Function Head
• Outdated IT skills and processes need modernizing—Function Head or Transformational Leader
• Adequately functioning IT organization needs major strategic realignment with business goals—Transformational Leader

• Departmental and enterprise processes need to be reengineered and optimized for efficiency, effectiveness and/or growth—Transformational Leader
• New architecture standards and enterprise-level systems need to be implemented to support business growth and other goals—Transformational Leader
• IT and its business partners need to change the way they work together to create and execute the project portfolio—Transformational Leader
• The business needs IT to envision and enable new market opportunities—Transformational Leader or Business Strategist
• The business needs more sources of innovation—Business Strategist
• The business strategy team needs a representative from IT to help envision new ways to achieve business goals—Business Strategist
• The business strategy team needs a leader who can interpret market trends and how they can be exploited or shaped by technology—Business Strategist
• The business needs to exploit new technologies that make possible new types of competitive differentiation/advantage—Business Strategist

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