State of the CIO 2008: What Kind of CIO Does Your Company Need?
Function Head, Transformational Leader or Business Strategist--different types of CIOs bring different strengths to the enterprise table.
Tue, December 04, 2007
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 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 explanations of the three CIO types in the Findings and Analysis section). A parallel set of recommendations applies to leaders who want to match their focus and skills to the needs of their business now and going forward (see "What Kind of CIO Are You?").
Recommendations
1. Evaluate your current mission-critical needs from IT and IT's leadership to determine what kind of a CIO you need. Below is a starter checklist.
IT Organization Needs
- 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- Outdated IT skills and processes need modernizing — Function Head or Transformational Leader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
Business Needs
- 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
2. Depending on the CIO type you need, determine whether your current CIO has the necessary strength in the most pertinent leadership competencies for the role. If not, consider whether the CIO can hone those in a timely manner through executive coaching or whether you need a new person in charge.
