Book Excerpt: The Adventures of an IT Leader, Part 1
A first-time CIO must restore his CEO's confidence in IT while he learns on the job. Is it mission impossible? Read the first installment of our exclusive series.
Tue, December 23, 2008
CIO —
Friday, March 23, 11:52 a.m....
"Speechless" was not a word most people could imagine applying to Jim Barton, head of the IVK Loan Operations department. But the news [CEO Carl] Williams had conveyed moments before had left Barton dumbfounded.
"We're not asking you to leave. But I had originally proposed a very different role for you than the one you've ended up in."
An unusual assignment. I can live with that [thought Barton]. "I'm willing to do whatever will help," he offered.
"Having discussed this with the board extensively, we've..." Here Williams drew in a deep breath, "Well, we've decided that you should be our new chief information officer." This was the news that had knocked the air out of Barton. Finally, he managed to babble: "CIO? You want me to be the CIO?"
"Davies has been overwhelmed in that role. You've been one of his most outspoken critics."
"I know, but...I've got no background in information technology."
"And Davies has a lot. That clearly doesn't work, so we've decided to try something else."
"Carl," said Barton, "I just don't think I'm the right choice."
"Give it time," said Williams, "but not too much time. Let me know what you decide."
Friday, March 23, 2:41 p.m....
All day, employees had been working on a big whiteboard in the back of a storage room to create a chart showing the new management team. Jim Barton remained the biggest puzzle. When inquisitiveness overwhelmed them, people gravitated to the corridor outside Barton's office.
Barton was oblivious to their attention, lost in a think fog, oscillating between anger and excitement, as unsure as he had ever been about anything. At 1:35 p.m., he'd swiveled his chair around to the computer screen and had begun searching the Web. He had come across a PowerPoint presentation called "A Short History of the CIO Position." Some of the content was cryptic, but the gist of it was clear.
As Barton thought back through the history of IVK, he realized that this [CIO history] fit IVK reasonably well. During the dotcom craze, IVK had been a startup. When the bottom had fallen out of the tech market, it was a very good thing that IVK had never quite gotten on board the Internet express. Throughout much of the crash-and-burn period for Internet startups, IVK had managed to grow.
