CIOs Disconnected From Business Execs

CIO — At Maple Leaf Foods, a $5 billion consumer packaged-goods company, IT doesn’t just respond to business decisions, it participates in the planning that leads to those decisions. For starters, CIO Jeff Hutchinson sits on the executive committee, and some of his IT leaders sit on business unit committees. In addition, non-IT managers report to the CIO, and several IT staffers report to those managers. The IT group influences what the company does and doesn’t do—which plants to close or expand, which acquisitions to make, which customers to cultivate—and a major part of Hutchinson’s bonus depends on meeting corporate profit goals.

Being the strategic partner that many CIOs say they want to be means so much more than just having an academic understanding of your company or industry, Hutchinson says. “Be part of the business. Be part of the decisions,” he says. “That’s different.”

This cross-pollinated, matrixed and hybrid business-IT world, however, is fantasy for most CIOs, according to our annual State of the CIO survey.

CIO — At Maple Leaf Foods, a $5 billion consumer packaged-goods company, IT doesn’t just respond to business decisions, it participates in the planning that leads to those decisions. For starters, CIO Jeff Hutchinson sits on the executive committee, and some of his IT leaders sit on business unit committees. In addition, non-IT managers report to the CIO, and several IT staffers report to those managers. The IT group influences what the company does and doesn’t do—which plants to close or expand, which acquisitions to make, which customers to cultivate—and a major part of Hutchinson’s bonus depends on meeting corporate profit goals.

Being the strategic partner that many CIOs say they want to be means so much more than just having an academic understanding of your company or industry, Hutchinson says. “Be part of the business. Be part of the decisions,” he says. “That’s different.”

This cross-pollinated, matrixed and hybrid business-IT world, however, is fantasy for most CIOs, according to our annual State of the CIO survey.

In its 11th year, the survey uncovers how the role of the CIO continues to evolve as business and technology change. Our latest data shows that while CIOs have gained strategic influence generally in the past few years, most—57 percent of the 596 IT leaders polled—say they are perceived as a service provider or technology-only collaborator. Another 21 percent say IT is unappreciated and misunderstood as a cost center.

Just 22 percent of respondents say they are viewed as a true peer or game-changer, as in the Maple Leaf model. Those CIOs who identify themselves among the elite see things differently from other CIOs, and not just because they are paid more than other CIOs and enjoy bigger budgets and a smaller staff-to-user ratio. (See “Who's Above Average?”) The elite are more likely to predict a good year ahead, confident they are improving risk management and expecting to invent new IT-infused products and services for competitive advantage.

Among the broader pool of respondents, though, we find a worrisome disconnect between CIOs and non-IT leaders on the importance of key issues: cost cutting and the assault from competitors. CIOs generally consider both lower priorities than their business counterparts do. If you don’t think the same way about money and competition, how can you align with—never mind accelerate or help set—business goals?