Role Playing: From Being CIO to CEO and Back

As told to CIO India by Sunil Mehta, senior VP & area systems director (central Asia) of JWT.

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Article Highlights

* There is no template that you can follow or an advice that can help you on your way to CEO-dom. You have to show zeal and potential, be proactive, and come up with things that you would do differently.

* Being CIO is good enough. There is nothing wrong in sticking to being CIO. You can even come back to being a CIO after holding the CEO position.

A better car, a bigger house, and more money — people think being CEO means getting all this and more. CIOs often look towards the other side thinking the grass is greener there but I believe that it is equally green on both sides. It just depends on the way you look at it.

Being CEO isn’t a cake walk. When I was with the Business India group, I set up a new unit called Business India Graphics of which I was made the CEO. There are serious responsibilities that are attached to that position. Not just because the title is heavier but it asks for a much higher level of maturity. So, if you want to be CEO, you have to go beyond technology. That’s why even as CIO, I used to take interest in establishing new ideas, global diversification of the company and strategies on tying up with MNCs.

I have been lucky to have reported to the MD, Chairman, and CEO in my career. This helped me be a part of the inner circle of the higher management. I think it is very crucial for CIOs to have constant and close interaction with the management because they need to understand the business intentions of their organizations. At the end of the day, some CIOs are domain experts, some are business enablers, and some others are visionaries. Those are the guys that will become CEOs.

But CIOs today are very cautious and tend to play by rule books, policies, compliance guidelines, etcetera. But a CEO role demands instant decision-making capabilities and an appetite for risk, keeping in mind the accountability that rests on his shoulders. My CEO stint helped me focus more on revenues, finances, cost management, people management, and growth.

Being CIO is good enough. There is nothing wrong in sticking to being CIO. You can even come back to being a CIO after holding the CEO position. If what you are doing excites you, then there’s nothing like it. Like I said, it becomes really interesting once you go beyond your IT-only role. The CEOs and CFOs I have worked with have been very supportive in recognizing the business initiatives that I have suggested. So, even if you are not titled as CEO, you definitely assist the company in making sure that good ideas are implemented.

And to be able to do that you need to keep yourself updated with the latest. After all, a technology guy is like a doctor: You can’t treat a patient with a medicine or a skill you picked up some 30 years back.

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About the Author

Sunil Mehta

The senior VP & area systems director (central Asia) of JWT joined the company in 1998. Mehta started his career as a programmer and system analyst at First Financial Compuserve. After serving the company for five years, he moved to the Business India group (which was a client he was servicing as an employee of FFC) under the same role. Mehta rose to become the CEO of a group company (Business India Graphics) after serving as GM-IT. Before joining JWT, he was VP and CEO-special projects at Dalal Street Journal (DSJ).