The Evolving Role of the CIO
Few leadership roles in business have been transformed as extensively as that of the CIO over the years. The explosion of new technology and its business impact necessitated that those piloting the IT helm continue to develop new and enhance existing skills simply to keep pace with technology’s potential and the ever-growing opportunities.
The role of the CIO has evolved through three broad eras of computing.
The Automation Era launched technology into the business world and somebody had to manage it. The “DP / IS Manager” was an operational manager focused on on-time delivery, reliability and effectively responding to the business’ need for information. IS leaders began to develop deep functional knowledge of certain business operation from a support and execution perspective that would serve them well in the future.
The Integration Era leveraged technology to implement enterprise resource planning systems and re-engineer business process, giving CIOs a long sought seat at the table. CIOs engaged in persistent efforts to educate business management about the opportunities presented by IT. Over time, business recognized that IT could be a competitive differentiator (e.g. American Airlines Sabre system)
Most recently, the Ubiquitous Computing Era arrived, and with it new technologies emerging from every direction, creating an environment where the CIO is personally responsible for determining whether the organization positions IT as liability or strategic asset. CIOs are increasingly challenged to align technology opportunities with business strategies better, faster and cheaper than their competitors.
The CIO today has become a central figure in the management of business transformation. In upcoming posts we’ll discuss in more detail the dimensions along which the CIO has evolved.
Comments
What's on the CIO agenda for 2007?
McKinsey's October 2006 survey of senior IT executives shows a growing interest in service-oriented architectures and lean data center operations...
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1892&L2=13
Posted by: Roberto Gobbi | March 15, 2007 09:53 AM
The Seven Roles of Highly Effective CIOs are
a) Utility Provider
b) Information Steward
c) Educator
d) Integrator
e) Relationship Architect
f) Strategist
g) Leader
And the role that a particular CIO has to play depends on maturity of IT organization and business intent.
Posted by: Laks | March 19, 2007 08:51 AM
Check out this post on my blog on the multi dimensional CIO, which highlights a EDS Whitepaper.
Roles to focus on:
1. Chief Integration Officer
2. Chief Innovation Officer
3. Chief Irritation Officer
4. Chief Identity Officer
5. Chief Inoculation Officer
6. Chief International Officer
7. Chief Investigative Officer
8. Chief Information Officer
Roles for the CIO to avoid:
1. Chief Inertia Officer
2. Chief Impediment Officer
3. Chief Inefficiency Officer
Posted by: Prashanth Rai | March 19, 2007 03:24 PM
Prashanth,
If there are so many overheads, how will the company be efficient? Roles and their responsibilities can be defined - however, top executives need to take up multiple roles.
For a large organization, such a large overhead might be justifiable. However, for a small to medium size (upto 500m revenues), it cannot be justified to have so much overhead.
This implies that the set of responsibilities for existing C-suite increases.
Posted by: Manik Patil | April 22, 2007 06:54 PM