Information week recently ran an article entitled "Down to Business: Solve the Mystery of the Disappearing CIO" which discussed Bruce Rogow's list of 12 reasons why the CIO position seems to falling off the corporate radar. (An aside: I had the pleasure of working with Bruce when I was a partner with KPMG and he was with Nolan Norton & Co. I also had the misfortune of batting behind him on a conference agenda: he was probably the best presenter/ entertainer I've ever witnessed, and the people heading out for coffee during my talk seemed to agree.)
While I agree wholeheartedly with Bruce's list, based on my years as a CIO in the GE organization in the 1990s and my consulting work with a number of CIOs, I think he missed two critical, related points: the failure of the CIO to make contributions in the Executive Committee beyond IT issues, and the concomitant failure to establish close relationships with their peers on the Executive Committee.
Where the CIO position and its incumbent have flourished, you'll find an individual who's been able to bring valuable insights and initiatives to other functional areas. CIOs of this sort understand that it's not enough to be the tech guy/ gal at the table, which marginalizes the position to the extent that the organization under-appreciates the true value that it delivers. When that transpires, it's an easy step to roll the CIO into the CFO or COO organizations.
And strong relationships with one's peers become vital when the myriad things that CAN go wrong DO wrong in the IT domain. You need to have built relationships beforehand to be able to calm the waters after, say, a lengthy facilities interruption that disrupts production, or a major project delay that loses the company precious time-to-market. Once the shit has hit the fan, it's too late...
Geoff Relph
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