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By Laton McCartney
As far as I know, we can’t lay any of the blame for the current economic downturn at the doorstep of the nation’s CIOs. .
Did CIOs issue any sub-prime mortgages? No to that. .
Did CIOs leverage their companies’ investments by a ratio of 30 or 35 to 1? No. CIOs are not in the business of leveraging investments. Nor did IT leaders take down Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers, force AIG into a liquidity crisis, cause GM’s sales to flat line or push Humpty Dumpty off the wall. .
But guess who is going to be largely responsible for putting the pieces back together. You got, it – CIOs. That, at least, is effectively the conclusion of a study commissioned by Harry Nash USA, a global search and professional talent solutions firm and PA Consulting Service, which describes itself a global firm which provides “skills from strategy to IT to applied technology.” For the past 4 years these two organizations have teamed up to produce something called the Strategic Insights Survey – A US IT Leadership Perspective. This particular study for 2008/2009 is based on responses from 321 CIOs and IT leaders and focuses on their responsibilities and the issues they face within their organizations. .
Now I skimmed through the study’s results and came away with one overriding conclusion. Even though IT chiefs didn’t get us into this mess, they believe it’s largely up to them to get us out of it. Or more accurately, they believe their bosses believe it’s largely up to IT to save the day. Here are a few salient statistics: .
Some 86 percent of respondents reported that their Executive Committees see improving operational efficiency as the main goal of the technology function. For IT leaders who want a greater strategic role in their organization, – i.e. sit on the Executive Committee -- 90 percent say their companies depend on them on them to improve competitive advantage through innovation. And, oh yes, they being asked to do this with less. One third reported they were already working with decreased budgets. .
Now here’s what Robert J. Miano, Harvey Nash USA President and CEO has to say in regard to these results. “Never has there been a better time for IT leaders to rise to the challenge and make important contributions to business success by tapping their efficiency and innovation expertise. IT leaders who recognize the opportunity to provide strategic guidance will earn the appreciation and respect they deserve from the board and the stakeholders.” .
Dough Plotkin, from PA, also reminds us that many CIOs are well qualified to put Humpty Dumpy together again, because they’ve been through tough times before -- for instance the dot-com crash. “This group of leaders who provide their ability to operate under great pressure, are now the valued strategic business leaders we need to face today’s challenges and to help put our economy back on solid ground,” Plotkin says. .
So the deal is this: If you can tap into your efficiency and innovation expertise, you’ll get the respect you deserve from the board and your company’s stakeholders. .
Goody. A couple of questions here, though. Why didn’t CIOs, especially those who’d been through fire before, already have the respect of the board? In fact, why weren’t they already members of the Executive Committee with key strategic roles in the company? Now CIOs are supposed to prove themselves – in some cases and second and third time -- before they get a key to the boardroom loo? .
One thing that stands out when you read accounts of what went wrong at many of the banks, brokerage firms, and investment houses that have since nose dived: again and again, CIOs and risk managers were saying, “whoa” to the out of control frenzy in trading derivatives, collateral debt obligations and the like. Typically these were warnings went unheeded by the traders and CEOs because they were too busy making money hand over fist, or so they thought. .
In other words, even if CIOs had been members of the executive committee at say, Lehman Brothers, likely no one would have listened when they warned the sky was falling. .
Memo to CEOs: If you really want IT heads to save your bacon, or what’s left of it -- on the cheap no less -- put them on your executive committee and listen to them. Give them a significant role and forgo the backslapping and the “job well done.” .
We’ve moved beyond that – well beyond that. .
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