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By Alex Cullen with Tom Pohlmann
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2008 will see the firming up of several trends that will shape the CIO role in the future, the foremost being the bifurcation of the role itself. Some CIOs will capitalize on their visibility across organizational silos along with their understanding of technology's potential to grow into the role of business change agent, but most will remain focused on running the business of IT. In 2008, change agent CIOs will gain more business presence while general manager CIOs continue to make improvements to IT reliability, consistency, and cost.
CIOS Are Reaching A 'Folk In The Road'
Business is more dependent on technology than ever before, and more conscious of this dependency. Surprisingly, business execs view technology as more strategic to firm differentiation and product and service innovation than their IT execs think they do (see endnote 1). The business is anxious to accelerate results through the use of technology, but IT execs continue to focus on operational reliability and project delivery (see endnote 2). This dichotomy of expectations and priorities, the proverbial fork in the road, is forcing CIOs to decide on their target role in 2008: either they become the change agent and innovator for the business, or they become general manager for their firms' IT.
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The change agent CIO is continually increasing credibility and influence with CEO and LOB execs as a source of high-value perspective on the business, and has the skills to shepherd change. This CIO has built an IT organization with senior staff who know their mission, continuously improve their operations, and have developed the skills to anticipate and prepare for business needs (see endnote 3).
Looking ahead to 2008, this CIO will:
- Strengthen joint IT-business planning through use of model-based planning. Creating linked business and IT plans is a struggle unless there is a common language and framework for planning. Model-based planning tools like business capability maps promote common business and IT understanding that focuses IT investments for the greatest strategic payback (see endnote 4). Budgets, performance metrics, and governance are tied together by use of these models.
- Restructure organizations to foster alignment. Reversing the trend of centralizing IT to gain economies of scale, change agent CIOs will structure their organizations to get as close to the business as possible by dispersing staff into business areas to gain business knowledge and act as technology advisors. This will be more than co-location; change agent CIOs will use this as a means to share work prioritization with their business counterparts (see endnote 5).
- Foster strategic planning and architecture as key competencies. For many CIOs, developing IT strategic plans is a "sometime" thing with dubious impact. Change agent CIOs, realizing that shaping business perception requires an up-to-date strategy, will ensure that strategic plan development, update, and review is an on-going and tuned process. The IT target state architecture vision is the most essential part of shaping business perceptions; strategic plans will eschew lists of projects in favor of roadmaps to the target state.
- Strengthen their roles on the executive team—and with the board of directors. CIOs generally have excellent enterprisewide perspective, with visibility across line-of-business and functional silos. Change agent CIOs parlay this perspective, which complements the perspectives of the CEO and CFO, to identify business model-based opportunities for customer intimacy, operational excellence, and innovation. A role advising the board of directors is a logical outcome, a few CIOs having been asked to join their companies' boards as inside directors.
Next: General Manager CIOs Will Focus On Operational Excellence
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