K--Future of the CIO
The new Vioce of Government CIOsGovernment CIOs are increasingly recognized as full-fledged members of the senior executive team. Government CIOs are becoming much more actively engaged in setting program and mission strategy, enabling business flexibility and change, and solving business problems. They are finding new ways to meaningfully contribute to public outcomes, not just to IT’s issues
The new voice of the CIOIn a fast-moving business environment, how can today’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) make the biggest impact on behalf of the entire organization? To answer that question, we listened to over 2,500 CIOs worldwide. These one-hour, face-to-face conversations, along with our statistical and financial analyses, made clearer the changing demands on CIOs. Not content to be known only as consummate IT experts or perpetual seekers of savings, CIOs are redefining their role. The voice of the CIO is being heard in new ways—as CIOs are increasingly recognized as full-fledged members of the senior executive team. Successful CIOs are much more actively engaged in setting strategy, enabling flexibility and change, and solving business problems, not just IT problems. Today’s CIOs spend an impressive 55 percent of their time on activities that spur innovation. These activities include generating buy-in for innovative plans, implementing new technologies and managing non-technology business issues. The remaining 45 percent is spent on essential, more traditional CIO tasks related to managing the ongoing technology environment. This includes reducing IT costs, mitigating enterprise risks and leveraging automation to lower costs elsewhere in the business.
Defining the complementary job roles of the CTO and CIOWhen the CTO role first arrived, the position's lack of definition made it difficult to develop a successful CIO-CTO relationship. To help both chiefs with career success, here's a clear map of where each role starts and ends.
Today’s challenges, Tomorrow’s CIO - Laying the groundwork and creating conditions for successGone are the days of CIOs being responsible solely for delivering reliable IT to the business. Contemporary CIOs take a much broader role in the business, driving business transformation, innovating for competitive advantage and acting as key strategic partners to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and wider organisation. How is this achieved? IBM conducted in-depth face to-face interviews with CIOs who have either made the transition to senior roles beyond IT or extended their responsibilities, keeping IT and including more business focus accountability.
The evolving role of the CIOThe role of the CIO is evolving – and the changes in the business world mean that today’s CIO is in an ideal position to take increasing business responsibility and control. This paper sets out some of the challenges and opportunities for those currently filling one of the most dynamic and creative roles in a modern company; it looks at where the next generation of CIOs will come from, and what qualities they will need; and it charts the path for today’s CIO on the way to becoming tomorrow’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
CIO 2.0: The changing role of the Chief Information Officer in government—and why it matters to leaders in the public sectorThe truest measure of a government’s success is the value it creates for its citizens, communities and businesses. And now—more than ever— government agencies rely on information technology to help them maximize that value. Making their services more efficient. More useful. More responsive. And more accessible. In this new world of technology-enabled transformation, government CIOs play an increasingly important role. Keeping the government’s data centers up and running used to be good enough. But now, a CIO’s primary challenge is helping other government leaders see what’s possible—then driving that vision of transformation through an organization where bureaucracy and culture make it difficult to change. This book was written to help government leaders use information and technology to create more value—for their agencies and for the constituents those agencies serve. It describes government’s 10 biggest IT challenges and highlights the essential capabilities required to deal with them.
From fear to value: CIO strategies for propelling business through the economic crisisioAs executives working at the nexus of business and technology, CIOs are uniquely qualified
to help their organizations leverage available technology to meet challenges presented
by the current economic crisis and to exploit new opportunities that will arise. For CIOs, the imperative is to address issues from two perspectives—the outward view of employing IT to capitalize on business opportunities and support business change, and the inward view of their own IT operations.1
The Enterprise of the Future - Implications for the CIOThese are some of the many roles CIOs will play in the Enterprise of the Future, a vision outlined in the IBM Global CEO Study. We spoke to 1,130 CEOs across industries and geographies, gaining unique insight into what is on their minds—issues that separate organizational success from failure. The study results foretell an Enterprise of the Future characterized by accelerating, wide-ranging and uncertain change.
Rather than resisting this change, the CEOs who participated in the study are embracing it. They are setting a new enterprise agenda centered around change that encompasses expanding customer expectations, global integration, evolving business models and a new focus on corporate social responsibility.
Convergent thinking among the C-suite: why integration and collaboration spell big opportunity for CIOsIn a business environment characterized by constant change and globalopportunity, success rides on companies’ ability to get comfortable withunpredictability and risk. Today, four C-suite leaders faced with thischallenge are zeroing in on enterprisewide integration and collaboration asessential enablers for business growth. Rather than sit idly by and react tochange as it occurs, today’s highest ranking executives have other plans.According to IBM’s landmark Global CEO Study, Chief Executive Officersand other senior business leaders are moving proactively and aggressivelytoward new business designs, building collaborative energy and delivering asteady stream of differentiating ideas and innovations.Together, the CEO Study and IBM’s companion studies of ChiefFinancial Officers (CFOs), Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) andChief Information Officers (CIOs) offer a bird’s-eye view into the businesstraits and transformation deemed essential for business growth and successin the years to come. Not only do these studies summarize the sentimentsof C-suite leaders in companies of every size, sector and region around theglobe, they illustrate the convergent thinking that’s occurring at theexecutive table—and the powerful implications for CIOs (Figure1).If you’re a CIO, enabling the enterprise for change is likely business asusual. Market and technological changes are rocking every aspect of yourworld, and you are increasingly being called on to deliver new capabilitiesthat transform how business is done. Moreover, as your role continues toevolve from resident technologist to strategist and visionary, you are beingrecognized by your peers as the change agent to advance the company’stransformational vision. Clearly, the expectations for IT have never beenhigher. Still, the fact is there isn’t another organization better equipped toreshape the enterprise for change. Moreover, you just might be its mostimportant ally in driving the traits that will distinguish the “Enterprise ofthe Future.” And as you have likely surmised, getting on board is not anoption.
The CIO Profession:Leaders of Change, Drivers of InnovationIn short, the survey findings reveal several areas of opportunity for further advancement in CIO skills and competencies:
• CIOs are leaders in their organizations and are playing an increasingly important role in leading change, but they are still evolving to be viewed as true trusted advisors by their business colleagues
• CIOs have a seat at the table, but have yet to fully seize the opportunity for participation in developing the business strategy
• CIOs are emerging as leaders of innovation and bringing new ideas to the enterprise, with a real opportunity remaining to fill the innovation execution gap
• CIOs know where they need to lead their IT organizations, but continue to wrestle with delegation and with building the next-generation team. The study suggests several areas where CIOs can, by closing these gaps, help spur innovation and growth for their enterprises.
Techrepublic - Defining the complementary job roles of the CTO and CIOIn today’s economy, business leaders are looking to maximize the effectiveness and productivity of their corporations while minimizing resource consumption. Pursuant to this initiative, a new IT officer’s seat has emerged at a lofty level of the corporate hierarchy—the chief technology officer (CTO). The validation of this new role requires its distinction and delineation from the roles and responsibilities of the CIO. And, to successfully employ this new office, it is crucial that the individuals challenged with the duties of the office of either the CIO or the CTO possess the education, experience, and skills demanded by the industry’s business leaders, employees, investors, and other stakeholders.
IBM - Today’s challenges, Tomorrow’s CIO laying the groundwork and creating conditions for success - Evolving Role of the CIOGone are the days of CIOs being responsible solely for delivering reliable Information IT to the business. Contemporary CIOs take a much broader role in the business, driving business transformation, innovating for competitive advantage and acting as key strategic partners to the CEO and wider organisation. How is this achieved? IBM conducted in-depth face-to-face interviews with CIOs who have either made the transition to senior roles beyond IT or extended their responsibilities, keeping IT and including more business focus accountability (see Diagram 1). The results confirm that today’s CIOs have the opportunity to extend their reach and remain relevant to the enterprise of the future. The interview results and associated research indicate that there are three key factors that influence CIOs’ evolution to a more business-focused role: 1) their personal profile (personality, background and skills) 2) the business environment in which they operate (in particular, the degree of change happening in the wider enterprise) 3) the maturity of the IT function in which they operate
IBM Global CEO Study - The Government of the FutureHow are organizations addressing: New and changing customers and clients – needs and issues / Global integration – changes within the value chain / Organizational innovation – their response to these changes
IBM - the evolving role of the CIOCIO? Career Is Over. It’s an old joke, which might have raised a smile thirty years ago, but which is now asmoutdated as flared trousers and brick-sized mobile phones. And even in the old days, it had a bitter edge to it. It was told largely by those people who didn’t understand the new technology which, in those days, meant pretty much everybody – by people, perhaps, who thought that these new-fangled computers would never catch on, or who believed that e-mail was for teenagers. IT, whatever that was, was the Chief Information Officer’s (CIO’s) domain. But as business evolves, the role of the CIO is evolving with it – and the changes in the business world mean that today’s CIO is in an ideal position to take increasing business responsibility and control. This paper sets out some of the challenges and opportunities for those currently filling one of the most dynamic and creative roles in a modern company; it looks at where the next generation of CIOs will come from, and what qualities they will need; and it charts the path for today’s CIO on the way to becoming tomorrow’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
IBM - The CIO profession: driving innovation and competitive advantageCan the CIO profession evolve rapidly enough to match the pace of global competition and technological change? Last year, the prospects were far from encouraging. In 2006, CIOs felt that
senior management did not understand the transformative power of technology and did not appreciate the contribution that CIOs could make to the business. This year’s 2007 CIO Leadership Survey, conducted by the Center for CIO Leadership, in collaboration with Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), fi nds a different environment for most CIOs. Senior management increasingly recognizes technology as central to innovation and competitive advantage. As a result, more and more CIOs are gaining a prominent seat at the table in their executive teams and playing an active role in strategic business decisions.
IBM - CIO as the master of change: transforming the IT organization and driving transformation across the enterprise.What does this new CEO agenda mean to CIOs? It challenges them to be leaders and masters of change as part of the broader corporate management team and to ensure that their IT team plays its full role in enabling the move toward the Enterprise of the Future. This will require effective integration of business and technology perspectives and the creation of flexible and scalable technology systems and infrastructures that not only respond dynamically to change, but actually drive change across the enterprise. Business and IT alike must be hungry for change, plus they must be innovative in their product differentiation, integrated across the globe, disruptive in their business models and genuine in their concern for society. But in the midst of all this talk of change, there’s still one constant: the pressure on CIOs to do more, faster, better—with less. Expectations for CIOs are rising. They’re being counted on to deliver IT innovation that supports accelerating change and enables the enterprise to seize the opportunities CEOs see ahead. However, with an estimated 70 percent of the typical IT budget going to run existing IT applications and infrastructures, only 30 percent is available for new initiatives. As a result, many CIOs will be challenged as never before to match the increasing pace of change and fulfill the new CEO agenda.
IBM - 2008 Gloabl CEO StudyThis study is the third edition of our biennial Global CEO Study series. This year’s research is based on surveys of 1,130 CEO s, general managers and senior public sector and business leaders from around the world.1 IBM leaders conducted more than 95 percent of these interviews face to face. The Economist Intelligence Unit administered the remainder by telephone. As part of our research, we sought to understand differences between the responses of financial outperformers and those of underperformers. For companies with publicly available financial information, we compared revenue and profit track records with the averages for those in the same industry across our sample.2 Companies that performed above average on a particular financial benchmark
were tagged as outperformers, and those below the average were labeled as underperformers. Throughout our analyses, we looked for insights based on these top- and bottom-half groupings.
Deloitte - CIO 2.0 The changing role of the ChiefThe truest measure of a government’s success is the value it creates for its citizens, communities and businesses. And now—more than ever— government agencies rely on information technology to help them maximize that value. Making their services more efficient. More useful. More responsive. And more accessible. In this new world of technology-enabled transformation, government CIOs play an increasingly important role. Keeping the government’s data centers up and running used to be good enough. But now, a CIO’s primary challenge is helping other government leaders see what’s possible—then driving that vision of transformation through an organization where bureaucracy and culture make it difficult to change. This book was written to help government leaders use information and technology to create more value—for their agencies and for the constituents those agencies serve. It describes government’s 10 biggest IT challenges and highlights the essential capabilities required to deal with them.
Microsoft - Life of the CIO - Mens sana in corpore sano (in italian)To be brilliant at work is necessary to keep a well trainedr body. For an Executive work more than 50 hours a week is now normality, but we must be aware of the consequences that this may have on our performance in office.
Microsoft - Life of the CIO - Work and social networking: a balance not to be missed (in italian)Web 2.0 is now recognized and consolidated, but if Web 2.0 is an evolution of the Web and its business models, also Enterprise 2.0 can be considered a phenomenon that breaks the traditional models and can be translated into value for the enterprise.