CIOs in a Board Room

Bangalore: CIOs are being overlooked when it comes to making executive decisions as they are viewed as experts on technology and technology alone without comprehensive acumen in business skills, reports Julia Irvine of Economia.

A recently concluded survey by Ernst & Young comprising of more than 300 senior IT professionals and extensive interaction with 65 CIOs and CEOs globally, revealed that 60 percent of the CIOs believe that they can contribute towards executive decision making whereas 43 percent admitted that they are considered when it comes to formulating decisions related to the overall business.

In contrast, a mere 35 percent of the management executives rely on CIOs when it comes to strategic decision-making.

Maureen Osborne, E&Y’s global CIO states, “The clear message from many CIOs is that the status quo will need to change. In order to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, CIOs will need to break out of their comfort zones within the data centre. Those who don’t will run the risk of being further relegated down the corporate hierarchy or sidelined altogether.”

Advocating Maureen’s views, E&Y global IT advisory leader Dave Ryerkerk remarked that contemporary CIOs play a pivotal role in earning revenue for the enterprise and also fostering innovation as such it is high time to include CIOs in board level meetings actively.

He said, “Naturally, a part of this (including CIOs in executive decision making) will be securing the chance to support a major business project of some kind, which can, in turn, make a specific impact on how the rest of the business operates. The value of this is clear: once business leaders start to recognize an IT leader as someone who can transform the way they operate their business, perceptions can quickly start to shift. This will be especially clear if the resultant changes in the business operating model impacts top line revenue growth.”

Therefore, CEOs should contemplate involving CIOs in executive decision making if they want to lead a more formidable charge in securing dividends for the organization in this technology dominated era.