Expectations from a CIO

Ever wondered, if the resume of a modern CIO had a section specifying the intellectual skill set how flattering it would have appeared. As it would not have been confined with the primeval traits of cost cutting or managing the infrastructure within the organization but adorned with various other characteristics that a new age CIO is expected to indulge in with respect to the demands of an organization, reports Charlie Bess of HP Blog.

A modern CIO has to meet various parameters based on which corporations of today are scrutinizing a CIO such as creativity in developing new technologies, intelligent enough to identify the various disruptive technologies, having a keen eye for spotting the potential talent and hiring and nurturing them according to the needs of the business, skillful in handling the projects and completing them within the allocated budget, vigilant enough to prevent any security breach and the list just goes on and on.

As such, we come to find only the CIO, in the professional circle, adhering to the age old law, ‘Change is Constant,’ consciously or sub-consciously, as they craftily juggle between various roles assigned to them, adapting accordingly to the situation.

Hereby, a CIO acts as a catalyst enabling the growth of the business, facilitating the chemistry between the CEO and himself. As of now as well as in the near future, ‘Chief Information Officer’ won’t be doing justice to the abbreviation – CIO, as discussed by numerous analysts corporate pundits, journalists and CIOs themselves.

Let us ponder upon a selective bunch of traits that a CIO is expected to amalgamate in his already existing set of idiosyncrasies –

•    Chief Integration Officer – Integration was something a CIO was always working for but with the advent of big data, BYOD, cloud, etc. integration has to be taken on a whole new different level.
•    Chief Innovation Officer – Creativity is something which is prerequisite for a CIO in order to make his IT sector a success.
•    Chief Irritation Officer – Before reading too much into the line allow me to verify. A CIO should be bold enough to evangelize internal collaboration. This might be opposed at times. This is where a CIO should rise up and reason, make the management see the light of it.
•    Chief Identity Officer - Knowing who the right person is and providing that individual with the right information in the right form in the right place at the right time to drive the right outcome is an expectation for the future CIOs.
•    Chief Inoculation Officer - With social networking coming into play in the dynamics of a corporation, unforeseen risks have arisen to which the CIO’s must ensure there are no security breaches whatsoever.
•    Chief International Officer - The technical infrastructures for international relations are predominantly under the guidance of the CIO.
•    Chief Investigative Officer – A CIO should make an effort in conducting an extensive investigation of new trends such as cloud computing, pattern recognition, simulation, predictive technologies, complex-event processing, and event-stream processing technologies.
•    Chief Information Officer – Last but definitely not the least, a CIO should regulate systematic flow of data so that the basis for corporate action can change from sense-and-respond to cause-and-effect.

And to think these are not the only ones that comprise the long list of attributes that a CIO needs to learn and master in order not to be blown away in the ‘winds of changes.’ We have stepped into an era where we will witness the actions of a CIO play a significant role in the dynamics of a corporation. Whether he will prove to be a protagonist or antagonist, time will tell!