CIOs on a Tightrope

Bangalore: CIOs are looking forward to explore and exploit ‘The Nexus of Forces,’ which is essentially the amalgamation of social, mobile, cloud and information into a solo matrix system that might transform an organization digitally, according to Gartner. As such, contemporary CIOs should contemplate on digitizing segments of business as every budget is directly or indirectly linked to IT budget, reports Michael Hickins of CIO Journal.

The million dollar question, however, is whether CIOs will be able to successfully adapt to this transformation while keeping in line with the traditional systems and processes. But CEOs, who are not exactly looking for the entrepreneur in a CIO at this time of economic crunch, might be a source of discouragement for CIOs.

Gartner analyst, Andy Kyte, portraying this precise mindset of the CEOs in his statement quips, “I hired you to cut our infrastructure costs, now get out of here.”

True, these are testing times for CIOs where they are put into a catch-22 situation every now and then. But CIOs can utilize this opportunity to their advantage and prove themselves as the quintessential business leaders, not only to upgrade business processes but also to propel the development of the business on the whole.

Stuart Kippelman, CIO of Covanta Energy, advocating this transformation in adequate measures states, “I think it’s a balance. There are a lot of things IT can see that the business can’t, and IT should drive those things.”

But how does one maintain this balance? Greg Fell, CIO at global manufacturing concern Terex Corpo ration, says, “[By] delegating more… CIOs that only focus on incremental improvements will be left behind — they’re already being left behind.”

Echoing Greg’s thoughts, Kippelman adds, “You want to deliver a system for the business when they need it. Not the year before, and not the year after. That’s the summary challenge I see for the whole model.”

In the end, the bottom line belongs to the CEOs. Therefore, CIOs should work towards earning the trust and goodwill of their CEOs.

And it all comes back to managing relationships…