What is the proper role of a CIO in a law firm (or in a large corporation)? Too
often, the answer is painfully unclear, and it reflects the "can’t
live with it, can’t live without it" attitude many non-geeks have
towards technology. If
technology (and thus the CIO) is primarily seen as a necessary (and expensive)
evil, one rarely opens one’s mind far enough to discern the genuine business
value technology can provide. CIO’s who become enablers of
this downward-spiral viewpoint often are tempted to justify their departments
through "governance" measures: Lines of code produced,
goals met on time, etc. But the truth is that:
CIOs don’t get fired for not having enough governance. They
get fired for not getting the job done.
There is a better way.
In McKinsey’s coinage, the Next
Generation CIO is one who can see beyond the essential IT hygiene
of providing efficient and effective systems and keeping them running
cost-effectively—what they label the "supply" side of IT. Rather,
this visionary CIO embraces a role on the "demand" side of IT as well,
working with business-side leaders to help define the future role of
IT and to truly integrate the business unit managers’ understanding
of what they need to accomplish with IT’s ability to deliver tailored
applications. How exactly does this happen?
- Business leaders and CIO’s must agree on a common language, and that
language is financial. IT investments must be strictly
analyzed in terms of their bottom-line impact. - Shared accountability: An IT failure is not solely to be laid
at the feet of the CIO, nor is an IT success story his trophy to polish. IT
failures come from mis-alignment of the IT capability with what the
business needs to get done, and successes conversely come from proper
alignment. Blaming or crediting just one party is irrational (albeit
tempting). - An insistence on innovation: The job of a CIO is to separate
the fads from the opportunities, and to amplify the signal-to-noise
ratio coming from new technology advances, so that business leaders
can truly understand trends and long-term threats and challenges.
How likely is this to happen?
I predict it will depend on a fundamental change in the background of
CIO’s: If more come from "Renaissance" backgrounds, with exposure
to economics, marketing, strategic thinking, and other more-mainstream
business skills, rather than rising up from the ranks of the coders,
things will change.
